Sihanoukville

Room-mate at Sotheavy 1

We've just arrived back in Takeo after a 4-day break in the beach resort of Sihanoukville on the south-west coast of Cambodia. From the coast here, you can look across to several tiny, unihabited islands nestling in the the Gulf of Thailand, just north of the Vietnamese border. We decided to base ourselves in Sihanoukville for a few days, as one of only 3 places in Cambodia where it's possible to renew your Cambodian visa, which we needed to do. So, we decided to treat ourselves to a break from the work at the orphanage in a slightly up-market hotel with swimming pool (which we were particularly glad of on the day when there was a shoal(?) of jellyfish in the sea). (Actually, it's either a stuck, a mould, a fluther, a smack or a smuth, of jellyfish . Call my Bluff if you like - Ed. (Not Miliband)).

Beach-side Family Picnic

Our hotel was about 5 minutes' walk from two of the most popular beaches (Occheutal and Serendipity), and we were in a de-luxe room, complete with with air-con, two double beds, a HOT water shower (we've been used to only cold-water showers in Takeo - not that that's too much of a problem in this heat, once you brace yourelf for the initial shock), and a lovely balcony overlooking the fresh-water, non-chlorinated, crystal clear pool. This very comfortable hotel cost us an extortionate $30 per night, inclusive of a very ample and delicious (though mainly Western) breakfast each morning.

Swimming Pool at Sihanoukville Hotel
(It is Outdoor!!)

Bar with Beer but no Power

By way of comparison, we've been paying $10 per night (about £6.50) at the Sotheavy Guest House in Takeo - where, Incidentally, just before we left for Sihanoukville, we actually met Sotheavy herself - an incredibly glamorous and beautiful Cambodian woman who now has two guest houses in her name (though no more creatively named than Sotheavy 1 and Sotheavy 2) here in Takeo. She lives part of her time in Cambodia, and part in Prague, being married to a Czech man. Doubtless she's over here now to escape the Prague winter, and she has very generously invited us to join her for coffee some time next week in her penthouse apartment in Sotheavy 1, where we had stayed for our first two weeks in Takeo. We've now moved to Sotheavy 2, just to ring the changes a bit.

Anyway, back to Sihanoukville.  On the southwest coast of Cambodia, it's named after the former King, Prince Sihanouk who abdicated aged 88 in favour of his son (E2 please wait until Prince Charles is also too old!); is a smallish town but with miles of sandy beaches, some over-developed, European style, some totally undeveloped, others with just a few bamboo and wattle bungalows and cocktail bars.

Otres Beach, Sihanoukville

There is a Dark Side!

A Sunset!

We were in once such one night, when a power cut occurred just as we arrived. Luckily, they were still able to serve beer, and staff from a neighbouring bar -that still had power - cooked our dinner and brought it to us on trays.  We decided that we rather liked the moon-and-candle-lit ambience where we were, and, when we learned that theneighbouing kitchen used only gas for its fuel and so could cook regardless (no, Clive, that's NOT a local delicacy!), decided to stay there and eat anyway. We had a lovely time, with no distracting background music, and virtually no light pollution, looking out to the lights of several fishing boats near to the horizon, and watching the night sky, making use of the 'Google Sky' app, which helped us to locate and name a range of stars and planets - including Saturn, Virgo, Sagitarius, and Caster and Pollox - as well as a magical crescent moon, surrounded by eerily drifting small clouds. We've also seen some absolutely gorgeous sunsets while we've been here. Just wonderful!

In all, we had a thoroughly relaxing time in Sihanoukville after the 'rigours' of playing with and teaching the children at NFO, and the fence-building/varnishing tasks. On our first full day away, we indulged ourselves with a massage and pedicure. An hour's massage each (which we both agreed was one of our best-ever massages), plus the full pedicure each, came to a grand total of £16! The mischievous young girls who did the pedicure were typically giggly, and kept asking Andy - or 'Papa' - what colour nail varnish he wanted. At one point, they tried to insist he needed 10 different colours on each of his toes, so that he could pretend to be an 'oktoi' (lady boy), and, having being so daring as to say this to him, they then went into a fit of almost uncontrollable giggling before finally insisting that he allowed them at least to paint his nails with clear varnish, to which he did agree. That same evening, we walked (well, floated really, after that wonderful massage) from our hotel to Serependity beach for our evening meal at the power-cut bar/restaurant.

After these four relaxing days, we came back to Takeo by taxi. We'd learned, rather late on in making our plans, that the buses back to Phnom Penh do not stop anywhere near to Takeo, so the public bus route would have involved us travelling for about 6 hours north on National Highway 4 (NH4) to Phnom Penh to change buses, and then another 3 hours south on NH2 to Takeo. The 3-hour taxi drive cost us about £35, rather than the £6 by bus, but it was worth it. Our driver, who spoke no English, picked us up at our hotel, took us to collect our passports and visas, and then started out on our journey. After about an hour, we heard him making a phone call during which we the only word we could discern was 'Takeo' which he said several times, increasingly desperately, it seemed. We joked that he was asking directions. Half and hour later, as we reached the town of Kampot, he indicated to us that he needed to stop to "ee ri" (eat rice, that is - they're not big on consonants over here, especially at the end of words). So, we pulled in to a roadside foodstall in Kampot and we sat watching him eat (we'd not long eaten our breakfast, so weren't at all hungry). As he finished, he walked over to talk to another man and the two of them approached us together. This second man, who did speak English, and was obviously 'recruited' as a translator, explained to us that our driver did not know the way to Takeo and he was transferring us and our luggage to another taxi parked nearby! Now, I ask you! From Sihanoukville there are only two roads (other than little red clay tracks): NH3 and NH4. Since Kampot is half-way up NH3, we only had to continue straight on for about 90K on this same road, and take one right turn at Angk Tasaom about 10k further on, you virtually trip over Takeo! Even we could have found our way from Kampot for goodness sake. Anyway, after seeking and getting assurances that there was no further money to change hands, we continued our journey, arriving in Takeo only slightly later than planned. What a strange business!

Taxi Take Two

When we got back to the orphanage late that afternoon, we were just in time to see the final clearing up of a task, undertaken by a good number of the volunteers over the previous two days - de-nitting and de-licing the childrens' hair. Yuk! There'd been a whole production line of nit-combs and water changes going on around the compound (though, sadly, no nit-killing shampoo, which is not available in Takeo, and so a call has gone out to anyone travelling in from Phnom Penh to bring some with them). Hmmmm! Seems like we'd chosen a good time to be away! On the other hand, we were also met with the news that Bun Seng's wife, Srai Pov, had given birth to their second daughter at 3 o'clock that morning 1 December - of which undoubtedly more anon - so there was a celebratory air about, despite the nits and lice!

Oh, but just before signing off, we have to comment on how much we enjoyed hearing that Mike -whom we thought to be one of our most avid 'blog followers' (i.e. we thought he was actually paying attention to it!) - had somehow managed to blank out the strange behaviour with the laptop at the Six Bells Folk 'n' Blues Club last Tuesday. As a fellow member of our local book-club, Mike, remember the famous quote in E M Forster's 'Howard's End'? Yep - 'only connect'! But then, maybe Parish Council business is becoming too burdensome!