Gary and toilets

Having covered the "heavy" part of Cambodian history, it was time to head down to the seaside for some beach action ... so we went to Sihanoukville, in the South West, and stayed in the area for a few days.

On Clive and Nicky's recommendation, we took a boat out to Koh Russei (a.k.a. "Bamboo Island") and stayed there for two nights. It is a lovely, near deserted island, with a pretty beach and turquoise blue, transparent water. Unfortunately a storm raged for most of the first night and the first day, which we spent locked up in our bamboo hut, shoulders covered with a blanket (I did anyway... cleary I hadn't thought I'd need to pack any cardis to go to a beach island in the middle of the dry season). Thankfully the weather improved on the second day, enabling us to do some decent work on our tans... oh, the worries and pressures of travelling!
Yesterday we had to endure a long and sticky bus journey. Gary in particular suffered a lot... sitting right next to the coach toilet, he got regular whiffs of lotus flower scented air freshener mixed with the standard fragance of any old loo; he was sweating buckets, his knees were crushed against the seat in front of him, and a guy behind us kept on making a disgusting hocking/grunting sound which Gary described as "a pig in labour who's suffering a particularly severe form of hayfever allergy"... or something along those lines.

Anyway, we are now in Siem Reap and plan on hiring bikes to go and visit some of the temples of Angkor. Actually we were supposed to go today, but Gary is not feeling to great as a result of last night's curry - so we are just going to take it easy today. More toilet time for him to look forward to, I guess...

C.

P.S. For those of you who heard news about Cambodians and Thais firing at and killing each other near the temple of Preah Vihear which they are both claiming, on the Northern border of Cambodia - it is not too near (about 100kms), and we are planning on crossing the border in Poipet (in the East of Cambodia) to get to Bangkok next week. It is one of the most touristy crossing points, so should all be ok.