I’ve spent two days in Sihanoukville, a town I don’t care to see again. The setting is beautiful: kilometre long white-sand beaches, off-shore islands with coral reefs, cicadas and palm trees everywhere. Development for tourism is rampant and ad hoc which i think is killing the appeal of this place. I did enjoy the best parts: snorkeling off “deer”island (my first-time ever snorkeling and it was amazing!). Later on, my group enjoyed a fabulous beach-side picnic including kebabs, several dips (more on this below), and soursop juice (it’s yummier than it sounds). I’m going to miss this food when I’m home.

Today, I enjoyed a grilled chicken with my group leader and than hung out – literally – in a hammock next to the sea for about two hours afterwards. It was heaven. I had to keep reminding myself that I was in fact in Cambodia. After my extended lunch, I went to another pagoda close to a national park (called Ream) and received a blessing from a nun. She wrapped a small red bracelet around my left wrist and dabbed it with an essential oil (i think sandalwood). I’ll try to wear this bracelet until it falls off my arm.

Here are some other things I’ve learned from the Khmer:

• you can run a small TV and one lightbulb on a car battery for a couple hours a day
• freshly ground pepper, coarse sea salt, and lime juice is an uber yummy dip for meat on a kebab (this is one of the dips I had at the beach side picnic)
• rice mixed with peanuts and dried shrimp and turmeric is also very very tasty
• you can drive a car/bike/moto into the ground and then still keep it running for many years
• never say “no” if someone asks something from you
• people have auras
• it’s hard to move around much mid-day because it’s too hot so why bother

Cést tout. Tomorrow I go to Pnom Penh. Until then!