Hello once again my avid fans!
Well here we are in Sihanoukville - we have been here since Tuesday and before that we spent 5 days in the capital of Cambodia - Phnom Penh.
Gemma's best friend Will lives in Phnom Penh so it was really great for them to catch up with each other. The bus from Saigon took 6 hours and again was a good journey. We were nervous about the border crossing but it all went to plan with no problems - not that we had any reason to be called up or anything - but we'd not done a land crossing before so were a little apprehensive. Once in Phnom Penh we took a cyclo to the river side and went on a total mission to find a hotel! Again we were walking round in the heat, sweating buckets and finding substandard hotels - eventually found a cheapish ok one although we had to climb about 20 flights of stairs to our room so by that point I probably would have taken it no matter how bad it was! First impressions were that its not as amazing as Vietnam but then our first impressions of other places have not always been right (Hanoi being the most wrong one!)
Over the few days we were in Phnom Penh, we did a lot of eating, a lot of drinking! The highlight for me was when we went to a massage parlour called 'Seeing Hands' which employs blind workers - I've had a few massages in my time but the blind guy who worked on my knots deserves a medal! He was incredible! He had me in a bit of pain a couple of times but it was that good pain! The next day my back was pretty sore but in that good way when you know its worked! While we were in the pampering mood we went for pedicures and manicures as well. While travelling I have learned many things, I can live without hair straightners, I can live without make up, but one thing I have determined after 6 weeks of travelling is that I can no longer live without black nail varnish! So I got them painted and bought a bottle to never again face the pain and anguish of bare nails!
Later that evening we met up with Will and his flat mates plus their Cambodian friends and we all went out. The place we went for dinner was mad - a hugh shack type restaurant with cockroaches and a pile of vomit on the floor as we walked in - yet packed full of Cambodians. There was about 10 of us eating, we ordered loads of food to share plus several huge pitchers of beer. Cambodians have this routine of every time you want to take a sip of your drink, you have to cheers everyone else at the table. Its bizarre but I got used to it immediately and persisted in annoying everyone every time I took a sip. The guys with us also were fans of cheers -ing everyone then shouting 'finish' which meant you had to finish your beer in one. Lucky for me they drink their beer in smallish (half pint sized) mugs with ice so it wasnt too bad! You can imagine how much beer we all went through though, so when the bill came out at the end and it was $4 each, I was pretty shell shocked!
Next we went onto a karaoke bar - I was so glad to get Gemma in one finally as the Vietnamese love a bit of karaoke but we hadnt been into one. This place was a bit of a 'Lucky Voice' type place in that you get your own private room just for your group. All was going well, it was Gemma, me and Charlie, plus Will and Rob as the Westerners, and then 4 or 5 Cambodians with us and we were all having a great time. Until half an hour in when suddenly the door opened and about 8 gorgeous but VERY young Cambodian girls lined up against the wall of the room. Confused we asked Will what was going on - and basically this is the done thing in Cambodian bars - you have to pick a girl to keep you company for the evening. Even Gemma and I were supposed to pick a girl, but I was so shocked about it all that we refused. The idea out here is basically the girls that work in bars are not prostitutes - at least thats what they and the ex pats say. They work in the bars, customers ask them to sit with them and then buy them 'lady drinks' all night which are double the price of your own drinks. If you like them, you can 'buy' them from the bar so you pay about $10 and then you can take them out for the evening - to another bar or whatever. The girls get a cut of the money from the ladys drinks and if you buy them. At the end of the night, if you want them to go home with you you can ask them, and then its up to them if they want to or not (but you will be charged) How the girls and the ex pats can say this is not prostitution is beyond me! Hello! The worst thing was the girls looked terrified and I was told afterwards that it was because they werent expecting 'Westerners' to be in the room and it scared them a bit. Apparently this wasnt a touristy place at all so they only ever get Cambodian men in there. Anyway the whole thing was a joke, we still had a great night dancing and singing away, but we just had these caked in makeup, short skirted 18 year old girls with us. The ex pats and locals dont see the issue - but I hated it. Watching one of the Cambodian men get progressively drunker and drunker and pawing this poor girl sitting across from me ruined what was a great evening. Cambodia is the same as the rest of Asia as in the worst thing that can happen to them is that they 'lose face' so when I suggested to the girls about going to drag this poor girl up for a dance with us to get her away from the letchy man I was told this is the worst thing we could do as she'd lose face and really would not appreciate it.
The next day we chilled all day and had dinner in the restaurant downstairs, I ended up playing a balloon game with the little girl of the hotel owner, who was about the same age as my god daughter Sophie - was a lot of fun but made me miss Sophie!
Another day we went to the post office to send some stuff home - which was about 3 times more expensive to send than what was actually in the envelopes! But we need all the room we can get in our bags! While there, a monkey appeared out of nowhere behind the counter and tried to swipe the workers lunch! A monkey! They shooed him away and we looked up to the wall and saw a whole family of them sitting there! Was hilarious - if you ever think you work with a bunch of monkies - try working in the post office in Phnom Penh - cos they really do!
On the way back we stopped into 'Dr Fish' which was an experience! Basically they have this huge fish tank full of tiny fish and you sit at it with your feet in the tank and they nibble your toes! I stuck my feet straight in, screamed and pulled them back out again - I thought it would be gentle and tickle slightly but it was actually really horrible! It took me a while to be able to put my feet in and keep them there, I thought Gemma wasnt going to do it at all after she saw my performance, but she did. Some of the little blighters really take a nip out of you! They are supposed to eat your dead skin (yuk!) and massage you, and it was $3 to do it and get a free beer so we had to try it! Good photos to come.
Later we went to see the house of Pon who is a Cambodian friend of Will's. It was really nice of her to invite us round and we had a giggle and met her family. Afterwards we went out to watch England get thrashed by Germany - although we were sad it was a good night and the pub was manily England supporters. There was a sleazy Cambodian man who tried it on with Charlie and I, I had had a few drinks by then and was a little rude to him (must have thought I was back in London!) and he lost face and left - but what kind of a weirdo comes straight up to you and expects you to go off to another pub with him? If we had been in London, I probably would have told him to eff right off! Instead I looked at him like he was mad and just said 'Er - no!?!??!' and that was enough.
The following day Gemma, Charlie. Pon and I went to the market which was fun - it stank though and we were all a bit rough so couldnt manage too long there in the heat and the stench - plus we were standing near the bit where they sell live chickens and they were being really rough with them and throwing them about on the floor and stuff which was turning my stomach so we left. That night, Gemma and I had to chase a huge flying cockroach out of our room! I blocked the door with a towel hoping no more would come in! But we are getting used to such things now, there are a lot of rats and cockroaches around the streets and stuff. We love the little gheckos now, they eat the mosquitos although I'm still being bitten to death....
After several days of doing hardly anything, we finally got off our arses on Monday and went to do the tourist things - S21 and the Killing Fields. S21 is an old school which the Khymer Rough took over and turned into a prison - the worst thing about this and the Killing Fields was that this was all only 35ish years ago - I just couldnt believe this went on. About 1.7 million Cambodians lost their lives during this time. The Khymer Rouge were trying to rid anyone who threatened their regime from Cambodia. S21 was not only a prison but a place where people suffered some of the worst kind of torture imaginable. It was extremely harrowing, especially the mug shots of every prisoner that ever passed through it, they documented them all. And in most of the pictures the prisoners have clearly got their hands tied behind their backs. The Killing Fields was surreal, it was so peaceful, sunny - there is a school next door now and we could hear the kids singing a sing as we strolled around, a little chip munk hopped along in front of us and I couldnt imagine that the place had once been a place for mass execution of so many people. In the middle there is a shrine built to the victims, and shelves upon shelves of the skulls, bones and clothes that have been recovered from the graves. Some of it was so sad - there was a mass grave where they found 100 bodies of naked women with the skeletons of their babies thrown in next to them. And the worst bit of all was next to this - a beautiful big tree which was called The Killing Tree which is where the executors would take the babies by their feet and execute them by swinging them against the tree. The worst part about the whole thing, was that every time it rains more bones and clothes come up out of the ground, everywhere we walked we were walking on clothes that had been unearthed by the fresh rain, and at a tree I bent down to take a closer look and what turned out to be human teeth - lots of human teeth, which had come to the surface. All in all, a terribly haunting place to visit but I think an important one as well. So sad.
When we got home we booked bus tickets for Sihanoukville which is where we are now. Its a seaside resort place popular with travellers. It was a 5 hour ride but this time we were on a smaller local bus with mainly Cambodians who were really staring at us which made me uncomfortable - and the air con was crap! We met a Dutch girl on the bus - Kirsten- and when we arrived the three of us jumped on a motorbike each to head to the backpacker area down by the beach. We found this great place called Monkey Republic which is a place of beach huts - they are SO basic though! For first time ever we have no telly! We have no hot water (getting used to cold showers now!) and our toilet has no flush - in order to flush it you have to pick up a little container and scoop up water from a bucket and pour into the toilet - we've been to alot of public toilets like this as theyre very common but we've not had one in our own room before! Its great getting back to basics though and Monkey Republic is cool. The food is cheap, the staff are lovely and its costing us $3 each a night to stay here so we cannot complain!
We had some lunch and explored the beach which is down a really rough dirt track, and we were totally harrassed by the kids and women on the beach - here instead of food and books, they sell bracelets and manicures/pedicures. The women come up and sit next to you and start rubbing your legs to feel if you have shaved so that they can persuade you to let them thread your legs to within an inch of your life! One even tried to get a look at my armpit ffs! Needless to say the threading wasnt needed!
We went out in the evening and made the most of the happy hour in Monkey Republic ($1.50 for a mixer or 70cents for a beer) then headed out to a place called Utopia. Drinks were $1 each - happy days! They also had a pool - how could I resist! I tried to talk Gemma and Kirsten into coming in with me, but Gemma wasnt wearing appropriate underwear and Kirsten must have been too shy - but not me! Thank goodness my bra was matching my knickers that day as the clothes came off and Shelley got in the pool! It was great fun smoking and drinking from the pool, it certainly kept the mosquitos away and other people did join me after a short while so it was nice to meet some new people. I am learning that its not a good idea for me to be near the sea or a pool when I've had a few drinkies!
Before we went out, I had purposely zipped up my rucksack completely to avoid any bugs gettting into my clothes, so imagine my surprise the next morning when, with a hang over, I unzipped my bag and a dirty great big cockroach came scuttling out! I screamed in fright, it must have been in there all night as there aint no holes in my bag, it must have been desperate to get out but my god, as my twin brother Richard says, those things definately come from the depths of hell! I was worried it may have laid some eggs in with all my clothes, but so far we have not come home to a horror movie scene of my bag spilling over with the little feckers so fingers crossed (does anyone know how long it takes for cockroach eggs to hatch?!?!)
Its a bit too hot to sleep properly in the bungalows (we only have fans - no air con) so we're not sleeping too great but its ok. Yesterday we hit the beach and only spent a couple of hours there but all got some colour - although we got hugely harrassed once again by the beach peddlers. In the evening we just chilled out, there are 2 'movie rooms' in Monkey Republic upstairs (the whole place is like a huge wooden shack) and you pick a film and lock yourselves in to watch it on semi comfortable chairs so its ok. Afterwards we had a few rounds of cards but we were all knackered and were in bed by about 11.
Today its raining booooo! So our plans to get down the beach again were thwarted. All we've done today is watch more films and eat! Even though its raining its still incredibly hot so we're sweating away as normal. Tonight Utopia is having a pool party so at least I wont feel too silly getting in the pool again tonight! Bring it on!
Hope all is well at home, I know you are enjoying a huge heatwave! I miss you all so much but this place has Skype (I Skyped yesterday with Tara and then with Sheila, Louise and Lucy from Mark Ralf's office lol) so if anyone fancies a chat while its raining then do send me a message and we'll set something up!
Until my next mammoth entry, take care everyone x