I took Friday off work so that the four hour each way bus trip would not seem as if it filled the entire weekend. Desi had done the same, and so my masterplan was to travel up with him and be at the beach by lunch time.
Desi is however typically less planned and more spontaneous than me and so my plan had to flex a bit when his alarm didn't go off after a few drinks Thursday evening. The upshot of this was that we ended up lunching on the riverfront in PP until the bus was ready to pick us up, pondering on the multiple reasons many people come to Cambodia.
Blessed with airconditioning, a loo and an indecipherable Khmer guide, we spent a pleasant four hours on the Mekong Express for the princely sum of 6 dollars. Safely arrived in Sihanoukville, we checked into Mick & Craig's a very cheap but clean and relatively mosquito free hotel, near Serendipity beach.
Saturday morning saw Desi disappear on a snorkelling trip and me head for the beach. Armed with a couple of books, malaria tabs and very large shades, I positioned myself half way along the strip ready for as little action and as much liquid as possible. In the same way that the mosquitos seem to have taken a liking to me, along came a swarm of Khmer girls ready to offer me a full makeover.
I quickly realised that there is a distinct difference between Khmer in PP and Khmer in Sihanoukville, which is a tourist hotspot. Frankly if you say anything other than no when they offer you one of their services, you will be hard pushed to extract yourself from their clutches.
12 friendship bracelets, 2 hairbands and threaded legs later, I found myself sunburnt with only a few riels left. Threading for those not familiar is where what looks like dental floss is wrapped round the fingers in such away as to create a pair of floss scissors, which then rip your hairs out! As I am writing this, I am wondering exactly why I would pay for that?
Beauty treatments are usually accompanied by the banter about where you are going on holiday and where you are from. Serendipity beach did not buck this trend, but the girls playfully would not believe that I am from the Uk, despite the pasty white skin being irrefutable evidence.
They told me I come from the Moon. They also told me that I look about 20 and look like a film star (owing to the sizeable crowd congregating around me hoping to sell me yet another friendship bracelet)...... As much as I love the fantasy, the other foot is firmly planted on the ground. In much the same way, when I heard a tyre burst on Monivong Boulevard I was fleetingly Kate Adie with a hand grenade exploding off camera. James (Director of Outreach) said at our pre-trip briefing that in Cambodia you do not need an imagination. I can see why - there is so much to stimulate the imagination here, it is very easily triggered.
After a seafood feast courtesy of one of the beachside restaurants and a comfortable night's sleep, I dragged Desi off to a nearby waterfall. Guidebooks often describe statues of oversized goldfish gurgling as waterfalls, so this Cambodian water park was a pleasant surprise as it lived up to its description. Not quite Niagra, but nonetheless enjoyable. We were virtually the only foreigners there.
After lunch we moto-ed it back to the bus station where another cheaper bus took us back to PP. 4$ was admittedly a bargain, but the extra 2$ for the Mekong express had covered the toilets. After four very long hours, we were back home.
By the way, the guy in the shades pictured above is Desi. It was taken as he bathed at the waterfalls with the Khmer. He is heading to Prey Veng Province next week after which his girlfriend will be coming to visit after which he will be disappearing off to Krazie (another quite remote province) to do a stint there.
One of the drawbacks of volunteering is the lack of testosterone. Most volunteers are women. Desi has been an absolute pleasure, and his girlfriend is very lucky. He might be an absolute poser (in the picture) but he is funny, clever and emotionally mature - in a nutshell, ideal as a physiotherapist, a discipline I have a new found respect for.
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