Hair Removal and "Man"icures in Sihanoukville

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So, Phnom Phen was a reality check smack in the face and Kevin and I decided we really needed a "vacation from our vacation" for a few days. We took a local bus from Phnom Phen down to the sunny sands of Sihanoukville, a tiny beach town on the Gulf of Thailand.

Ahhhhhhh... relaxation. We realized just how hard traveling can be, when you're booking buses, booking flights, dodging scams, dodging motorbikes, saying "No, no thank you. We aren't going to buy. We don't need a book/tuk-tuk/cyclo/bracelet/etc." on a daily basis. It's enough to drive one mad! Or to the nearest beach.

There are 35 incidents a month involving Cambodians and land mines.

Turns out, all that crazy driving that they do so confidently, sometimes does end badly.
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There's not too much going on in Sihanoukville, just a nice strip of beach filled with tons of (I don't want to say unique) restaurants. Like Vang Vieng, Laos, they all have the exact same menu! The food was really good though as well as very cheap, and our diets have been consisting of a lot of Croque Monsiour sandwiches and squid. Interesting combination.

Poor Kevin had a little fever for a day, so I hit the beach while he pulled through his delirium watching HBO in the hotel room. He did manage to make it out to the beach to get food in his system and was A-OK the next day, so I could have my beach partner back. It's strange how pretty much every traveler we've come across has gotten some sort of fever while traveling in Asia. We're taking our Malarone pills though, so we know it can't be Malaria!

Bus on the way to Sihanoukville.
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It was an easy few nights in Sihanoukville, where we took it easy laying on the beach reading books. I'm now reading another great book about the genocide in Cambodia called The Gate. We were so naive to think that we would be on a nice, relaxing, quiet beach, though. There were young children coming up to us every 5 seconds, "You wanna buy book? You wanna buy bracelet? You wanna buy sarong? You wanna buy pineapple?" They also offered other services right at your beach chair consisting of a relaxing... hair removal (where they basically just rip your leg hair our one by one with a little white string - I know this from experience), massages and manicures/pedicures. You can say "No" alllll you want, but these ladies will get down and start ripping, rubbing or painting before you can even get a word out. It's also great to get things done right away, so the next lady that comes around has nothing to say after feeling your smooth, hair-free legs and seeing your freshly painted nails. We knocked the services out on the first day, even Kevin got his nail painted to prove a point. He got a "manly" crab painted on his toe, much more "manly" than my white flower. Ha ha. The children selling things are a lot harder to deal with with because they just look at you with these puppy dog eyes, "Wanna buy bracelet?" Me:"No, thank you, sweetie." Puppy dog face, shifting of feet in sand. "Whyyyy?" Me:"Oh... well I already bought about 17 of them and I don't need anymore." "But you didn't buy from me. Wanna play game?" Then they try to make you play tic-tac-toe until you finally lose and "promised" them that you would buy a bracelet if you lost. That's the name of the game every few minutes on the beaches of Sihanoukville, and it ain't exactly fun.

First sunset at the beach.
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It's very sad here, also, with all of the handicapped Cambodians due to land mines. There are 35 incidents a month involving people in Cambodia with land mines. Sound like a lot? At least its down from the 300 a month only a decade ago. People will drag themselves up to you, missing both legs and one arm, while you're laying in your chair drinking a banana shake. I don't condone giving the street children money because organizations are working so hard to get them off of the streets and giving money only adds fuel to the fire, but these horribly disfigured people cannot work. It's not like America where you can get a job no matter what. They won't let handicapped people serve tourists food in restaurants or work in hotels here. It is very sad, as there are obviously no discrimination laws here, so these people are left begging on the streets to get by.

Holly trying to reverse roles and sell the jewelry back to the children. "You buy from me".
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Past all of the children and other people constantly trying to sell us their services and products, we had great little talks with young children who came around to us. It wasn't really that bad, either. They actually know a lot about geography and the United States, as it is one of their biggest pick-up lines, "Where you from? Oh, USA. Washington D.C. is the capital." They love the white skin here, and the young girls will stroke our faces adoringly. "Oh, I wish I had white skin" a ten-year old girl told me as she stroked my cheek. "Are you kidding me? Everyone in the US only wants to be more tan. They actually have beds where you lay in to get darker." She couldn't believe this. "Well, all of the boys like white skin here," she said, pouting. "Well, all of the American boys would love your skin and the girls would be jealous," I told her, which put a smile on her face. I just feel really bad about the young kids who would run up to our table when we were finished with our dinners, "Yum yum" they say, and you let them finish your remains. One young boy came up to us and did this, scarfing down my noodles and beef in a spot in the sand next to our table. "Good?" Kevin asked him when the plate was clean. He nodded his head, said "thank you" and ran off as quick as he came. We don't know if this is helping the children or hurting them, but feeding a hungry child can't be the end of the world. Or can it?

Vanilla Sky, and yes, it is real.
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Beautiful sunsets, a few days of sleeping in and a lot more reading of our books, learning more and more about this beautiful country. We are heading back to Phnom Phen for a night or two, before we embark on our journey north up towards Battambang and then on to our final destination in Cambodia: Siem Reap, to see one of the Seven Man-made Wonders of the World, Angkor Wat.