So, where to begin...

A busy few days, which started with our gruesome tour of Phnom Penh's "Highlights"of the S21 prison and the Killing Fields, before we took and even more stressful 4 hour bus journey from PP to Sihanoukville on Friday. I realise that comparing a cramped bus journey to a visit to a Cambodia Lycee which was converted into a Khmer torture prison is a bit distasteful... so i won't do it. Both the prison and the Killing Fields were pretty harrowing to say the least. What makes it even more real is that it all happened within our lifetimes (well mine anyway). To think that when i was 4 and learning to read from those funny little Janet and John books, a few thousand miles away whole families were being taken from their homes, tortured and buried alive for no apparent reason, is pretty scary.

Like Rach said the other day too, i'm not sure i've seen so much suffering, or begging, or poverty before, as we did in Phnom Penh. The city itself is not too bad, but to see so many children begging and looking for money is pretty sad, and with, i guess, no health service, to see so many amputees and disabled people in the streets begging for money... it's very hard to say no. We gave a couple of people some money, but you could give thousands of dollars away and not make a difference...

Despite all that, we'd had a good few days in Cambodia, which is why we decided to see a bit more of the country and head down to Sihanoukville on the coast for some sun and beach action. Loosely described as Cambodia's only beach resort, we had high expectations and were looking forward to a lazy few days on the beach...after all, it's almost 3 weeks since we were on the beach in Thailand and our tans might be starting to fade!

So we headed down on the bus last friday... BIG mistake! Why? Because it's Chinese New Year, that's why! Now obviously, Chinese New Year is a very big deal. There are 1.4 billion Chinese people in the world. There are over 100 million Chinese scattered across South-east Asia and the World. Much of their culture and ceremony appears to be followed very closely wherever you travel in South-East Asia. What this adds up to is, basically, absolute carnage at Chinese New Year and the week (possibly 3 or 4 weeks, i can't tell) of holiday which surrounds it. Sihanoukville was mobbed... the hotels were full... the buses were rammed... the beaches were rammed... Yesterday was awful. Picture if you will your worst kind of bank holiday nightmare. It's Skegness, it's Bank Holiday Monday, it's rammed with people. Only here yesterday, it was about 26 times more filthy and dirty and just... just horrible. Words fail me. Sadly, i forgot to take the camera! We attempted a walk along Ochheuteal Beach after lunch yesterday, but the sheer weight of humanity, rubbish and waste in the sea and the water's edge made it impossible! I thought it was hilarious for a while, Rach just wanted to get as fa away from it as possible! We dove through one of the "beach bars" (i use the term losely as it more closely resembled a lean-to with huddles of refugees sheltering under it) and headed for the road, but here it was almost worse. I know us Brits can be untidy and disrespectful of our surroundings at times, but you have never seen so much rubbish just abandoned in one place. It was everywhere and no-one seemed to care! They just carried on enjoying themselves... Happy New Year!!!

To make matters worse, the only hotel we could find which had a room was the Oceans Hotel. In itself, the room was fine. Decent size, A/C, cable tv, hot water shower, the lot. The people too were really friendly and the owner, Ron, an ex-marine corps-type in his 60s was a star. He was slightly out-shone by his eccentric Russian (German?!! Lithuanian?!!) partner who wandered the bar in his MC Hammer pants and performed inpromptu accoustic sets on his guitar! Top quality!

No, the only thing wrong with the Ocean's Hotel was the presence of the newly opened "Daddy's Ocean Club" on the top floor of the hotel... directly above our heads. But it wasn't even the music which was the issue... it was the scraping of shoes and chairs and feet on the tiled floor directly above our heads which meant we couldn't get any sleep until 3am!!! Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, but hell hath no fury like a Rachel tired... Ron, if you read this... invest in some carpet.

Oh, and last night i had screaming Tom t***.

Today was better... we moved on, have got a quieter room and we hired a moto which we took to Hawaii Beach, which was lovely. And the Chinese have all gone home.

Tomorrow we head to Kampot.