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Stu & Amy See The World!
Tuesday 6th Dec
Leave for Sihanoukville (SV) this morning, weather is sunny again and about 30 degrees. We are getting used to sitting on the bus for hours now, unfortunately we are still not getting used to the stinky toilets that go hand in hand with every stop.
The welcoming committee at SV are a bit more restrained than those at Siem Riep and we climb aboard two motos with our backpacks down in the foot well of the driver.
Turn down the first hotel/guest house we see as at 6 dorrars and 150m back from the beach it's just too far, besides we have been wanting to turn our noses up at a place for a while and it seem this was the one.
We settle on a relatively expensive 15 dorrar guesthouse 50m back from the beach with free pool downstairs and a lovely little veranda overlooking the beach and sea in the distance. The cold shower is most welcome after the 4 and a half hour journey.
We take a stroll along the beach and I go for the western option of a very tasty pizza and a restaurant right on the seashore. What we have noticed is how the western food tends to fill you up an awful lot more than the Asian cuisines (huge curries excepted of course).
Few games of pool, Amy is getting better and I seem to be getting worse, Anchor draft is flowing well also then bed.
Wednesday 7th Dec
Breakfast consists of Muesli for me and bread, jam and coffee for the wife. Then we get all creamed up (Soltan of course) and head for the beach. Deckchairs and umbrella are one dorrar each for the day and as soon as we arrive we are molested by teenage girls and boys wanting our money of course in exchange for bracelets and other types of cheap jewelry, bookmarks, fruit and a whole manner of stuff we could do without.
These kids are pretty clever though (obviously far more than me and Amy judging by the amount of stuff we bought from them over the next few days) and will not take no for an answer. The really desperate ones try the old heartstring pulling acts (some resorting to tears) and others just shear bribery, such as you bought one from my mate why don't you buy one from me?
Amy takes pity on the cute ones and sometimes not so cute (kid with big teeth who she feels has been dealt a bum deal gets special attention) and proceeds to spend all our dosh as if it's going out of fashion. I can barely type this excerpt of the diary as the 4000 bracelets are inhibiting the wrist maneuverability.
Anyway, even when you think you have got rid of these little dudes they challenge you (me) to a game of noughts and crosses (tic tack toe) the last time I played was of course when I was about 10 years old and thought I knew how to win and at least not get beaten.
So 10 minutes later and after a humiliating 2-0 defeat to some 5 year old we have even more stuff to wear round our wrists/necks/waists etc.
There are also a plethera of manicurists come massage girls wandering up and down the beach touting for business. Amy goes for the leg wax option which consists of a woman with a bit of string between her teeth and two hands in a triangular like arrangement removing the hair and roots with extreme ease.
Most of the beach decide to look away when she goes for the underarm hair (of course she had none anyway) option as well and I just stop her in time from getting the bikini line done. The lady takes a long look at Stu's modest amount of back hair and I am sure I hear her mutter something under her breath saying something like (your back hair is history boy, you don't know it yet but you will soon....)
Amy wins at scrabble.
Stu gets burnt
The sea is very warm for a swim and there are hardly any waves. The beach is fine white sand and once the little kids have stripped you of all your cash it is pretty peaceful as well.
Evening meal is a very nice seafood at a local restaurant. The crab is particularly tasty. So far we seem to be eating our way round the world pretty well.
Thursday 8th Dec
Spend the morning out of the sun. Go down the beach in the afternoon and the massage/hair removal ladies are their waiting for us, cotton balls in hand tossing from one to the other.
Immediately when Stu takes off his T-shirt they pounce. Stu falls kicking and screaming to the ground and they procede to lure him into false sense of security by administrating massage.
Meanwhile Amy has come prepared by bringing extra dorrar so none of the kids have to go home unhappy. We have several bags of fruit which are very nice.
Now I don't know how many people out there have had a massage before but from my experience it is pretty uncomfortable (especially when ones back is covered in grains of sand). Eventually though you relax and it's not so bad.
Now I was assuming that these ladies had been trained but god knows where and when. I swear that there were way too many "accidental" touches of the buttocks and when they started hitching up the bottom of me swim shorts one did tend to feel a little nervous (surely they don't massage every muscle in your body do they, certainly not in full view of everyone on the beach.
Of course they relaxed me so much that the few back hairs were also removed at about 10 at a time feeling like somebody was using a hot poker on one's back. I pity Amy as the underarm hair must have really hurt like hell.
Eventually the ordeal is over and we return to the guesthouse.
BBQ for tea.
There does not seem to be many people round at all what a great time to visit this place.
Friday 9th
After breakfast we decide to go for a short stroll around town in the 35 degree heat (sound familiar) we are in true hagglin mode for aftersun, so much so that our starting price is more than derogatory so we don't actually by any.
Back to the beach in the afternoon, obligatory beggars and little kids after our cash again, only slightly annoying though.
Green curry in the evening at our hotel, unfortunately they didn't have any coconut so this green curry was particularly hot. Still it tasted pretty good.
Saturday 10th December
Final day on the beach today and Stu goes for the massage routine again and Amy has her nails done on the beach!
Some little kid decides to pinch my manboob (I mean right pectoral) whilst we were playing scrabble. Despite this invasion of one's privacy I still manage to beat Amy. I improve my noughts and crosses record by drawing nil nil with a 12 year old.
It has to be said that these children's English is absolutely fantastic and it mirrors everything we have seen so far in Cambodia. The nation is really trying to better itself through education and the childrens' appetite for learning has to be admired. When there are so many jobs available after what has happened over the previous decades these guys have a real chance to make their lives better.
Last meal in the evening on the shore front. We have really enjoyed ourselves here and have fully relaxed so that we are able to tackle the rigours of sightseeing and travelling around Vietnam that will come in the next few weeks.
Stay safe and we will try to update once more before Christmas. Keep the emails coming - we really enjoy keeping up with what you lot are up to.
Lots of love
Stu & Amy.
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