Sihanoukville

Up at 5:45, and went out to get breakfast. The family was all up, we said good morning, and went for breakfast. As we were eating, we heard someone calling Courtney's name...it was Rozette, he and Rosa were on their way to school, so we went out and hugged them and said goodbye to them. AFter breakfast, we went back to the guest house and got our bags out, and said goodbye to Malava and Ropiset and the grandmother and the father, and told them we'd be back after we back from Sihanoukville.

We walked to the travel office, and a minibus picked us up about 7:00, and took us to the main office where we got on a big bus. It left about 7:10, only about 15 people on it.

We arrived in Sihanoukville about 11:00, and when we got off the bus, who was standing there but Sapir and Jaz, who were on Santiphap Island with us on Laos. At the same time, Nigel came along, we had met him on the Halong Bay tour in northern Vietnam. All three were just leaving, in fact Sapir and Jaz were getting on teh same bus we were getting off of. Nigel had to catch a ferry, he's on his way to Koh Chang in Thailand.

We got a room at the Mealy Chanda Guest House, $6 for a big room, no A/C though. They want $12 for an A/C room. We settled in, went for lunch, then headed down to the beach. Water is very, very warm. Too warm, Court says, it's not refreshing after laying in the sun. It's like a warm bath. Sihanoukville is quite nice, very relaxed, the beaces are nice, and very nice sand. Still haven't found a beach that compares to that on Koh Lanta, though.

After an hour or so, it started raining a bit, so walked around a rocky point to another beach, hardly any tourists here at all, mostly locals, but they were farther down on the beach, as it's a pretty big beach.

We stayed there for about an hour, then headed back to the guest house. We both burnt, even though we weren't in the sun that long, and it was cloudy part of the time. Oh well. We then went for something to drink, I had a great banana shake, Court had her favorite, ice milk coffee.

We went to an internet, and as we were doing the internet, Court spied Esmerelda walking by. We met Esmerelda in Hoi An, and hung out with her for a while in Nha Trang. We made a date for the three of us to go for supper this evening.

We started walking around Sihanoukville, but found out it's very spread out. We decided we'd rent a motorbike tomorrow instead to see the rest of it.

We went for supper with Esmerelda at 6:00, then Court and I rented a motorbike taxi, and went to downtown Sihanoukville to see what, if anything, was happening there. We walked around for a while. Nothing at all. The smallish night market was kind of lively, but for locals only. Finding nothing, we got a taxi back to the guest house and went back to bed.

Other notes:
- They have ice-block delivery in SE Asia, just like the stories I remember my dad telling me when I was a kid. A truck (or sometimes a motorbike with a trailer) comes along to every business/house and delivers a huge chunk of ice to them for use during the day.
- The Cambodian people are the friendliest we've met, friendly than any other nation we've travelled to!