I’m running a little behind schedule. Not exactly, because the only schedule I have is the one that I keep haphazardly scratching in my notebook and then revising daily, which happened 4 days in a row as I extended my time in Sihanoukville, the beach resort town of Cambodia again and again. What can I say: I was just having a really great time. Well, actually, from my last post you know that my first day at the beach was well, not a day at the beach at all, but yet another tough theft to swallow. But what followed were many fun nights out with a great little crew of people, some nice relaxing beach time, lots of partying, a great motorbike ride up along the various nearby beaches, and a nice full day scuba trip.
To snap out of my post-robbery self pity, I opted for a much needed haircut 8 months in the making. Half way through I was thinking, “so what if it’s only $5, this is just going to be the icing on the worst day at the beach ever! First robbery, now self destruction…” but it worked out alright and I enjoyed the perks of a head massage/hair wash, cut, blow dry and straightening for a bargain price and for a brief moment, felt the Laura of my former life return, the one who cares one ounce about her appearance (it was never enough for my NYC environment of course). However, the rain started that night, and puff, she evaporated as quickly as she had appeared, lost again for the next few months.
The next day, a few of us found our way to the private, quiet beach in front of the very fancy Sohka Resort. Granted we were banished to the far end allowed for public use, but we still benefited from the perks of having the beach guarded and thus void of the throngs of selling women and children. That afternoon, on my walk down to the main beach to meet the group for a sunset happy hour, I checked out a little NGO shop called Children’s Painting Project of Cambodia (http://www.travel-to-teach.org/cambodia/volunteer_sihanoukville.html). This fantastic organization is essentially doing what I hope to do with ceramics—using art as a medium to allow underprivileged children to explore their own creativity and also giving them an potential tool to improve their lives. The organization allows street kids who are selling on the beaches to come and paint pictures outside the shop. They are sold for $4, with $2 going to the child and his or her family, and the other $2 going to fund the educational program that also supplies medical care and nutritional meals. I was so excited to come across this little shop, and struck up conversation with a young woman who was volunteering there and found out more about the project.I bought four pictures! Later that night when everyone else headed off to a movie, I went down to check and see if a girl I had met in Phnom Penh had arrived in S’ville that day as expected. I couldn’t find her, but on my walk back to my guest house, I passed the little shop again, this time with it’s doors half closed but what looked like a very merry dinner party about to take place. Wine glasses were being filled and half a dozen people were gathered around a table set in the middle of the high-ceilinged room lined with children’s paintings. I popped my head in and the girl from earlier, Claire, recognized me and mentioned to everyone that I had volunteered in Uganda as I had told her. I was promptly invited in warmly and made to stay for a glass of wine, which I tried to decline but was so happy to be let into this lovely inner circle. No sooner had my glass been filled, then another guy came out carrying several heaping plates of Thai specialties that he had whipped up. And I was made to stay again, which I only half-heartedly declined. The food was delicious (even mango and sticky rice for dessert!) and the company was so pleasant—I met the other volunteers, from Australia, Switzerland, Italy, and Mexico. After two hours of schmoozing, they all headed down to a bar on the beach, and I made plans to meet up later and went to find my group. I found them at the bar of course, and spent a pleasant night group hopping.
The following day, I met up with the girl from Phnom Penh, Annabelle, and we decided to rent a motorbike and check out the other beaches in the area. We found some really lovely ones, much quieter, more local people (quite a few stares for the farang) and the best coconut shake of my life. And I learned how to ride the moto!
Well, I’m still definitely a little rusty, but at least I took the first step. On our way down to our last beach stop (we visited 5!), I had a rather hair-raising moment with a bridge and an oncoming tuk-tuk, but all worked out fine in the end! The following day myself and Annabelle both signed up for a scuba trip to the island of Koh Rung Soloman, a couple hours boat ride off the coast of S’ville. I did two fun dives—the first more “muck-raking,” which is to say searching the bottom sand floor for small strange things. We saw
a couple seahorses, which are truly crazy 
looking creatures! One even wrapped it’s tail around my little finger and I panicked—scared of a tiny thing like that. We also saw a bizarre all white, miniature bat-like fish creature that we later identified as a sea moth. After some lounging on the boat and a stop at an island fishing village, our second dive was much more colorful and full of spectacular coral and fish.
Later that night I did some more bar/group hopping as most people in our group were leaving the following day and the girl, Claire, from the Painting Project, was heaving S’ville to travel the next day. Finally, Saturday rolled around, and well, I was still in S’ville—like the other C’ville, this one seemed to be reeling me in. But it was time to recover, gather my things, repack and make plans to actually leave for real the next day for Bangkok. I booked my ticket, and had the good fortune of sending some extraneous belongings (read, a whole lotta #&% I had acquired) to Hong Kong, my final destination before flying home, with a new Scottish friend who was on his way there to begin a new job. That’s right, I fly out of Hong Kong on July 14th. That’s right: I’ve booked my ticket back to the States!!! I will be flying from Hong Kong to San Fran for a few days before making my way back to the east coast/real world! It feels a little strange but mostly good to have the trip starting to feel like it’s wrapping up. On the other hand, this way I can really enjoy my finite time here while still looking forward to seeing everyone so soon back home. And after all, there’s still Laos, Vietnam, (possibly) China, and Hong Kong to explore. Now it’s back to the land of mango and sticky rice!
To snap out of my post-robbery self pity, I opted for a much needed haircut 8 months in the making. Half way through I was thinking, “so what if it’s only $5, this is just going to be the icing on the worst day at the beach ever! First robbery, now self destruction…” but it worked out alright and I enjoyed the perks of a head massage/hair wash, cut, blow dry and straightening for a bargain price and for a brief moment, felt the Laura of my former life return, the one who cares one ounce about her appearance (it was never enough for my NYC environment of course). However, the rain started that night, and puff, she evaporated as quickly as she had appeared, lost again for the next few months.
The next day, a few of us found our way to the private, quiet beach in front of the very fancy Sohka Resort. Granted we were banished to the far end allowed for public use, but we still benefited from the perks of having the beach guarded and thus void of the throngs of selling women and children. That afternoon, on my walk down to the main beach to meet the group for a sunset happy hour, I checked out a little NGO shop called Children’s Painting Project of Cambodia (http://www.travel-to-teach.org/cambodia/volunteer_sihanoukville.html). This fantastic organization is essentially doing what I hope to do with ceramics—using art as a medium to allow underprivileged children to explore their own creativity and also giving them an potential tool to improve their lives. The organization allows street kids who are selling on the beaches to come and paint pictures outside the shop. They are sold for $4, with $2 going to the child and his or her family, and the other $2 going to fund the educational program that also supplies medical care and nutritional meals. I was so excited to come across this little shop, and struck up conversation with a young woman who was volunteering there and found out more about the project.I bought four pictures! Later that night when everyone else headed off to a movie, I went down to check and see if a girl I had met in Phnom Penh had arrived in S’ville that day as expected. I couldn’t find her, but on my walk back to my guest house, I passed the little shop again, this time with it’s doors half closed but what looked like a very merry dinner party about to take place. Wine glasses were being filled and half a dozen people were gathered around a table set in the middle of the high-ceilinged room lined with children’s paintings. I popped my head in and the girl from earlier, Claire, recognized me and mentioned to everyone that I had volunteered in Uganda as I had told her. I was promptly invited in warmly and made to stay for a glass of wine, which I tried to decline but was so happy to be let into this lovely inner circle. No sooner had my glass been filled, then another guy came out carrying several heaping plates of Thai specialties that he had whipped up. And I was made to stay again, which I only half-heartedly declined. The food was delicious (even mango and sticky rice for dessert!) and the company was so pleasant—I met the other volunteers, from Australia, Switzerland, Italy, and Mexico. After two hours of schmoozing, they all headed down to a bar on the beach, and I made plans to meet up later and went to find my group. I found them at the bar of course, and spent a pleasant night group hopping.
The following day, I met up with the girl from Phnom Penh, Annabelle, and we decided to rent a motorbike and check out the other beaches in the area. We found some really lovely ones, much quieter, more local people (quite a few stares for the farang) and the best coconut shake of my life. And I learned how to ride the moto!
Well, I’m still definitely a little rusty, but at least I took the first step. On our way down to our last beach stop (we visited 5!), I had a rather hair-raising moment with a bridge and an oncoming tuk-tuk, but all worked out fine in the end! The following day myself and Annabelle both signed up for a scuba trip to the island of Koh Rung Soloman, a couple hours boat ride off the coast of S’ville. I did two fun dives—the first more “muck-raking,” which is to say searching the bottom sand floor for small strange things. We saw
a couple seahorses, which are truly crazy 
looking creatures! One even wrapped it’s tail around my little finger and I panicked—scared of a tiny thing like that. We also saw a bizarre all white, miniature bat-like fish creature that we later identified as a sea moth. After some lounging on the boat and a stop at an island fishing village, our second dive was much more colorful and full of spectacular coral and fish.Later that night I did some more bar/group hopping as most people in our group were leaving the following day and the girl, Claire, from the Painting Project, was heaving S’ville to travel the next day. Finally, Saturday rolled around, and well, I was still in S’ville—like the other C’ville, this one seemed to be reeling me in. But it was time to recover, gather my things, repack and make plans to actually leave for real the next day for Bangkok. I booked my ticket, and had the good fortune of sending some extraneous belongings (read, a whole lotta #&% I had acquired) to Hong Kong, my final destination before flying home, with a new Scottish friend who was on his way there to begin a new job. That’s right, I fly out of Hong Kong on July 14th. That’s right: I’ve booked my ticket back to the States!!! I will be flying from Hong Kong to San Fran for a few days before making my way back to the east coast/real world! It feels a little strange but mostly good to have the trip starting to feel like it’s wrapping up. On the other hand, this way I can really enjoy my finite time here while still looking forward to seeing everyone so soon back home. And after all, there’s still Laos, Vietnam, (possibly) China, and Hong Kong to explore. Now it’s back to the land of mango and sticky rice!
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