Sihanoukville

Wednesday 17th October - Saturday 20th October

We caught a bus to Sihanoukville, a smaller town on the coast. We stayed just by Serendipity Beach, which is very beautiful. I got wrangled into having my legs waxed by the young women and children who immediately flocked to try and sell us their goods. It's quite painful: they take a piece of string and hold it between the teeth, and then push down and encircle it around the hairs, before pulling up sharply. Basically, it's a more painful but meticulous, long drawn-out version of waxing!

We just took it easy during the week, not doing anything in particular. The next day I met an extremely charming Chinese woman on the beach, who calls herself 'Shelley'. She approached me asking if she could practise her English with me. We ended up talking for hours, until it got dark, about every subject under the sun. She had come to Cambodia two years previously to learn English by speaking to foreigners, and to earn a better living, so she hoped. But she now misses home and her living conditions were marginally better in China anyway, where she worked as a surgeon, a paediatrician and in Chinese medicine! And she will return in a few months to try and get a job as a translator.

She seemed a bit alienated and lonely but very optimistic and grateful for the human contact and stimulating converation, I think. At about the same time the following day, and the day after that, she returned and we spoke non-stop until the sun set again. It was quite sad saying goodbye to her! But she wrote to me saying she had grown in confidence a lot.