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After our home stay, Fila could see we all needed a pick-me-up, so we stopped at a local market on the way to our next destination. A whole array of fried insects and animals awaited us, from chicks to frogs to tarantulas. We chowed down on a delicious fried tarantula followed by a fertilised quails egg. Neither of which were that disgusting surprisingly. The quail egg ?placenta (maybe) was a little chewy.
By the time we arrived at the beachfront town of Sihanoukville, the tour group were a little jaded. Tired and dirty from their prior night's stay and all ready to have a bit of alone time. We ventured to the beachfront bars and relaxed with a couple of afternoon cocktails before returning to the room to scrub away the dirt. Post shower we were attempting to cool, naked under the air conditioning unit when there was a knock on the door. Greg grabbed the nearest towel whilst Claire covered herself with a pillow and hid around the corner. Greg opened the door to find a smiling Asian woman. "Hello" said Greg. "I just finished work" replied the lady, giggling a little. "Ok" said Greg, "good for you." "I just finished work" she said again, grinning like a Cheshire Cat and giggling some more. "Ooooh" said Greg, penny dropping, "you've been drinking. Excellent, well done. High five for mid day drinking." They high fived and then she wouldn't let go of Greg's hand, stroking his arm and smiling more. "I've just finished work." Confused and a little concerned, Greg called "Claire!?!" "I'm naked" came the reply from somewhere in the room. The Asian lady looked confused, "your...?" "My girlfriend" answered Greg. And with that she hurried away, leaving a very confused Greg wondering if door to door prostitution was a common thing in Cambodia.
That night we all ate together, celebrating Sophia's (one of the older members of the group) birthday. Then it was back to the beachfront bars where, given that they're all identical, there are lots of free drinks on offer to try and entice, particularly the girls, into the establishments. Claire didn't pay for a drink all night, even if the free drink choices were only ever beer or Cambodian whiskey. There was much merriment, dancing on tables and free whiskey. We, along with Sophie (not Sophia from earlier but a mid-twenties girl from Crowborough who happened to go to the same school as Greg's cousins), had signed up for a day boat trip to the local islands the following day which started nice and early. Therefore around 1am we started to head back to the hotel. Sophie was adamant that we shouldn't pay the £1 for a Tuk-Tuk and should instead walk the 20 mins back. Unfortunately halfway there the heavens opened and what can only be described as a tropical downpour took place. By the time we made it to the hotel we may as well have swum home.
We were up bright and early the next morning feeling a little worse for wear. Fortunately we had acquired some good anti-sickness tablets in NZ, and after a couple of those we were ready for the boat. It turned out to be a fantastic day, with 8 people on our boat being taken to an island where we were the only visitors. We swam, played volleyball, had a fish BBQ and generally had a much needed break from the large crowds we were becoming accustomed to. Unfortunately Julian, who had also come, managed to acquire 3rd degree burns to his back, as did Sophie to her face. Claire and I felt quite smug about how religiously we had been treating our morning sun cream routine.
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