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Like last night, the room actually got quite cold again and the fan had to go off. It seems to always happen at around 4am, must be climate related?! Anyway, before the heat of the day hit us we decided to go for a walk along the beach towards town. Sun cream applied, we headed down Otres beach, up and over the rocky parts and then down the long beach with town in the distance. Approximately half way down the long beach, Laura spotted a syringe lying in the washed up rubbish on the beach (clearly we are staying on the nicest beach). It was obvious there was some sort of drug in it which Laura identified as likely being heroin. She then went into nurse mode warning every person we encountered to watch their step! She had wanted to obviously get rid of it or tell someone but was worried as its drugs and you never know what may happen... someone could pin it on you and say its yours or something. Tourism earns them a lot of income here so obviously wouldn't want tourists thinking there's an iv drug problem here. It would probably never happen but better to be over cautious in these situations. We both thought most people are probably thinking, 'how does she know what heroin looks like?' Probably made us look like users but she does get over anxious by such things so told everyone we passed discreetly. By this stage it was already very hot, making us sweat which the sun cream was not helping. After about 50 minutes we eventually reached the edge of town and found a little cafe for a much needed water break. The combination of ice cold water and a fan was much needed and we looked a sight in sweat drenched clothing!
After finishing our water we didn't go down the road too much further when we spotted a little eatery doing cheap Asian food. We darted in and it wasn't long before we were recommended the ice coffee with sweet milk by the couple sitting beside us. We learnt they were from Wolverhampton currently touring South East Asia in their sixties. They had lived in Australia in the 1970's as part of the ten pound pom programme where loads of British people went over on a sort of 'ex-pat' programme. They lived there for seven years but as family was so far away they decided to move back to England. Their only son is now in Australia and likely going to stay out there because he has a good job and an Australian girlfriend. The husband was made redundant roughly ten years ago, so now they travel all over the world, including going to South Africa four times! Once you get the travelling bug I suppose! We ordered noodle soup and dried noodles and ate whilst in conversation, after their meal we wished them farewell as they left for a day at the beach and we weren't too far behind them.
The beach on Serendipity isn't great, basically full of sun loungers and the constant harassment of hawkers and beggars. We sat on one of the loungers for about 30 minutes but the constant people approaching you just got too much. I could tell Laura had had enough and wanted to get back to our secluded beach area so we promptly left.... We stocked up on provisions in the shop and made the walk back to our beach which luckily had a lovely, cool head wind which made a massive difference in the temperature.
We arrived back into Sam's bar where we ordered egg with rice and Laura wasted no time getting the first beer of the day! During the afternoon we were being followed by a little girl who turned out to be one of the masseur's daughters who was currently working on the beach. She attached herself to Laura who entertained her for a good couple of hours her by doing hair platting, making boxes and jewellery out of random things. It was quite sad as she wouldn't speak or anything, we actually wandered wether she was deaf but after a little whole with Laura she was laughing and chatty.
We then learnt from Rory that the dad of the girl was an American who had married her mum, got her pregnant then just vanished back to the States, was quite sad. This left her mum in an awful situation where she had to work but obviously had no childcare facilities so her little one follows her to the beach daily. While chatting with the little girl our favourite seller swung by for another game of 'rock, paper scissors'... again I didn't lose but Laura made me buy a bracelet, I suppose he's owed that at least.
I then sat down on the sofa while Laura entertained the young girl when a random American guy then started trying to chat up Laura who wasn't impressed but politely listened to him as he was obviously a bit drunk and in a borderline acute psychosis. It later transpired that he had opened up to her and had been telling her how his brother died and he had never got over it, just turning to drink... he was quite emotional..... People always seem to open up to her I have found.... Must be that nursing face she pulls lol. We had a few beers and before 'happy hour' descended we decided to head home for a shower.
On heading back to the bar there were quite a few people about. One of the guests was having a 'private party' involving a hog roast done Khmer style! Unfortunately, we had not been invited, charming... haha! The Khmer lads built the spit from scratch but the hog did look a poorly thing, not a lot of meat on it! We had our usual lovely Khmer dishes made by the lovely ladies in the kitchen all washed down with beer!
We sat around the bar later and I got speaking to a man from Margate, who was coincidently staying next door to us! He was travelling through Vietnam and Cambodia and gave us some tips on good things to see. We then got on to football as usual and coincidently at the same time Laura had excused herself and gone to take some pics. Not long after there was suddenly a drunken women sitting beside me who then necked some of Laura's beer! I had to tell her sort of where to go and she headed to the bar! She must of been late 50's at least and she was talking to another very drunk man called Cody at the bar. They were both hammered and start kissing which wasn't the most pleasant thing to observe. We actually learnt that Cody did mountain bike tours during the day, I thought Christ, is it a bar crawl or something?!
The women then just disappeared and she was later found on the sand unconscious! Laura and this random doctor on sabbatical headed over and confirmed she was OK and breathing... They then went off with her to find where she came from and they were gone a good 15 minutes. Turned out she had been here a while and well known but as she kept moving no one knew her hotel. They eventually found it and returned, they had safely got the woman back to her room, which apparently was full of booze, alcoholic... much! Turns out Laura has been given the task of getting her to bed (being a fellow girl and that) which she did before the women then started drunkenly sobbing so poor Laura put back on her listening ears and soothe her before she feel into a drunken stupor and she made their escape. After all that fiasco we just chatted in a group, Laura and doctor obviously got on to the topic of A&E and every now and then someone came up to them with a 'problem'. Was quite funny... The beach bar clinic. After a few more beers the night fizzled out gradually.
On our way home we made sure our overnight bus to Siem Reap was booked which gladly it had been. I got undercharged too which was a nice little bonus for us, got to make the most of these things!! We then headed back for our last night in Sihanoukville......
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