Suprised and then disappointed

We arrived in Phnom Penh and I was very surprised at how underdeveloped it was. Lots of the side streets were dirt roads and most places you turned you saw shacks. The main roads were different of course, but I was surprised when we pulled up to our hotel to see the kind of street it was on. I’m not gonna lie, I was a little nervous when I envisioned what our place would be like, but I was completely wrong! Our hotel, The Billabong, was surrounded by a large cement wall and once you passed by the guard you entered a small paradise. There was a lush garden surrounding the walk way to the reception area and once there you could see the amazing pool. From the landscaping of this place you would never have known you were in Phnom Penh. It was however evident what surrounded you when you headed to your room. Most of the rooms over looked the pool but to get to these you rooms you had to enter on the backside and looking out that way was no paradise. It looked like a war zone with small shacks and trash everywhere. It was hard to believe what a difference each side made. Our room was wonderful a very comfortable bed and a balcony overlooking the pool. My only complaint was the bathroom. The shower head was just in the middle of the bathroom so you literally showered standing next to the toilet in the middle of the bathroom. It was very bizarre but we dealt with it.

We went out and explored a little that afternoon and then took a swim before heading out to dinner. I thought walking would be great so we could see some more of the city, but Will really protested the idea since he had read that armed robbery is a MAJOR problem in Cambodia, but I convinced him to walk and we headed to the riverside where most of the restaurants are. We tried our first bit of Khmer food which was similar to Vietnamese in that it was rice and noodles, but the spices were very different. After that we headed over to a pub before deciding, with some reluctance on my part, to check out the supposedly world renowned night club, The Heart of Darkness. I was pretty tired but went along with it for the experience. We had read in our lonely planet that this was the place where all of the rich Cambodians hung out with their entourages and body guards. Will was a little nervous about that because if some guys did start talking to me and didn’t want Will around they could send their bodyguards to kick him out. Luckily nothing like that happened. So we walk up to The Heart, as the locals call it, and were immediately frisked. I was even frisked which I thought was a little strange. Then I was questioned about who Will was and how I knew him. Alright so frisked and then interrogated, definitely a place I want to hang out… We went in and anyone who has been to a night club in Mexico could picture what this place was like. It reminded me SO much of a club in San Miguel and it was just funny seeing all of these Asian “Working Girls” trying to pick up all of the white guys. Needless to say, the bar had great music and dancing. After, let’s just say, one too many drinks, Will started getting really protective and claiming that I was his responsibility and it was ready to leave because he was too worried that something was going to happen to me. So I attempted to argue but just dealt with his pleas and we headed home. Yes Dr. Sue you have a great son and yes mom I know what you’re thinking.

Alright so our day in Phnom Penh started late. We were a bit, you could say, under the weather, so we had decided no walking today. We hailed a tuk tuk, a small covered carriage pulled by a moto, to take us around the city. Our first spot, Wat Phnom, was very cool, and my favorite part was this area of grass where all of these wild monkeys lived. They weren’t protected by cages or anything and they were just hanging out in the middle of the city. From there was just more sights but while we were out we had decided to make appointments for massages by this company called Seeing Hands. The deal is the masseuses are blind and all of the money they make goes to helping them get surgeries to cure the blindness. So we headed into this small little place for our massages, feeling major inside hot, were handed clothes to put on and were told to climb the small later to the second floor and go to room 2. We went in and were greeted by 2 blind Cambodian men. They asked us to change, which seemed odd since they just stood in the room with you. Nothing like massages in the states. We laid down and our massages began. My major problem with this experience was there was no soothing music or good smells or anything to relax you, and on top of not having any of that, the men talked almost the whole time. Very difficult to relax but all in all the massage was quite good and for $4 to help their cause it was well worth it. That night we took it easy and decided to go to a local restaurant. I guess this was a good idea, but, with my lead, we decided to be adventurous and ordered this local soup dish. They bring you all of the ingredients and you cook your soup in front of you. So doesn’t sound to bad right?? Well what we didn’t know was in our little crock pot there were already ingredients and truthfully we never figured out what they were. Some looked like squid, others maybe fish, and one I swear was an eyeball. So I had just a little to eat while being laughed at by all of the locals about how dumb we looked.

We were up early the next morning to catch the bus to Sihanoukville. This was not originally on our itinerary but was recommended by two guys we had met in Hue. They had also recommended this supposedly great little hotel, House of Malibu, on the beach with the best food ever. We had called from Hue and made a reservation in their new bungalows, Malibu Bungalows, and were extremely excited for a relaxing trip to the beach. Well were we wrong. First off the bus was pretty miserable. It was 4 hours of being crammed next to Will who was extremely crammed since his legs are too long for any seats over here. Besides that our “in ride hostess” talked pretty much the whole ride. She would give this long spiel in Cambodian and then follow it with the same spiel in American. She just would not shut up and truthfully I don’t think there were any Cambodians on our bus and her English was so hard to understand that it sounded like she was speaking complete jibberish. We arrived by noon and hopped on two motos to our bungalows. We were greeted with confusion since they had some how lost our reservation. Just great. So they showed us one of the bungalows that was available that had a view of some tress and a building and that’s when we were told that none of the bungalows had A/C or hot water. Really, just great. They did however have a room at the House of Malibu with A/C and we were told hot water, the only problem he told us was it was very noisy. So Will headed down and checked it out and it was 10 feet from the sand looking at the waves, and we both decided that A/C was more important to us than noise. So all excited we entered the room to find out there was no hot water. The manager had told us that we would be moved to a quieter room the next day so we figured we could deal for one night. I headed to the beach, while Will set out to find a scuba place for a dive trip the next day. When he got back to our hotel he decided to shower and he was in there for less than a minute. When he came out he said the water was so cold it took his breath away. He then went to make sure that our room for the next day would have hot water and that’s when we were told none of the rooms had hot water. Again really. So we set out looking for another hotel for the next and found one 2 doors down. They made our reservation and it seemed like everything was going to be great. Will was going to go diving and I was going to stay, hang out at the beach and move us into our new hotel.

Everything seemed great until we tried to go to bed. The problem with our room at this place was it looked directly into this thatched fence with a bar and restaurant on the other side. At about 10 pm this place turns into a disco and the music was so loud that I felt like I was trying to fall asleep in the middle of a club in Cancun. The bass was turned up so much that at times the walls were vibrating. This continued until about 3 am and poor Will had to be up at 6:30 to get ready for diving. With all of that said we made it through the night, for me thanks to Benadryl again, and I successfully moved us into our new place. We are now at Coaster’s and it’s just fine. I hung out yesterday by the beach just reading and loving it. Will and I were both pretty exhausted last night from the lack of sleep the night before so we hung out at the bar here at our hotel before calling it a night. And now you are caught up to today which was very nice for me but horrible for Will. He woke up about 5 am with a stomach thing and hasn’t really felt right all day. So again I sat on the beach and read. We are up now and Will is feeling almost 100%. Must have been some 24 hour thing, anyway we are out of here today headed to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat and I can’t wait. Until then… Also sorry there are no pictures, the internet here is REALLY slow so we will try and post in Siem Reap.