14/06/13

Here's the thing, if you're a budget traveller like myself and you board an aircraft, you have to over indulge. It's the rule. It doesn't matter if the flight is 17 hours from London to Kuala Lumpar or 55 minutes from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, everything the air hostesses' offer, you accept. I have 20 minutes left of this flight and having eaten a lovely chicken noodle dish, I still have the rest of this beer and a cup of coffee to consume before the tray tables and seat need to be in the upright and locked positions.

Well holy s***, what a mission, what a crappy entrance into Cambodia and what s***ty weather. After I cleared Customs and immigration, I got a tuk tuk from the airport to the Sovanna shopping mall. It's horrible weather, absolutely pissing it down. I went into the shopping centre and walked around for a while to find a bench to sit on and waste an hour. This went well. I sat down, started playing my ukulele and a little Cambodian kid came up to me. I was very wary of my posessions but it just seemed like he was genuinely interested. I let him play a little bit and when 4pm came I left. I was meeting my couchsurfing host, wYnd at his place at 5pm. This gave me an hour to make the 5 minute walk from his house. 2 hours later, I arrived. What a palaver! I went out onto the street, named '271', set off walking in the direction of the even numbers going down. 368, 366, 364. I had to walk to 108. I was walking, walking, walking. 148, 146. It's raining. 140. School. 38. Wait, what? Where the f*** is 140-38. I started walking back, a taxi moped pulled up. I showed him the address and off we went. He went off somewhere else, I thought he must know a shortcut. He didn't. He didn't even speak English. After 10 minutes on his moped, I got off. I wasn't going to be taken to some part of Phnom Penh and be mugged. I started walking back the other way to get a tuk tuk. He followed me and encouraged me to get back on. I told him no, another moped pulled up. At this point I was worried; are they working together? But the other guy actually spoke some English. He knew the way. I jumped on his bike and agreed a price, which was lower than the other guy anyway. For the record, I didn't pay the other guy. We got back to 271 and we went up and down it, eventually finding 106. We stopped, asked another Cambodian guy, he didn't know. It's still raining by the way. They both tried to phone wYnd, no answer. We went back the other way, back towards Sovanna. We got there, passed there, 10 minutes past it. He kept trying to phone wYnd and eventually got through. A quick U-Turn hit us into oncoming traffic. I'm not trying to scare anyone reading this, honest. I'm relatively calm when it comes to this, they are used to this traffic system, and I'm probably better off on the back of a moped than walking in the road like a lost sheep. We got to the place at about 17:55. I'm now lying on my floor mat for the night. I dried off and I feel more relaxed. There were times in the last 2 hours where I didn't think I'd get here and I'd have to hostel it up for the night. My 2nd couchsurfing experience has gotten off to a rough start. Very difficult to find and although wYnd seems nice, he's quite quiet. It's only for 1 night though, so I'm sure I'll manage.

Just got back from dinner and I fear I may have misjudged. He is a very sound guy. His quiet-ness isn't due to him being rude or shy, he is just complacent. I have learnt a lot from him as a host already and we only went to grab a bite to eat! He is welcoming and very easy to talk to, he opened up very easily about various things and maybe that was partly me, asking personal questions, but it seemed to work either way. His attitude as a host is not to bend over backwards or do anything special for the surfer for two reasons; 1. It gives them the real feel of the local life, if they want to join in the host's usual activities, so be it... and 2. If you adjust your own plans for people, you will only get walked over. (His ordering was different). I ate 'Lok Lak' which is beef in some kind of very tasty sauce. I just asked how to spell Lok Lak, and he told me I should also try 'Amok'. So that's now on my hit list.

15/06/13

The Cambodian culture is really quite strange, even if you compare it to somewhere so similar as Thailand. The road 'laws' and general way of life are very similar, but the money is almost a complete mind-f***. Dollars AND Riels. 4000R is $1, but you can use them interchangeably. If something costs $6, you can use $5 + 4000R. Or 24000R. Because I was working in Baht, and if I was converting at all, it was into pounds, to have to move to dollars, and likewise Riels will take a bit of getting used to. Especially if I'm going to be working at the bar on Otres Beach! wYnd dropped me off at the bus station and very kindly offered me to stay at his place if I am back in Phnom Penh. I learnt a lot from him in the short overnight stay. For instance; Glasses are cheap over here! 1 pair will cost about $7 and can be made within 2 hours. Needless to say, I will replace these glasses which are quite scratched from Fraser Island, QLD, Australia. With some new cheap glasses! I may even buy a few pairs!

I'm sat on the bus. The start of a 5.5 hours journey to Sihanoukeville. I'm glad I opted for an earlyish one, 9:45 - 15:15 isn't too bad. Then I have to get to Otres on a tuk tuk! Yay! :D

I'm sat in a restaurant we've stopped in at 13:01 and I have no idea what's happening. I don't know how much it costs, how you pay or what. I just went up to the counter, pointed at some food, they dished it up and gave it to me. Everybody is eating and nobody has paid. I think I'll wait for a minute for people to start paying. The food itself was very nice! I think it was cauliflower and pork in a kind of sauce. A hint of spice made it right up my street. Oh. That, and rice.

It was easy to pay, you just called them over like a normal restaurant. It came to 7000R, I gave her $10. She returned with 33000R. It seems really obvious to work out, but I went through this massive sum to work out that she hadn't short changed me. Idiot.

I got to Sihanoukeville, and got a moto to my helpx host. Neither of the owners are here, so I was greeted by Amy, who reminds me of my old Hairdresser, Emma. She wasn't expecting me, but I explained and it was all cool. Except! Except I had said the Saturday 15th JULY in my previous email. In my defence, the 15th July is a Monday, so... y'know, mistake on both parts maybe? But no, I got my months mixed up and to be frank, I had no idea what day it was when I arrived today. The moto drive took about 30minutes and it pissed it down the whole way, there are a lot of things in my bag which are wet, but the worst thing is the loss of my hard drive cable. The contents are identical to my laptop, apart from my videos are solely on my hard drive. It doesn't matter if I don't have them, just a 'nice to have'.

I came to helpx here to save money, literally not spend anything for 3 weeks and save money in Cambodia. Problem is, I think I'm going to get on with these people and they are drinking a lot. I love this normally, but as I said, I'm trying to save money. We get 40% off drink and during happy hour it's 50c. So that's 30c, 19p per beer. This is the cheapest beer I have ever had. I have allocated myself 1 million riels as a nice round number. That's about $250. I hope that will be reasonable as I will be drinking more than I anticipated.

17/06/13

The night I got here we went out. I think I spent about $5, and I was quite drunk. I got back about 2:30 and spent most of the night chatting to Carolyn, an American girl who had gotten there that day too. I should have really been getting to know the other guys who work here at Everythang, but it didn't really matter, and to be honest, it actually worked out better. She is working in Siem Reap and we're going to meet up when I'm up there, and she flies to Bali on the 1st August, where do I fly on the 1st August? Bali! She's staying with a Balinese family, and asked if I'd like to pop up to see the real Bali life as the south is very touristy compared to the north.

18/06/13

SUN! The sun has come out, and I'm working. I mean, I'm manning the bar. There's nothing to do really, a few customers every now and then but that's fine. I've just cleared it with Erika that I can build the website whilst I'm manning the bar. So that'll be a little project to do during my time here. Oh, last night! Last night we went to the casino. After work yesterday, I did a couple of things that needed to be done, put my washing in the laundry pile and clean the rat s*** out of the room. After that I had nothing to do other than sit at the bar and make the most of the 19p beers on offer during happy hour. When it started to get late, Amy closed the bar and we all headed to the casino. A tuk tuk ride took us to Serendipity Beach and we changed out cash for chips. This was my first ever casino experience, well, one that wasn't a couple of slot machines in a town. It was exciting, and we'd played a bit of blackjack at the bar to get in the swing of things and a few of us who were unfamiliar with the betting/winning process were shown what the protocol is. The first half I rocked it, only betting the minimum of $2 each time, but I was up by $13 at one point, and that can go a long way here with 30c beers! The casino offered 3 free beers, free bacon fried rice and free cigarettes, I made the most of my beers and the rice, having 2 plates. But then I started to crash, I left $10 down. But if you think, I spent $10 for a good night, 3 beers and 2 plates of bacon fried rice, that's not bad going at all! It was fun, but I don't think I'll get into the betting habit. It was too easy to cash in and think 'Just $5 more dollars, I could get back up'. On the way back, we squeezed 7 of us into a tuktuk and headed back. Judging by the drunken facebook and whatsapp messages, it was about 3am. You just don't notice it in the casino.

Now, at 16:52, 8 minutes before I finish work, the sun has gone and it's raining again. Serves me right for sending pictures to people who have left and bragging.

19/06/13

It probably doesn't seem like it but I had a bit of a down day yesterday, I didn't feel like I was getting on with people and with work being as boring as it was and after work being as boring as it was, and me being as tired as I was, I felt really kinda, well; low. This didn't fade until I went to bed and even this morning, I woke up still feeling down. Today was a bit better, and the improvement on the weather front helped. The morning shift wasn't too bad, I had Erika to show me things I needed to do and hang about if I wasn't sure of anything, not that it was busy, at all. Had a couple of outside customers, but most of the time I was chilling on my laptop. I need to find a decent time to download a local version of Word Press so I can get on making this website offline.

20/06/13

The only time I've worn any form of footwear since I've been here is when I went to the casino. The weather is nice again today, in contrast to the 5 day wet season weather cycle I was told about: 3 days rain, 1 day overcast & 1 day sun. I'm not complaining, the sun is nice. We had a party last night for Hilly and Bruce's leaving do, Hilly has been here for 3 months and Bruce has been next door for 6 months I think. So with that in mind, I sit here not having my 3rd hangover of Cambodia. I've been out 3 times, all ending at about 3am, none of them resulting in a type of hangover I was subject to at home, in Australia or Thailand! I just feel tired and I'm able to drink a beer by 2pm. I'm starting work at 3 today and I don't think anybody's going to be up for a party tonight so it should be pretty cruisy.

I need a hair cut, so I think on my day off, I'm going to go into town, get some new glasses and get a haircut. Spoil myself with the $15 that will all probably come to.

21/06/13

What an exciting shift it was yesterday! In the evening, two guys checked in who Amy and Erika know, so we were playing uno and drinking with them for the whole night. This also included snorting tobasco sauce. What is meant to be an incredibly painful experience, but wasn't too bad. Although it was more of a lasting pain than an intense pain. Three Belgians came in and stayed until they were too drunk to do anything other than knock chairs over. But in all fairness, they did pick them up and put them on the tables to "help the cleaning lady". We don't put the chairs up. This is when it got interesting, I was cashing up with Seb, when I realised things were getting a bit smokey. "Something's on fire!", I rushed around to assess the situation, it was one of the large chair cushions on the floor smoking. "Get me some water!" Seb handed me a bucket of icy water. This happened a couple of times before I requested a jug of normal water. Eventually, the embers were extinguished and we reflected on the awesomeness of what had just happened. If we weren't here, the whole place could have gone up, it's a wooden structure with a dry thatch roof. So, after that happened, we had to put the shutters down at the front, during which, the storm started. A massive clap of thunder and it started pouring, absolutely tipping it down. Then the power went. Luckily we'd already cashed up, and considering how drunk we were at this point, it would have been easy to make a mistake in the drunken darkness. We had another beer whilst the tap was still cold and then hit the hay.

Today most people were feeling a bit worse for wear, and I had to start work at 8am. I was glad most people were rough, as I spent the first 2 hours setting up and then sitting on a chair which I may or may not have fallen asleep in. The first 2 hours went surprisingly quickly, after that, I have little recollection of what happened, things happened at a casual rate, I read my book, checked someone in, ate food and by 3pm it started raining again. The first part of the afternoon I got my laptop and worked on the website, then, when I was getting frustrated, I walked the 20m into the sea, went for a swim and came back. I went in the sea 4 times today, 1ce and night. That was awesome. Even though the waves weren't calm, it still seemed calmer at night.

23/06/13

What a great shift it was last night, I mean, it was a 12.5 hour shift, but most of it wasn't work. from 3-9 there wasn't much to do. A few customers, but then Amy and Dugie came over from Bamboo shack and we were then drinking until 3:30.

24/06/13

I am exhausted. I had a day off yesterday and fully abused the free morning by sleeping until 11:30, but I was greeted by a begrudged Amy and Seb; things are about to get bad. Instead of: "On the days you work, you get 2 meals and 2 drinks", it's now: "On the days you work, you get 2 meals, but if you work the morning shift, you have to have breakfast, but only a choice of: Eggs and toast or toast + jam/nutella. For lunch, you can only have: fried rice, fried noodles or tom yum soup (all veggie), if you work the afternoon shift, you have lunch (same options as before) and dinner will be cooked for you by Erika or Carrie. (all veggie). You can have 1 free soft drink and 1 free alcoholic drink". Quite frankly, it's going to cause more effort on their part. Anyway, in the afternoon I went into town to do the things I planned to do, get some glasses, get a haircut, some other things I'd listed up to do. Amy was planning on coming too, but changed her mind last minute, luckily; Erika and 2 of the guests wanted to go in, so we all shared the cost of a Tuktuk. The problem with this was because I wanted to shop around for some specs, and Erika wanted to just go in, get stuff and go back. I managed to get my haircut, which is pretty hilarious, because I couldn't be arsed to try to tell him any different in case it came out worse. So I only got a rough idea of costs of glasses, didn't get the cable I need for my hard drive and some other things I didn't get done. I'll be going in on Thursday, shopping around, buying some glasses, finding a cable, then going in again on Saturday to pick up said glasses. What a palaver! We did get a burger from Ernie's though, apparently the best burger in Sihanoukville. I've had better, but it was decent enough. Highlight of my day was when Jes, one of the guys who went into town with us, barely touched his chilli fries and donated them to a worthy cause; me. I spent most of the evening next door at bamboo shack. Then came back and joined in with the social happening here. I ended up crashing on a big cushty chair which at the time was unbelievably comfortable. I woke up several times, a few because I was too hot but once when a cockroach crawled over my face. I slapped my forehead hard enough to kill/stun it, and chucked it out the door. Amy and Seb also crashed out in the bar and we all woke up early. I worked from 8-4, then went for a walk. I walked far down the beach, and back looking for a stick. A bit of Bo-Staff would go down well here. In the end, I found one about 20ft from my room. Cut it to size and taught myself a new move. A couple of knocks on the shin and head and I think I've got it. Well, I'm going to go next door for food.

25/06/13

That was short lived, as soon as I stood up, Erika said she's going to make dinner. Spaghetti with some kind of sauce. It was quite tasty, but obviously lacking in meat. I ate it, and half of Seb's who wasn't that hungry, we drank until about 11pm and then went to the casino for Jes's birthday! I cashed in $20 worth of chips and hoped to do better than last week which resulted in me being $10 down. I went up and up, the same as last week, got my winning streak early, got up to $19 up and cashed $10 in. This gave me $9 to either walk away with or gamble. I gambled, figuring I've had 2 good nights which cost me nothing, 6 free beers and 4 plates of fried rice / fried noodles. I'd say if I break even, I've won. So I gambled away the last $9, we were in the casino for quite a while after I stopped and it took will power not to cash in more and join in the fun, everybody was winning. I kept my equal money and decided that was good enough. We left the casino at about 2am and reopened the bar when we got back, had another few drinks and chatted about all sorts of s*** before hitting the hay. I woke up at about 11:30 again today which was amazing. I've got work in the evening, and I'm not hungover AGAIN! (Still no hangover in Cambodia!)

26/06/13

Today, I woke up at a reasonable time considering the antics of last night. I was on shift, but this obviously means nothing, Me, Amy and Seb were all just drinking and chatting, then we got on ring of fire and got some others involved. Then, the inevitable happened. We had found a microphone earlier in the day, which resulted in youtube karaoke videos and standing on the bar, singing. It was a Tuesday night though, so I did obviously get up and sing. In true fashion. It's 1 year since I left the UK, that is a crazy thing to think about! 365 days since I left the airport, and I looked at a photo taken from the airport as I was leaving, and another photo from just before I left and I realised something. I look a lot better! My face isn't as chubby! Oh, and then I saw pictures that were taken from the Karaoke night when I'm shirtless singing on the bar, and I noticed it then too! I've lost weight and toned up!

27/06/13

The days are seeming to fly by! I have just about 1 week left here at Everythang. Today I had a day off so I went into town to get my stuff done. Finally I managed to buy some glasses, get a cable for my hard drive and buy some sunglasses (I left my last pair in Pai). This is why I don't buy expensive sunglasses: I only wear them when I wear my contacts and then because I rarely wear them, I don't think about them when I put them down, so naturally I leave them places. Anyway, the glasses cost me $40 for the frames and lenses on a pair I like, so it's a lot more expensive than when wYnd told me about. But they're nice, I need them, and they're a lot cheaper than the UK. I'm now sat here, with my third Moscow Mule of the day, about to go in the sea.

30/06/13

I had the best day yesterday. It started wtih a trip into town which turned into a very successful trip! First on the agenda was to pick up my glasses, they are very similar to my old ones, but this was not my doing! I was open to change, but I went in without my glasses on. This was to see what style they would pick for me, and every pair they picked as 'make me look handsome' were this style. When I went in yesterday, I didn't wear my contacts so I could test the prescription; Wow. I didn't realise how scratched my old pair were! When I put these new ones on, it's like HD vision! Next on the list was to pick up some headphones, managed to bag 3 pairs of iphone headphones for $11. Probably fake, yeh, but who cares, they work. The young Chinese woman at the stall made a bit of small talk with me and Conor (the new Irish guy at Everythang) asking us where we were from, and that we were both very handsome. Naturally I asked "Who better?", she thought about it and confirmed that I was more handsome. I liked that. Next, I had to go geeky. My laptop screen has been floppy and I've been mending it every couple of weeks, tightening the screws with my knife, but it would always come loose. So I needed a screwdriver for a tiny screw, and hopefully 2 more screws which I have lost in the process. I found a 31 piece screwdriver set which will easily fit in my bag. $2 well spent! Last on the list was to go into the computer shop where I got my cable the other day and see if they can sell me some screws. I had one of the screws from my laptop so they could know what size I needed, he went out to the back and returned 5 minutes later with 5 screws of variable length. I asked how much for all of them and he said "No, no, for you!" What a nice gent. Got back and bam. They all fit, my laptop screen is fixed and I have new glasses. This wasn't even the best bit of the day! Seb's leaving tomorrow and after having a day off alcohol the day before to rest my body/make sure it can function without alcohol; I had a beer with Seb. On the sober note: It was difficult being on shift, finishing up at 1am not having had any drink, you just get tired a lot easier. One beer turned into a lot, drinking here and then going next door to watch the Lion's play the Wallabies in Melbourne. This obviously included more drinking, and with 1 Aussie in the bar, very limited banter. It was a close game, and with the connection dropping in and out, very frustrating to watch. After that we came back to Everythang, popped next door to Bamboo Shack, played pool. We made it interesting and I won $1.50 of Seb's money. This put me in good stead, for at 11pm, we were heading to the Casino to see if Seb can win his money back before he leaves. Just to recap: Over my 2 trips to the Casino, I'm equal. $10 down, $10 up. We got there and I plummeted. The past 2 weeks, I went up and then down. This week I went down. Down to my last $5. I only cashed in $20 again, but my last $5 went on 1 hand. A hand which I won. It was at this point, when I was $10 down that Seb and Brandon, wanted to head into town. I made the decision that I will when I get back to equal or lose the $20. I crawled back up to $19, thinking "Should I leave $1 down?" I was told to stick to my plan. The next 2 hands I went down 2, and then back up 4. I did it! I'm $1 up! I put the dollar on a pair, which I didn't win. But I'm even again! I walked. Another 3 beers, 2 plates of food and a good evening for free! Well, I didn't like losing, so it wasn't as enjoyable as the other casino nights, but I went away a winner. This was about 2am I think, and we headed to Serendipity. The Magaluf style party area of Sihanoukeville. On the way we passed the giant Lion Statue on the roundabout, naturally, I climbed on top of that beast, rode it, did the usual poses for photos and then headed to the beach. It was everything you'd expect from a beach bar in Cambodia, plenty of guys, plenty of questionable women and plenty of women who are hitting on you for one reason: To get paid. We hung out on the beach with G+Ts, Nos Balloons and I saw some kids play fighting. In my drunken state, I showed them how to fight properly, keeping their guard up and twisting the hips. We went to the bar and chatted to the barman whilst Seb entertained a girl on the beach. The bar started closing and it got light. We got a tuk tuk back and went to bed at around 7am.

So what about today? How's the 'No hangovers in Cambodia' streak going? Well, I woke up at 2pm and I was drinking for 17 hours, I can feel that's what I did yesterday, but I don't feel bad for it at all!

03/07/13

I have 2 days left here, and last night I experienced an incredible spectacle which will stick in my mind for the rest of my life. I have seen it before, but experiencing it like this was amazing. The bioluminescence as plankton which have a defence mechanism of glowing a bluey/green colour when they are frightened. It doesn't take a lot to frighten them, just being in the water gives your submerged body a glittery shine. Moving your hands underwater, makes a glowing stream in the wake.

05/07/13

I am on the bus to Siem Reap. That's 3 weeks done, 3 weeks where I worked at a bar on Otres Beach in Cambodia. I had good times, where I thought I could stay there my whole life, but I also had bad times where I just wanted to leave that very second. It was a peculiar feeling, knowing how a place can give me so many different emotions but once again, it was the people that made it. Particularly; Amy, Seb, Amy and Dugie.