Sunday, July 29, 2007

Sihanoukville

I have returned from my trip to the beach, bronzed (maybe more of a reddish-bronze) and relaxed (maybe more exhausted). I traveled down by taxi on Friday night with two other Americans and a girl from New Zealand. We checked in to our beautiful hotel (see picture of pool) and then met up with Jens, Bernhardt, Anya, and Emir for dinner at Eden.


After dinner we ended up at the Blue Dolphin, apparently quite the hopping place. Here we stayed, drinking, playing in the water, dancing like fools, and watching people much crazier than us, until 4 am. This bar also has these chains with balls on them you can light on fire and do all sorts of fun dance type things. I stayed away from the drunk people with flames. Although, there was a young girl there who was quite skilled at it. After the bar we went back to our hotel and swam in the pool until about 5, watching the sun come up in a light rain.






Saturday we just spent playing on the beach and in the water. Really beautiful beaches and warm, clear water. Was extremely relaxing and much needed after our late night out.
Saturday night we all went out to dinner (joined by one more American at this point), then we all went for a walk down the beach to meet up with some other people. I made it in before 1 am this time!
This morning just got up and went to the beach for a few hours before we had to head out on the bus.
Some of the interesting things to happen to us: Danielle's camera fell out of her bag in the taxi and even though she called the next morning the driver, of course, could not find it. Johanna had her camera stolen out of her bag at the beach on Saturday. Lots of little kids around there stealing money and valuables right out from under you. I caught one before he made off with stuff from another girl's purse. Kind of brings the relaxation value down a notch.
Saturday night when we were walking to dinner a moto flew by and tried to grab Johanna's bag. The guy didn't get it, but he pulled her along for a second and she has bruises all over her arm now. Then on our bus ride home we saw someone on the side of the road who'd been killed in an accident--probably on a moto. So that was a little tramatic.
On a lighter note, a cow came onto the dance floor at the Blue Dolphin last night. Stood there for a few minutes (not quite long enough for me to get my camera out although I tried) before they chased him out. That's almost better than home!
Tomorrow morning I'm heading to Battambang, a town that's supposed to have some of the best French-colonial architecture in the area. And from there I'll take a boat to Siem Riep and spend some time at the Angkor Wat temples. So, the next blog will be when I return from that little trip--should be good pictures!

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