After too many late nights watching the World Cup football matches starting at 01:30 in the morning and then not finishing until around 04:00 and then ruining the next day just by sleeping in all morning and most of the afternoon. Last night I decided to have an early night so that I could hire a motorbike today and head out to try to see some of the local area. It was quite weird after Vietnam having to leave my passport as a deposit and also sign an insurance and disclaimer form. It was all very formal!

The people at the hostel had told me about a waterfall that was 'close by' and they gave me a map and drew where the water fall was. The falls were called the Kabal Chai falls. I had checked in the Lonely Planet and there was no mention of a waterfall near here, so I was not really sure what I would find when I got there. As I was a bit unsure of where to go the hostel said I could hire a guide that would go with me and show me where to go and as they also knew where the waterfall was there was no possibility of me getting lost, I took them up on this offer as it seemed a long way and I was not very clear on where I should go.

I set off with the guide who was a girl called Mary and we drove for about 30 minutes out of town until we came across what can only be described as a dirt track which I nearly didn't want to drive the motorbike down as it was that bad. Mary said that it was OK down there as she had been down there a week or so with another guest from the hostel who also wanted to go to see the waterfall. The dirt track seemed to go on for ages and if I had been on my own I would not have been able to find this place and definitely would not have driven down here.

The long drive was worth it there were two rivers joining together creating two separate main waterfalls, one of which you could climb behind and the other which was about a 10 meter drop in to the main valley. As it was the dry season the falls were running a little low but you could see how extreme they could get during the rainy season.

After our visit to the falls we followed one of the rivers for a little while and saw a few kids playing around in there. Then we went to try to find some food for lunch. As Mary had been my guide for the day, I offered to buy her lunch.

We found somewhere for a drink which was no more than a wooden shack beside the waterfalls and then I asked Mary to find out if they did some food. She asked me what I would like to eat, I asked if they had a menu and she laughed, so I said that I would like just some chicken and some rice, thinking that I could not go wrong with something so simple. She went off to ask the owner to see if she could make us some food. Mary came back and said that this was OK, the owner was going to make us some fried chicken, steamed rice and some vegetables.

Minutes later after agreeing that the fried chicken was OK, the owner of the 'shack’ came out to us with a live chicken hanging by its feet in her hands and then continued to ask us "is this one OK?". I am not sure what she wanted me to do, was I supposed to feel its breasts or something? I just said, "Yes, this one seems great!" and she went off and cooked the chicken for us. Within about 30 minutes of so, we had a plate of fried whole chicken including a fried head and feet, a huge bowl of steamed rice and a bowl of green vegetables mixed with the cooked up offal from the chicken.

This was definitely the freshest chicken that I had ever eaten and also the first time that I had eaten the heart, liver and anus of a chicken but I did pass on the fried head and brains!!! The whole dinner cost $15 including 2 drinks each, what a bargain.

Once back at the hostel I dropped off the motorbike and my guide, Mary and then went off and met up with Chris and Freddy for dinner and another night out drinking and watching the football.

While out in the bars on the beach I was approached again by many children selling all sorts of items including, sunglasses, cigarette, fireworks, bracelets, etc. Normally I would refuse them all but Chris decided that he wanted a bracelet made and while a girl was making one for him another one started talking to me and managed to persuade me to take a free one made in the colours of the Cambodian flag. Once she had made me the free one, I felt obliged to but something from her. So I ended up buying a handmade shrimp which took here 3 hours to make for the grand sum of $2.

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