As if yesterday morning wasn't bad enough, today we are woken up to be told that there are no more beds in the hostel and that we have to check out. Brilliant. So up, dressed and packed, Elias has scoped out somewhere that has good reviews so we bundle our gear in to a tuk tuk and off we go.
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First ting we notice about the place is just how friendly the people are. So much nicer than the ones at the previous hostel. We check out the room and decide to stay here. It has one of the biggest, newest AC units I have seen. We will be in a fridge for sleeping, nice. We come down and grab something to eat, and I decide to go for a coffee, it's not bad, but a world away from my Vietnam.
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I'm feeling pretty tired today, it is not any cooler in Cambodia, I had thought that it might have been. Elias and I decide to hit up the Central Market, he is looking for some gifts. The market is huge, a big central building, and the market extends out from the building as well. It's hexagonal in shape, and extremely easy to get lost. The centre is reserved for jewellery, electronics and high value stuff, and the surrounding are has clothes, food and everything else. Such a different feel to a Vietnamese market, the central building is modern, with glass cabinets displaying the wares. Elias looks at a few things, like a jewel dealer, even though he hasn't a clue! Ha ha ha. There are different tactics employed here for bargaining. If you ask the price of something, they tell you then say if you buy they can offer you a discount. If you tell them it's too high they ask you what you want to pay. It's clever, because foreigners have no idea what the real price is, so the vendor will come out the best. In the food area of this market, the vendors are even just chillin' out in hammocks waiting for someone to buy, just sleeping, no problem. After browsing for a while there is no joy for Elias and so we return back. He should have bought his stuff in HCM.
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Dinner tonight means heading up to the night market. A whole manner of strange sights and smells, but most importantly, no foreigners. The experience is so much more authentic when there are no white people. We get some noodle thing, no English spoken here, luckily I bust out my Cambodian! Ha ha ha. Enough to get us by. We go scouring for some bar that isn't a lady bar, god it is starting to bore me now. I'm sure I am not as friendly as I was in my dismissal of their cries. I think it is the overt monotony of the same old routine, no matter who the punter, a real sense of a fake situation, that quite frankly, you'd have to be stupid or very very lonely with lots of money, to even consider. When we find a normal pub, it is predictably, empty. Of course, there is no chance of taking one of these woman home, well I think. We get in and they have a pool table, let battle commence. I get a beer or 5 and Elias has some fruit juice, ever the personification of masculinity. We make the mistake of playing with a couple of guys from the bar. They were very good, and as there is a direct link between my skill at pool and my alcohol consumption, team Europe did not do well. A humbling experience from these young whips and that's putting it nicely. Back to the hotel, which is I course in lock down because it is after 6pm, ha.