SIHANOUKVILLE

Scary moto ride from our guesthouse in Psquared (Phnom Penh) to downtown where we were catching our bus. My moto driver was much more aggressive than the one I had yesterday--there were a couple of times I thought I was going to die. Boarded our bus full of seats made for tiny Cambodians and full of Cambodian people who were intrigued by our Western features (we've grown fairly accustomed to this by now though). A 4hr bus ride is short by our standards now so it was pretty nice. At one point we stopped at a roadside "Restaurant" (wood beams with a tin roof and no walls) where ladies carrying huge bowls full of fried bugs and spiders thrust them up towards the open windows where we were sitting. We were having a great time watching the people on our bus purchase bags of them and we cringed as they ate them, snapping off their heads or wings to munch on.

We arrived in Sihanoukville, Cambodias beach community. It was grey and raining--kind of a let down. The problem with Sihanoukville being so beach oriented is that when its raining out, there isn't anything to do. The weather didn't appear to be getting any better so we only stayed one night and hopped on a ferry back to Thailand the next day. I was disappointed that I didn't get to explore Cambodias pristine islands but it wouldn'tve been fun in the rain anyways.

The ferry was tiny and the ride was a rocky one--we went through a squall of sorts. Loud annoying Cambodian pop music was played loudly over the speakers which also didn't help my nausea. Megan felt quite seasick (which we later discovered was a bout of food poisoning) so this really nice Cambodian man who worked on the ferry rubbed a Thai remedy on her temples and under her nose to make her feel better. Another example of the Cambodian kindness we experienced. People like him balanced out the people we came across that were dishonest/aggressive.

Our border crossing was a lot more plesant this time around! It was sort of a relief to be back in Thailand. Cambodia was a great experience but I wasn't too stimulated by any of the places we went. Maybe we weren't there long enough to really give it a chance but Thailand seems to have a lot more to offer.

We arrived in Trat (In Thailand, close to Cambo border) to a cozy, cheap, clean (!) guesthouse with HOT SHOWERS! Tomorrow off to Koh Chang (translation = Elephant island)!