Cambodia Sunsets and Red Dirt Roads...

We know that it has been a minute since the last post, but there have been some drastic changes. We've needed some adjusting time, so bear with us. Lucy went back to Brooklyn...so very sad (we miss you Lucy!). Corey hadn't had enough of Thailand - and decided to stay until her visa expired. Mari and Tara were ready for the beach in Cambodia. So we split up. While Mari and Tara were in Cambodia they definitely tried their hardest to update this darn thing, but were too busy playing with kids and getting locked out of the 1 Internet cafe available (because the Internet was down).

Speaking of the kids, let me tell you - they start 'em off young. 4 and 5 year old kids as cute as can be, searching the beaches and streets for empty cans and bottles. They've got some good work ethics and seem to be fair. If you give one kid a large empty water bottle, they will give a smaller bottle to another kid. Nice right? Well, they get older and meaner. Let's move on to the 9 - 14 year old kids. They make bracelets. Remember those string friendship bracelets? Well, they make those. Ruthless little kids. They speak really good English and will with you for up to an hour making friends and then convince you to buy a bracelet.

You're screwed if you don't. Then we've got the 16 - 30 year olds selling fruit and pedicures and threading (not in that order).





That's right, the first day on the beach (actually the first 10 minutes on the beach) and Mari was already laying flat in a chair getting her legs threaded.

The woman said she wouldn't have to shave for 1 month, and it would not be painful. It was painful, but it's been a little over a week and still no stubble. Threading.

Back to the beach. The beautiful Cambodian beach. This beach lives in Sihanoukville, it's called Otres. We stayed at Star Bar Bungalow right on the beach for $14 (that's expensive in Cambodia). The beauty of it though, is that its the only place to stay on the beach, so you can definitely count on being alone. Aside from the kids harrassing you on the beach, it's pretty much paradise. Imagine, laying on the beach drinking from a coconut and a woman walks up with huge fresh cooked shrimp on a platter on her head. 10 for $3. Perfect lunch. About an hour lady another lady walks up balancing a ton of fruit on her head. Fruit salad, $1. Mmmm Hmmm. Paradise.

Being good travellers, Mari and Tara took Tom and Kerry's advice from their previous trip to these parts and looked up Vanny Bar. Vanny and her family, Sry Nek, Sry Nean, Sokah, Lay and Uan have got to the best family ever. They took us in like we were part of their family and begged that we stay at their house. It was late, and their was that $14/night charge hanging over our heads, so we passed them up on the offer. We went back the next night and ate up all of Vanny's delicious food, followed by fun and games with the kids. LOVE THESE KIDS.

After our bittersweet goodbyes, it was time to move on to Kampot. Quiet streets, few tourists, French colonial and Chinese architecture, all serve to lend Kampot a quaint and much older small town ambiance. We hit up Kampot for a taste of provincial Cambodia and the inexpensive, fresh-from-the-ocean seafood. Crab to be precise. We also paid a visit to Bokor Hill Station on Phnom Bokor (Bokor Mountain). Imagine 14 people, 1 pickup truck and a 2 hour ride up an unpaved, rocky mountain. (Mari thought to herself "This better be good").

On this mountaintop there is a collection of buildings (hotel, casino, church, royal residence, etc.), constructed by French authorities in the early 1920s. Years of neglect (and war) have left this to be "one of the eeriest places in the world". Apparently, some big movie was shot here. We'll have to netflix it. 2 hours back, on that same rocky "road" we hit a small town on the river, with a long boat and cold beer awaiting us. Cambodia must have the prettiest sunsets in the world.

Good Night Kampot, Good Morning to Corey in Phnom Penh.