Julia's Travels: A new found respect for the monsoon

Until now, I've had minimal problems traveling around during the monsoon season. Until now being the operative part of that statement. From Phnom Penh, I headed south to Cambodia's beach town, Sihanoukville (which I can never seem to spell correctly) to connect with two friends, Phil and Dave, who I met in Hue, Vietnam. The plan was to meet up, spend a few days enjoying the the beach and then go to Siem Reap together...which would have been a fine plan, had the rain not interfered.

When I arrived, there were about 2 hours of nice weather before the sky opened up and the monsoon unleashed its fury. Oh well, it was just enough time to see that Sihanoukville would be a fantastic place if the weather decides to cooperate. So, Phil, Dave and I hung out in the guesthouse restaurant and watched the streets flood. Also adding a somewhat amusing element to the beach visit, Phil managed to knee himself in the eye the day before my arrival (giving himself an impressive shiner in the process). I wasn't there for the actual event, but apparently, it involved several large Swedish guys and a game of beach ruby in the dark.

Dave turned 30 while we were in Sihanoukville, so we had a little birthday party for him at one of the beach side restaurants. Regardless of the less than festive rainy conditions, we ended up having a great time. One of the restaurant employees had a birthday cake made, and they provided us with sparklers as birthday candles. We made friends with two adorable little Khmer kids who help out around the restaurant. They attempted to teach us some Khmer words, kept things generally lively and were a reminder about how you don't need much in life to be happy.

In other exciting happenings, I watched my first Australian "footy" (aka Rugby) game. I don't know how much of it I actually absorbed (I spent months listening to two of my colleagues, Mike and Jim, blab on about baseball and as a result, I now understand the fundamentals of the game, but that's about it), but it was pretty entertaining and I made a pair of earrings during the game. Nothing like a little multi-tasking.

After several days if waiting for the rain to subside, we threw in the towel and headed back to Phnom Penh. This bus ride was one of the most colorful parts of my time in Sihanoukville. The bus was probably the closest thing to an Asian "chicken bus" that I've experienced to date: it was packed with locals and their stuff, the speakers were either blaring Khmer pop or Thai Karaoke, and we watched a ridiculous Thai movie that involved a lot of Jet Lee style fighting and a high speed tuk-tuk chase. The real surprise revealed itself when we arrived in Phnom Penh, and I went to retrieve my backpack from beneath the bus only to discover that it had been sitting next to a basket of fish. Fantastic. Apparently, the local buses in Cambodia are also used as a sort of parcel service. As a result, my bag and 95% of my worldly possessions smelled like a seafood market. Oh well, it's all part of the experience. Live, learn and remember that things could pretty much always be worse.

-Julia