sai-gone

You may have noticed the adorable cat head sauce jar things from our photo post yesterday. Today I went on an excursion to see if I couldn't purchase these cat head jars myself. Paul, uninterested in kitchenwares, stayed in his hammock and let me venture off on the nearest moto in search of the cat head jars at the central market. I scoured the kitchenwares section and found hello kitty sippy cups, pudgy duckling kitchen bins, good luck waving cats and winne the pooh coffee grinders but no cat head jars. I returned to my friendly moto driver with a sigh, and he says did you find what you were looking for? And I say no, no one has it! So I get to explaining exactly what I was looking for and he of course thinks I'm a nutter and I try to explain that the foodstalls have some in use already. So he suggets I go ask the nice food ladies where they got them from and I explain that I don't speak khmer. So this nice moto driver offers to translate for me and facillitate my search f...

To balance out the text-heavy posts, here is a photo-heavy post. Stupidly big shower. I told you.

I don't have much to update you guys with lately. I've been alternating between banana-lounges, bucket chair things and hammocks over the past week or so. Today it was a hammock. #9 Guesthouse (and sister) really have to be experienced, I can't describe it properly. There is pretty much no reason to leave, so maybe you can understand why I haven't been blogging much. There's no wifi at the guesthouse, but it's not the kind of thing you think about once you're there. Seriously. Guys, if you ever come here you should find #9 lakeside. I'm speaking to the younger people here. Maybe the adults might not appreciate the $5 rooms (they're a bit on the simple side) and would rather splash out for something over by the river, but once you're here, the only time you're in your room is when you're asleep... and I've been sleeping a lot outside too, so maybe you won't spend any time in your room at all. The sister guesthouse is quieter and th...

We're staying at the Number 9 Sister Guesthouse this time, same management but less potheads and therefore less noise in the middle of the night. Our original plan was to only stay one or two nights and then go to Siem Reap but we thought we should organise our Laos visa before moving on. Being that its the weekend (who knew!!) we won't get visa's back until Tuesday or Wednesday. So we'll stay here for new years and head off to Siem Reap after that. From there we'll boat to Battambang, bus back to Phnom Penh, then bus up to Stung Treng then Minibus (I think) to the border and then into Laos. We have to be out of Cambodia by 17.01.09 but will most likely leave earlier, so we have more time to get from north to south Vietnam. The bus ride back from Sihanoukville was accompanied with an hour of cambodain karaoke videos (i didn't know tv could get so bad) and three hours awkward talk back radio and khmer and french news coverage. We stopped for a break and purchased...

Our anti-Christmas retreat to Cambodia has backfired, and only now has the carolling stopped. The entire staff at our guesthouse was getting around in santa hats yesterday, and everyone was on about Christmas. The local movie theatre (plays pirated DVDs only) was playing only Christmas themed movies. Our Christms lunch yesterday was rediculously huge, we played two very long games of pool between mains and dessert, as we seriously couldn't fit it in. Tommorrow we will probably be heading back to Phnom Penh, then onto Battambang or Siem Reap, depending on the roads. Bec, Sihanoukville

So far it's business as usual in Sihanoukville on this hot hot hot Christmas eve. People working on the beach keep updating us on the proximity of Christmas day - without them I think it would have slipped our attention maybe. There's also the odd scrap of tinsel hanging off some trees. In honour of my mother I have decided to force Paul into a Christmas day lunch at Mick and Craig's - an awesome restaurant run by a couple of Australians (we think). For fifteen dolla we receive fresh tomato and basil soup, stuffed baked eggplant with parmasan cheese, roasted potato, pumpkin, beets, sweet potato, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and apple crumble for dessert. If I can't eat it all I will put the leftover's in my shoe or something because I love roast veggies so much. I would also like to take the opportunity to blow the whistle on Paul The Traitor (please refer to him as such from now on) who keeps ordering meaty dishes full of meat. I have sampled said meat to see if it i...

This is another shot of the lake in Phnom Penh. Some greenery from outside our bungalow. Serendipity beach at night. Kiddiwinkles playing on the rocks. Serendipity beach during the day.