(keep feeling) fascination: Si-Si-Sihanoukville

Oh Sihanoukville, I wish I spent more time here. It's THE beach to go to in southern Cambodia. I should have spent less days in Phnom Penh and more here. Oh well. It was just nice to go to a beach, since I haven't been at one in SE Asia yet. The sand was nice and white and the water was a turquoise blue (and salty).

Simon (who met me in Phnom Penh) took the bus with me and the plan was to go to Sihanoukville so I could get my Vietnam visa, and then go to Kep, which was supposed to be a better place than Sihanoukville (more about Kep in the next entry).

We stayed at a hotel that was connected to a convenience market; just had to walk through the store to get to our room. It was right around the corner from the beach entrance, next to an awesome sandwich stand, and it was cheap...couldn't ask for a better place to stay. Oh yeah, right above the convenience mart was a great bakery/breakfast place. They were so cruel...they displayed all their baked goods in front, like carrot cake, banana cake, lemon meringue, brownies....I was in baked goods heaven! (Ever since Luang Prabang, Laos, I've been craving Western baked goods).

We just went to Ochheutel Beach (didn't make it to Otres, sadly. That one is supposed to be beautiful). And it was ok, but there was not a lot of sand to lay down on because the restuarants took over the area with their chairs and tables. Also, there was always someone trying to sell you something. It was so annoying. I missed sunset because some kids were in my way trying to sell me bracelets. (The streets kids were probably the worse in Cambodia so far. They should be in friggen school, not trying to hustle money.) We had to walk further down just to get to an area where we could sit without being hassled.

But the funniest thing we did was order a "happy" shake. Simon really wanted to get a pizza, but we decided to wait for our friend Rachel to share one. We went with a chocolate happy shake. I drank it with my meal and didn't think anything of it. Didn't taste obvious, didn't taste bad. Didn't noticing anything happening until maybe half an hour after I finished it. I started to get really paranoid and slow. And I noticed Simon was asking me all these questions, and I thought, he is affected too!

Happy Chocolate Shakes

After lunch, we went swimming on the beach, but the whole time, i kept watching our stuff to see if anyone was going to steal it. And I felt like swimming was so tiring....I didn't do a whole lot of it. After the swim, we sat at a restaurant to catch the sunset, but we both passed out in hour chairs. Pretty sure it was because of the shake. You know the feeling. It basically messed us up for the whole day. Simon said he stil felt it the next morning! Ha! It was fun. I would try it again if I had free day to do nothing.