So far this week has been wonderful and has helped us recharge for the second half of our term. We spent a long weekend in Sihanoukville, relaxed and organized our apartment today, and tomorrow, our first house guest will arrive.
On Saturday, we had a delicious breakfast of poached eggs, asparagus, bacon and Dunkin Donuts pumpkin spice coffee. Saturday morning at my house growing up was one of my favorite days because my mom would make us a “special breakfast”. Sometimes she would make poached eggs with cheese sauce, which is one of my all time favorite breakfasts. As I got older, I began to make my own breakfast and during college I became border-line addicted to Dunkin Donuts coffee. Most people go to the famous donut shop for tasty lumps of fried dough…but in my opinion, the best thing they have to offer is their pumpkin spice coffee. It is only available in the fall, so I usually stock up while I can. This year as soon as my friends began posting their fall activities on Facebook I immediately began salivating as I dreamed about a warm cup of my favorite beverage. After so many days of dreaming, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a box from my mom and dad filled with not one, but TEN bags of Dunkin Donut’s coffee. I wish Keith would have video taped me because I literally was squealing with delight like a small child on Christmas morning! And there it was…the start to our fabulous vacation—a breakfast that reminded me of home and a jam jar filled with steaming hot pumpkin spice. (yes, we drink from jam jars…recycling duh!)
After breakfast, we packed our bags and headed to the bus station to buy our ticket for the “4 hour” bus ride to Sihanoukville. I say “4 hours” because it ended up being more like 5.5 because we made several stops to drop off passengers along the dirt paths between Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville. Keith and I were prepared with our MP3 players filled with tunes for the road, a big bottle of water, and some snacks to tide us over until dinner. The bus stopped for 20 minutes for the passengers to stretch and “water the plants”. There technically was a bathroom, but it was probably safer to pop a squat. We hopped back on the bus and continued our drive when all of a sudden we saw a dog sprint across the road trying to dodge the charging bus…unfortunately it wasn’t fast enough. Of course I immediately began thinking about my baby dog Lilly and started feeling very sad for the unlucky pooch.
After a few more hours, we reached our final destination and got a tuk tuk to drive us to our hotel. We stayed at The Cambodian Resort which is one of the nicer hotels in the area. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by friendly staff and fruity welcome drinks. Score! The hotel was nice and we were glad that we paid a little extra to have extras like A/C and a hot shower. Since we arrived a little after eight we decided to have dinner at the hotel restaurant (fresh barracuda with veggies) and call it a night.
The next few days were filled with swimming, sunbathing, napping, snorkeling 90 minute massages, and eating. We enjoyed many local fruits and of course the catch of the day. On the third day we went on an island tour by boat where we were able to swim, snorkel, eat fresh squid, and hunt for seashells. There was a cool spot where you could actually rent a small bungalow and sleep over night. In this area there were some dogs that seemed to be watchdogs until they smelled you a bit and then they were your best friend. The one was so cute and followed us as we walked back to the opposite side of the island. This island was really great because it wasn’t too big so we could explore without getting lost, and only about 40 or so people were on the island in total.
One thing that is not so great about the main beach at Sihanoukville is the number of merchants trying to sell a variety of items on the beach. Keith and I brought some books for a little beach reading, but couldn’t read more than a few paragraphs before being asked “You buy bracelet?”, “You want massage?”, “You buy fruit?”, “You need sunglasses?”. As frustrating as it was, I respected the people for their efforts to support their families legitimately. Poverty, drugs and prostitution are common in Cambodia, so even though these sales techniques were making it difficult to relax I tried to be patient and understand that the people are doing what they have to in order to make a living. Sometimes the aggressive tactics were a little much, especially by the children, but Keith and I gave them a little attention and they were on their way. We kept telling ourselves that we are doing the best thing we can by teaching the youth and providing them with education instead of a few Reil for a silly bracelet. On the last day, we realized that it was better to walk to the furthest part of the beach in order to get away from all of the sales people. It was a great way to end the trip and allowed us to leave on a very positive note.
We took a night bus back to Phnom Penh so that we were able to stay as long as possible. We purchased two tickets and waited for our bus to pick us up. When we got on, we realized that we were given the WORST seats on the bus all the way in the back…no reclining for us. I forgot to recharge my Ipod…so it died 20 minutes into the ride. Keith forgot to charge his laptop, so it died after 30minutes as well. We tried to sleep, but we were so uncomfortable so it was pretty much impossible. Keith got really motion sick, so he was pretty miserable. We decided that next time we take a bus we will request a better seat…it wasn’t great, but at least it was a shorter trip than the one we will be making later this year when we travel to Thailand. We were both happy to arrive safely back to our apartment.
Today we spent the day cleaning and organizing our apartment. Since it is a tropical climate here our floors are tile. Normally, I would love this, but since SwifferVacs don’t exist here, we have to sweep ALL THE TIME. So today, we did a lot of sweeping, scrubbing, and laundry. During the week we don’t have as much time to clean, and many weekends go by so quickly that we don’t get to deep clean that often, so today we cleaned like crazy. In between rooms we took some time to look through our pictures, make a few phone calls, and watch Junior Master Chef Australia (those kids rock!).
Tomorrow, our first guest will be arriving from Siem Reap. It’s funny the way life works sometimes…Last year in November I was eating dinner at my friend Lauren’s house when she told me her friend was teaching in South Korea. Now, that same friend has made her way to Cambodia where she will be stopping in for a few nights before heading back to the U.S.A. We are very excited to have her and hear about her experience teaching abroad.
We will put up another post in a few days so stay tuned. For now, enjoy some of our photos from our trip!
Xo,
Chantelle and Keith
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