Sihanoukville to Pattaya

We left for Sihanoukville Friday afternoon.  We stayed in a guest house, I lucked out with my own room.  I decided to hangout by the beach.  I visited with friends a 4 little Thai girls.  They spoke English well.  They were selling bracelets to pay for their schooling.  They called them, "boyfriend bracelets."  They asked a couple of my friends if they had boyfriends, when my friends said, "no," the girls said, "that is why you need a boyfriend bracelet." One 12 year old girl was asking me lots of questions and singing American pop songs to me. She asked, "do you have a boyfriend." She said, oh I make you bracelet, you love him. I write your name heart and his name."  She was very eager to make a bracelet. I told myself, I don't need a bracelet and was not going to give in...  She said you come back tonight. I said yes, I was going to have dinner with my friends.

 That night we had supper together as a group, along the beach.  There was a boardwalk that stretched the beach, many restaurants/bars. Food was displayed in simple glass cases with seafood, pork, chicken, and beef.  The tables lined the sand.  We sat in papasan chairs with our feet in the sand. We had water view and lantern lighting. I ordered a Khmer spicy lemongrass chicken kebab which included grilled bread, khmer salad (similar to coleslaw but with dressing on the side) and a potato. Delicious and fresh.  Everything we ordered grilled right next to us by young Khmer boys.  Soon enough the 12 year old girl found me. She said, hello, I have bracelet, two dollars.  There before me was a bracelet.  I have officially funded her education as well as another girl who conned me into rock paper scissors, I failed and owed her a dollar for a bracelet. Lesson learned. Later that evening, a few of us strolled down the boardwalks, fire dancers, fireworks, and lots of night music - much of the music was again, American pop music.

Saturday rolled around early. Nine of us set off for a boating adventure.  For $20 dollars we went on an all day boat cruise.  It included a tour guide, basic breakfast, jumping ship at 3 stories high, snorkeling (equipment included), lunch, swimming on a secluded island, white sandy beaches, lots of sunshine, trekking through forest, a game of Jianzi, Cambodia game where you kick a shuttlecock on the beach.

On the way there is was smooth sailing until we were in more open water, the boat was rocking with the waves.  We all chatted and told stories til we anchored down near an island.  We jumped ship - this was so much fun, never done anything like it. I did it a time or two.  Then I swam out to the island shore in my snorkel gear, always wanted to snorkel.  I saw lots of coral and spikey looking things.  I didn't see a lot of fish. It was so fun.  We then set out for Sun Island.  Enroute I heard yelling and commotion from the lower decks.  We looked over the side of the boat and there was a huge sea snake making its way though the salt water waves.  The snake was no wear near land 1/2-1 mi at the closest. It was about 5-6 feet long, dark brown. I liked my distance.  We ended up seeing another one making its way through large waves.  Soon enough I saw white sandy beaches ahead.

One we neared Sun Island, we had the option to being taken to shore by swim or boat. I swam.  The water was beautiful and warm.  I swam in the water and got stung by a jellyfish, the sting was minor and faded within 5-10 minutes.  We then set off with one happy tour guide, I think he smiled the whole time.  We walked barefoot through forest trails.  He pointed out several snakes "sleeping" in the trees.  What kind of snakes? The non-existent kind, I was gullible the first two times when he would point them out in trees - neither time did I look hard.  Turns out he was pointing out curled up vines within the trees. Hilarious fella'.  He through out several wise-cracks along the way. We trekked he climbed some trees and pointed out plants along with uses.

The trail ended and we looked down at a lagoon, there was only one way out of the forest.  We lowered ourselves into a knee-deep lagoon, ~90+ degrees.  The water was brown, as you would look down your legs looked golden.  The water is colored by the tea trees.  The Khmer consider the waters to be healing.  As we made our way through the guide pointed out mango trees.  As we went further along the waterway, we followed him single-file.  He then pulled up a net that stretched the length of the winding lagoon.  He wanted us to see what was in the waters.  We saw saw several fish, some dead, some alive.  Then the guide let out a yell and jumped back. I was near the end of the line so I had no idea what was going on.  Yep, a snake. Thankfully it was dead - the best kind.  Not sure on the type, but it was about 3' long.  Once we reached the end of the lagoon, we made our way up the banks and made our way to some beautiful, clear blue salt water. Then we spent the next 1.5-2 hours back to mainland.

Later Saturday night, Chinese New Year's Eve, we all met up for supper. Above I am enjoying fresh coconut shakes.  Susan and Mel are joining me in Thailand. I ordered a Khmer beef satay - was pretty good, but it was no SD beef. We all planned to go to a "night market" that would involve music, art, and entertainment.  We were told by an Aussie to visit it, we all forgot the name of the festival.  After paying two tuk tuk drivers that both took us the exact same wrong places, we gave up on the idea.  We went dancing near the water, which was just enough fun.

Sunday morning, we all met up for some for breakfast to say our see ya laters.  We left at 8:15 in the morning, for Thailand. To be an 8 hours trip. We set off, 1.5 hours in.  The van's silence by a loud crash of a noise.  As we moved from pavement to unpaved road, the abrupt slant of the road was enough to kill the suspension in the happy Asian bus. Our bus drivers spoke next to no English. He made several calls as we sat on the side of the road.  He talked very loudly into the phone, like a Russian speaking Khmer, with the occasion bit of obnoxious laughter.  I was in the front seat and kept staring at his long pointed finger nail, I'm just gonna say it - Creepy. He then turned the van around, us girls not having a clue what was going on.  He then drove two miles and parked in the center of the median, 4 miles east of the center of the sun. We asked how long, he said about 4 hours... We were speachless.  But within half our, the other van of the LCs that were heading back to Cambodia showed up, with confusion. We then switched vans since we were to have a mountainous trip back.  We then said our see ya laters to the rest of the group.  This was nice beause I didn't get to say bye to everyone in the am.  Moving on.. we made it to the border.  The van stopped and our driver darted out.  The sliding door was opened and 8 young men were at the door wanted us to "must leave" "get out" get you stuff" "you have passport"... We all said no, and grabbed our own things and put them on a cart.  We already had our visas but needed to get them stamped.  This all takes place outside.  This involved the usual e-fingerprinting and picture taking and some paperwork.  A woman pushed our cart of luggage to our new bus as we were checked by security.  We of course were to tip her 30 baht (1 USD).  I was fine with this, we had about 4 tons of "girl luggage" to hike blocks up a hill.  She was a small women with a lot of fight.  She wouldn't let us help her.

Roadside food, enroute to Thailand, in a shack -$1.25

Once we were loaded up, we were about to leave the border in the next happy Asian van.  Then the security guy stopped up.  One of the girls said "hey there's a little monk over their smoking." We smiled.  The security officer opened the door of the van and stared in.  We finally realized he was asking if we could give the monk a ride. We said yes.  He hoped in the passenger seat (front left side of happy Asian van).  He was smiling and happy.  So worth it.  He fell asleep on the way.  We dropped him off somewhere.  In the meantime I began to get car sick, as well as two others, as the driver would speed up, then pump the breaks 3 TIMES.  The starting and stopping was obnoxious.  Not a fan.  We hit a lot of rush our traffic coming in.  Our 8 hour trip became 12, fine by me - I am safe and sound in my destination country.

 Notice the giant monkey on the wardrobe in the back.

We are staying in a guest house.  I have my own room.  It's complete with a giant fuzz monkey on my closet. I have a microwave and a refrigerator, it's a start to some self-cooking possibilities. Today, Monday, I did not have to teach class, as we arrived too late Sunday night to make much of the lesson planning.  I was so grateful.  Today was our first day of class, we got acquainted with our positions and future job planning information.  Our instructors are great.  Tomorrow, 9-11 I teach women, ages 40-60.  I am told that it will be a small class, as not everyone typically attends.  It is a five minute walk from where I am staying.  I hope my lesson goes well.  I am teaching possessive pronouns and routines.  This is a part of my training, I guess you could call me a student teacher.

I am so tired, hoping you enjoy this blog and that I got some detail in their for you. On a final note, I have an odd bite on my arm that appears to be getting more defined.  It looks like an infected bite with a pink raised finger-like lines spreading outward from it.  I will spare you the pictures. I you wanna see a picture I can send you one. I will be researching this tomorrow. I originally thought it was just a scrape, but may be more than that.  My US friends think it's a spider bite.

Until we meet again!