Monday

We got up and headed off out for some breakfast and found a decent little place called 'the laughing Fatman' which had a good value for money menu. After both ordering a mini English and having a normal cup of tea we both sat facing out to the street looking forward to the day. A few Australian men then began to gather at the table next to us discussing business and smoking weed when their families came in to join them.

Unfortunately Lauren and I then had a random encounter with a political refugee from Czech Republic (Czech Slovakia as he said). The old man asked to sit opposite us which neither of us were going to be rude and say no to, he ordered a beer and told us his life story. I wouldn't have minded but within the first 30 seconds he was telling us how when he worked In the Philippines he saw the body of his coworker (he drove tuk tuks there) which had been found murdered with his head only still attached by an inch of skin to the neck of his body. Not a great conversation opening for breakfast Loz and I thought. He went on to tell us about how he used to dig graves when he was 25 and how he did something like 500 in one afternoon. He told us about his son living in Australia, how he had 7 kids the youngest Aaron and Ester being only 3 and 2 years old and told us never to have kids as they are too demanding. He went on to tell us about the Cambodian prime minister only having sight in 1 eye and how the King studied ballet and liked men (this offended him). After making an effort with some of the conversation with him and being polite, we left feeling a bit uncomfortable Lauren and I eventually escaped and found our first shop that sold lower than factor 30 suncream at a normal price instead of £10 a bottle. This made me happy.

We decided to try and walk to find the riverside and after an hour in the heat were really tired and exhausted so stopped off at 'Pencil supermarket'. I got some ice cream and we chilled out for a bit, we both had a fiasco with the toilet hose there (Mine being I pulled the clip the wrong way and drenched myself), and we found a funfair we'd planned to go back to but never did as Lauren had a dodgy stomach later on. We tried to go and see the Royal palace but weren't wearing long enough shorts and had to had our shoulders covered (something we thought only applied in holy places) so instead went and got our nails done at a place called 'Friends n stuff'. This company has a chain of shops as we'd seen one back in Laos and after seeing place matts I really liked I asked if they had one in Bangkok which they said they did. The organisation helps the youth of the area by getting them into work and teaching them skills like a charity based organisation. So not only were the teenagers helping in the shop but they did beauty treatments and there was also a restaurant next door where they cooked and waited on people which we said we would return go for dinner tomorrow. They did a great job on the nails, Lauren and I then went back to the hostel, got ready and went to meet Will for dinner. As it was Cambodia's Independence Day there were pretty fireworks on the riverside and we went for a delicious curry at a restaurant called 'New season' and then said goodbye to Will. Lauren and I fancied a drink after but there wasn't really anywhere safe to go.
There was a street on a road next to our hostel which was full of strip clubs and lots of Asian women to one western man, each looking around 50 plus in age. It wasn't nice to see and we chose to go back to our hostel and have a beer there instead before bed.

Xxx