Sihanouk Ville

And let the holiday begin! So after however many weeks on the run me and Ayms decided that maybe we could set up home for a few days and what better place to do it than in a bungalow where they serve Heinz baked beans and the beach is a mere 5 minute walk away!

So we spent a few days (planned) and then a couple more (unplanned) lounging around on the beach (watching the thunderstorms roll in every afternoon to then run and take cover!), laying in hammocks, reading books, eating a lot, playing pool - enter Amy the hustler who can suddenly play like...a really good pool player! (insert your own name pool fans!), swimming in the sea and there may or may not have been a night out or two.

The only problem in Sihanouk Ville is the beggars and the constant hassling - in our first five minutes of reaching the beach there was about 12 children surrounding Amy trying to pull hairs out of her legs with string! Yep that's right...de-hairing, manicures, bracelets, bookmarks, paintings, fruit, you name it, they can do it for you. A lot of pinky promises later, some chasing the kids down the beach trying to retrieve Amy's flip flops and awkward questions later("Where are you from?" "England" "No you're not, you're from your Mum and Dad"..."If I name the capital city of Scotland, you buy from me?" "I know the capital city of Scotland, so no" "what about Madagascar?"..."You buy from me?" "No I don't need one" "You need two?") we manage to get rid of the small people. The beggars are unbelievable, people drag their not so fortunate relatives around with them...when in truth both parties look like they should be taking bedrest.

So we managed to set some roots down for a few days, met some good people (including the prettiest french boy in the world - Nico and his not so welsh, but actually Dutch friend!), ran out of money, visited the bank, discovered Mekong buckets (Mekong whisky, Red Bull, Coke) and there was a little incident with Gem, the dance floor and some falling off of it! Just a couple of scratches though...and it wasn't entirely my fault since the dancefloor consisted of a large table placed on the beach, 3ft away from the main bar...I blame my small legs :) and the red bull "giving me wings"...it didnt! So we danced on the beach, watched the fire dancers, paddled in the Sea and made it home just in time to watch the sun rise. A good night all in all. The next day however was not so good and we didn't surface till late on in the day thus missing our one day tour to the islands, dóh.

The bar staff at Monkey Republic were a comedy act in themselves as well, they played the game of pin the tail on...well, just about any unsuspecting victim available. The idea, Dave and Martin - you will fully aware of the rules, is to peg some string with toilet paper attached, to the back of somebody in the bar and see how long it takes them to notice, which is never very long considering the entire bar ends up staring at one person trying not to laugh too hard!