C'est finis

I have just finished my final class.  Off on vacation for a month and back to Nova Scotia on May 12th.

See ya suckers later.

Sihanoukville, Cambodia

After getting off the bus, we grabbed a tuk tuk to the hotel we had booked.  It was night time, and at first, we were disappointed by the location of the hotel.  We had no clue where the beach was in relation to our hotel, and as a result we were not thrilled.  However, after dropping off our bags and doing some wandering, we were able to find the beach, which was only about 200m from our place.  We were pleased with the hotel overall.  We had a large villa, a pool and breakfast for only about $20/night.  It's amazing how much you can get for so little. 

I couldn't believe it when we seen the beach.  Nearly the entire beach had tables and chairs set up for supper.  We hadn't eaten in about 5 hours so we found a nice place to eat.  All the chairs at the restaurant were those big cushion lounge chairs.  I've never been anywhere before that had so many of them.  The beach must have had a few hundred.  I honestly can't remember exactly what we had that night, but I'm sure that it probably cost no more than $5 including a drink each.  Sweet deal, but not the best around.

We decided to have a few more drinks, so we stopped at small shack/bar.  Two of the bartenders were Canadians, and they were only 19 and 20 years old.  They were backpacking across Southeast Asia and stopped in Sihanoukville and were offered a room, food, drinks and some money in exchange for working at the bar.  Pretty sweet deal.  An even better deal though was the 25 cent draft beer they had.  Kristin and I talked to the workers for a couple hours and our bill ended up being about $3.  Some of the restaurants had fire shows at night which was pretty cool, but also scary because many of the performers looked about 12 years old and were in need of practice.

We didn't do a whole lot in Sihanoukville besides laze around on the beach, eat and drink.  During the day time, all the restaurants set up padded beach chairs all along the beach.  Provided you bought something from their restaurant, you could use their chairs all day long.   At night time, the beach chairs were changed for the dinner service.  The best deal on the beach was the BBQ.  For $3, you got fries, salad, garlic bread and a choice of chicken, beef, shrimp, squid, prawns or swordfish.  Couldn't go wrong with that price.

Cambodia is extremely poor and as a result you see a lot of children selling things on the beach, as well as beggars.  We were able to get along with most of the children selling things, because they were easy going and always made a few jokes (despite English not being their first language) but some of the beggars were annoying.  It's one thing to sell something in exchange for money, but to just wander the beach and bother people by asking for money is something else.  The kids sold things like books, bracelet's, fresh fruit and scarves.  All for dirt cheap too.  We bought some bracelet's, not because I wanted them (I never seem to wear them except on vacation) but more just to give the kids some money. We also bought fresh fruit, which a 12 year old girl chopped up in her hands for us.  We got hooked on mango's, and searched for them every day after this.

  

After buying three bracelet's from the two in the video, I was approached the next day by another kid.  I told him I didn't want anymore bracelet's, because I had already bought a bunch.  Showing some wonderful business skills, the boy made me an offer I could hardly refuse.  We play tic-tac-toe.  If I win, I get the bracelet for free, if he wins, then I have to buy one bracelet.  In our best of three series, he won the first game with ease, and then we tied the second.  In the next one, I got first go, and on my second go the boy told me that if I didn't put my X in a specific spot, I would lose.  Feeling that he's messing with me, I ignore his advice and quickly lose.  Now I've got three bracelet's that I'll probably never wear again.  

The weather was perfect the entire time.  It was probably about 35 every day and sunny, and believe it or not, I never got sunburned.  This was my first vacation that I never got sunburned.  It may have something to do with wearing SPF 45 the whole time, but my skin didn't turn red.  It also didn't turn brown or any other shade than white.  I have accepted the fact that my skin isn't meant to tan, only burn or stay white.  It's a sad reality but one I have come to accept.

Vietnam Finale

Our last stop in Vietnam was a small town called Chau Doc.  Our main purpose was to catch a boat that would bring us up the Mekong River, through customs and into Cambodia.  It was suppose to be a pretty straight forward method of crossing the border.  Since I'm easily conned into things, this was a good choice.  We had heard that customs officials at some of the border crossings will make you pay a "fee", which shouldn't be needed, to cross the border.

There's really nothing in the town.  Most of the locals make their living from fishing in the Mekong River which runs through the middle of it.  After some research, we found a small hotel that conveniently was where the boat departed from.  We booked the hotel for one night.  After our bumpy ride in the minivan to get there, we arrived at the bus station.  A scrawny man strolled up and offered to take us to our hotel.  I only mention he's scrawny because as he brings us over to his "ride" we realize its a bicycle rickshaw.  The poor guy had to bike about a kilometer or more carrying Kristin and I, plus all our baggage.  After he drops us off, I think he says the price is 50 dong.  After I give him the money, he nearly craps his pants.  His eyes light up in excitement.  After a little thinking, I realize that the price was probably only about 15 dong, but I couldn't understand him because of his accent.  Oh well, he earned the money.  Following my sweet tip, I'm met by a bunch of local entrepreneurs standing in front of my hotel trying to sell trips for the border crossing.  I tell them no.  I previously mentioned that I had done my research and found out that it was possible to book the boat at the hotel desk. In my opinion, it seemed a lot more legit  to book through them than some random guy standing in front of the hotel.

This hotel was certainly nothing to write home about (I realize I am writing about it now, whatever), but you couldn't beat the $9/night rooms.  They certainly weren't much, as we could hear the people in the next room speaking clearly, which also meant that we could hear every time they got up to use the bathroom.  I can't complain though, because that's obviously what you get for that price.  Besides the rooms though, I loved the place.  They had a little restaurant that was set up on a floating wharf in front of hotel.  From there, you could watch all the locals going about their daily lives on the river.   I feel this was probably the most authentic experience of the trip, because this was definitely not a tourist area and I could learn so much about them just by people watching.

Following a 530 wake up call, I was up and about.  I didn't request a wake up call, but received one from all the local fisherman who get their boats ready to go at that time.  At first I was pissed, because I'm not so great at getting up that early, but I was able to go watch them and their families as they prepared for their daily work and I felt much better.  

The boat left at 8am, and before we got it, we had to pay for our stay at the hotel.  Since the hotel booked the boat, I had to pay for that as well at this time.  Hovering over me like a hawk was a local man, who said I could pay him for the Cambodian Visa process.  Initially I thought I would need this, and considered it, but then realized he was definitely trying to scam me.  I just paid $30 for the boat trip, which included this Visa process, and now a man wants to charge me an extra $30 for the same thing.  I read through his bullshit and proceeded to the boat.  It's clear that my bullshit goggles are on now.

The boat ride was amazing.  We were able to see villages along the river, as well as fisherman and their families out working.  It was apparent that everyone in this area relied heavily on this river for their livelihood.  We sat beside a young cambodia woman who had the cutest kid I've ever seen.  During the entire 4 hour trip I don't think the kid cried once. The Visa process was hassle free, and no one even attempted to scam me. Perhaps the word SUCKER was no longer written across my forehead.  

After about 4 hours on the boat we arrived in Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia.  Our goal 

was to get to a coastal town known as Sihanoukville by the end of the day.  We just got to a bus station in time to catch the last bus of the day.  Unfortunately, the seats we were given were located beside the toilet, which happened to stink, and behind quite possibly the stinkiest person on our planet.  I don't believe he had washed in weeks, and not because he was poor either.  He was playing a PSP the entire 4 hour bus ride.  He had enough money to buy that, but not enough to get a shower or consider throwing on some deodorant.  Some of the other people on the bus actually thought his smell was coming from the bathroom at first. After awhile they realized that although both smells were awful, they were completely different.  Once we arrived in Sihanoukville, I was so relieved to get off the bus and away from that guy.  His stench was so awful that I was frightened at the thought of ever running into him again during this trip.  I never took a picture of him because you can't see stink in a picture.