Sihanoukville – I left my soul there, down by the sea
As the bus wound its way to the south coast and the promised land of white beaches, Matt and I exchanged nervous looks as the rain continued stoically. Trying to bolster our mood, I got manic at the first ray of sunshine and giddily shouted, “Blue sky!” in the style of a mother encouraging a toddler. Matt was dutifully impressed, and admitted it was a good spot. Sure enough, the closer we got to the sea, the bluer the sky became and the rain dried out.
And, wow, isn’t the sea a joyous thing? Quite apart from the fact that I won’t swim in it (SHARKS! They don’t like us! They eat us – I heard a bloke got eaten in Brazil just recently – they don’t want us in their house. To go in the sea is to gatecrash the sharks’ party and they, understandably, get narked, and so eat us. Frankly, it’s just plain rude of us not to stay out of their house), I find it an amazing, restorative place to hang out. I’m a true beach girl, and can – and do – happily stay there all the day long, just reading, dreaming, people watching, and working on my tan which, I’m sure you’ll be relieved to hear, has made its long-awaited reappearance. God bless those rays. I can completely empathise with people who need to live near the sea. Maybe I’ll join them there one day.
We were staying at a new place called Monkey Republic. Eddie had told me about it on the last night in Moskito, and I told Matt about it on the bus although, by that time, a combination of the Long Vodkas and Too Little Sleep resulted in me only remembering the word “Monkey”. I tried out various other combinations, “Business…Banana…Ing Around”, but none of them rang a bell. So the plan was, we would get a moto driver, shout “Monkey” at him, and hope he would take us to the right place, rather than punch us in the kidney. Fortunately, we were resolved our shame, because there was a rep waiting at the bus stop.
The nice people there give you a free beer on check in, so we supped that and eyed the sky cautiously, glad to see that it was getting a bit brighter. Monkey Republic is a good place to stay, although, as Matt asked me when we got to the beach, “Do you think they’re all on happy pills?” It had a touch of the “we’re all one big happy family and we do everything together and now we want you to tell us your name, where you come from, and two true things and one lie about yourself and we’ll all guess which is which!” Fortunately it never got to this extreme, as our suggestion would have been, ‘1. I came to Cambodia to score heroin, 2. I came to Cambodia to pick up ladyboys, 3. I have two heads. Over to you, folks!” Still, it was young and friendly.
That first afternoon we set the tone for the rest of our time there. Sitting on the sand, enjoying the hoardes of children that would just come and, after asking if you want a postcard/sarong/fruit/water/massage/hair off/manicure, even when you said no thanks, would then just drape themselves over you. Most of them were very cute, including one girl who guessed exactly where we were from; “You’re from England”, she pointed at me, “But he’s from Canada”. Little genius. I carried on the numbers game tradition that Brad had started up north, and was amazed by some of them. “Me: 6 times 8 is…” Them: “48” Me: Erm, hang on a sec…. erm… 32,40, yep, 48! Matt, being a harebrained daredevil, would swim and brave the sharks, while I watched the stuff, waved from the shore, and kept a beady eye out for fins. You never know…
At night we took a walk back down to the beach to eat, and ended up in a lovely place called the Bayon Bar, where we both had amaaaaazing barbequed fish, so fresh and delicious. It was a great, welcoming place, and, being the party animals we are, we started a Scrabble Tournament. Matt won the first one (JUST!), the next night I won the second, and I don’t want to talk about the third, and deciding, match on our final night. Let’s just stop talking about it RIGHT NOW! YOU HEAR ME?! It was so deeply relaxing – good food, a few drinks, good company. We ended up staying till the wee small hours of the morning. The bar is owned and run by a Canadian ex-pat, Roger, who was an interesting and inspirational person to chat with, so many, many, many hours and drinks later, we stumbled back up the hill to the guesthouse.
Sihanoukville is blessed with lots of beaches, so on our second day, we hired a moto (don’t worry – Matt drove, and drove very well. I do think he has a death wish though as at one point I joked, “Do you want me to drive?” and he replied “Yeah, sure, if you want to”. I backed away in fear). This gave us loads of freedom, and we ended up on a lovely, white, deserted beach that was a tad rough around the edges, but that’s just because it’s completely undeveloped. Here we reached our zenith, as we constructed, in sand, a model (I like to think it was to scale) of Angkor Wat. It was genius, even if I say so myself, and as we left it there on the beach, I like to think that, hundreds of years from now, a French explorer will go back to that beach and rediscover it.
That night was the England v Sweden match, being shown at 2am Cambodia time. We went back for more barbequed fish (and just to remind you all, I won the Scrabble that night), and about 10pm, went back to the guesthouse for a nap. I’m sure you can see what happened next. Matt woke me up at 12 midnight, and my reply was along the lines of ”I’m not going anywhere”. So I missed the match. I know, I know, don’t shake your head in disgust, I’m ashamed of myself, as well.
The next day was, you’ve got it, more of the same. Beach, Bayon Bar, a small, insignificant game of scrabble that I am NOT TALKING ABOUT, good times. I thoroughly enjoyed my days on the beach, and one thing is for sure, it won’t be too long before I’m back on the sand.
Tags: Cambodia, Travel
Suzanne
Just in case you have been partying too hard again.
England won today against Ecuador 1-0 and Beckham scored the goal.
I think they play Argentina next Saturday.
So, hope you stay awake for that one.
I always feel relieved when I read you are with a friend or an aquaintance.
It is the motherly instinct in me.
Love, Lin
Suze, I’m sure you were just being polite letting Matt win the third game of Scrbble. Hope he realised he was playing against our family champion!
Love you and miss you.
Mum