And the waves rise and fall

Another beautiful day in paradise; turquoise glints off the ocean surface, the marriage between the sunshine and the water , the yin and yang. I'm smiling as i look out at the island 2km from here, we managed to swim there and back 2 days ago, an accomplishment we're proud of. We woke up that morning, work started at 3pm that day and I had itchy feet.. living on the beach is lovely and the vibe is always relaxed, but there are those sparks of wanting to do things, explore, continue to grow and be excited. It was one of those mornings "We're swimming to Koh Otress this morning!" I pounced on J. and got a few sleepy grunts in response and a tight squeeze. Persistance won, so we grabbed a good breakfast, an ice coffee and a cig, listening to everyone's advice about what to bring/ do etc. The advice on the currents was one we took into account, so we biked up to 'Otress 2', the next beach to our left about 20 minutes away. Smothered in sun cream, the sky was cloudless and the air thick. We wondered through 'Golden Sunset guesthouse' where mum and I stayed on all of our previous trips. A little hug and a chat later, our bike keys were in safe hands and we'd set off. J dragging half a bottle of water tied to his drawstring, for when we arrived. We lost each other a few minutes in, carried by the tides and different speeds - my goggles started leaking about 5 minutes in but sight wasn't really necessary as long as you kept track of the landmark every now and then. We spent an hour swimming, jellyfishing and meditating through the sea to the coral on the shores of the island. After 45 minutes, your mind just stops thinking and focuses on your strokes, breathing, the heat, like any exercise. There were occasional moments of fear and vulnerability, halfway between the 2 islands, seeing nothing beneath you but dark blue and slowly spinning around to face the terrifyingly HUGE cloud of ... seaweed, phew. Before we reached the island the details on the trees came into view, the fish amongst the coral, the spiky sea urchins that we avoided narrowly by lifting our bellies and squidding over them. The rubbish was sadly a sign aswell, plastic bags resembling huge jellyfish and coca cola cans, talk about a monopoly, they just have advertisements everywhere..We didn't choose the best time to go, it was 11am and the sun was roasting. Hours after we arrived back, one look at my tomato-red face said it all. It's dropped a few shades on the colour scale thus far, thanks to the fresh Aloe Vera leaves that the ladies around here sell. The peeling's just kicked in, grreat... 
On the Island we met the one person that lived there, a seemingly simple Khmer man in a basic hut, surrounded by mounds of rubbish and half constructed foundations. It was a shame the Russians that owned it hadn't done more to look after it when the potential was crazy. I sat and meditated, facing the islands around us and the expanse of sea. The swim back was more tiring, requiring more songs to be sung and thoughts to be thought. It felt like high school swim practise all over again, with no ropes either side of you to flop out over.
It hasn't all been fun and games here though, 'for every action, there is an equal and  opposite reaction' and that definately rings true.. straight after my last post, we had a big night out in 'Serendipity'. It looked even worse this time, it wasn't as packed so people weren't hiding the grimy bars and dodgy dealings. The night however was young and fun, energy picked up in a seconds and we were steaming around with our mates, watching the show of the teenage girls wrestling in bikini's lathered in soap, to the dancefloor to go crazy, a smoking break to catch our breath and a swim to cool off. Everyone was going skinny dipping, and despite our states, the warning 'don't leave your stuff unnatended on the beach' rang in our ears, so we asked a man to watch our clothes for a few dollars. Swimming with the phosphorescents we looked over at the shore to see the sillhouettes of a group of guys rummaging through our stuff. The one we'd paid sat there looking oblivious to everything: 'I don't know, I don't know'. Every pocket had been rifled through and everyone's money, Iphones, bank cards were gone. I spotted my  rolled up money that had been dropped on the sand as they ran away. I thought back to the blessing I'd been given that morning by the monk, and let out a grateful sigh. That night was dramatic, racing around finding the police, boys getting rowdy, everyone getting pissed off, police found, guy beaten up, nothing solved.
 

A few nights later at the big 'Cambodian New Year Party' we had a wild night. Flames soaring up bathroom walls, craters in the sand, millions of shooting stars, hours of laughing and swirly hands - but through it all we were aware not to bring anything valuable. The next night, hoping to snap some good pics with our girls from Laos and our lovely couple M and H, a blues rocker from Aus and a sweet, quirky Canadian - we bought my camera out. J and I were playing a game of pool with 2 other guys we'd just met, not wanting to hold onto my bag I left it a metre away from me, against the wall, in direct view. A few pool shots later, I turn around and it's gone. Photos from Cambodia, camera, $60, important documents and 'The.green.bag'. Later we're warned about 'how much gets stolen at Ritchies' - great.
Oohh the difficulty of the language barrier when buying things.. I remember trying to ask for where 'tampons' were and had the shop assistant 'subtly' shout it out across the floor repeatedly, soon the shop was like a group of seagulls from Finding Nemo 'tampons? tampons? tampons?' I blushed and hung my head laughing as they figured it out and quietened down; despite the difficulty we've since replaced my moleskin diary with a shit one, bought another camera, and a little peacock bag from Otress market. When I bought the camera, I turned it on to look a the picture quality and discovered that it, like mine, was a stolen camera and memory card. Another blonde, similar aged backpackers photo's were in my hands - and so the loop continues. Realizing the corruption surrounding the place is really sad. Sihanoukville is an amazing place, but like everywhere, it's dark side exists as well: Everywhere on this beach is illegally leased, ready to be destroyed and over-taken by the government any day. The police collect bribes monthly to allow for no taxes, and weed to be openly smoked. Half the monks check out girls more than the any other guy around and the guys that sell you your motorbikes, steal them too. Our motorbike was stolen and a few days later, our owner's happened to inherit a brand new bike - curious. Luckily, our replacement bike stopped working and his was the only other option, so at least we've landed ourselves with a functioning one, temporarily. But the thing is, despite knowing you're in the right, there's nothing you can do about it, because the power doesn't belong to you. Our boss is being accused of selling dope by the chief of police - whether it was a nearby competitor that lied, or the tuk tuk driver around the corner, their word is always stronger than yours. The other day I was talking to a mate that served in the British army, my mouth hung as I listened to how ships were used to transport drugs across the border. Who do you trust when those that serve to protect, are hypocrites?

The weather describes the events that occur here pretty well. Stunning days to cloudy skies to flash lightening storms that we just sit and watch in the shallows of the sea. The sunsets reflect every colour, the cartoon clouds changing shape every minute. The rain comes, the mood shifts, the 'still' returns and then it's sunny again. And all throughout the wind and rain, there's one tree above our bedroom that inhabits every bird in Sihanoukville, and they tweet away all night and all day. Other guesthouses nearby choose to use synthetic background noise, the speakers outside their doors blare 'rainforest sounds' to passers by. The novelty wears off after a few minutes, staying there for longer than that? No thanks.

We've got  a different crew here, The German girls, The Estonian girls, T, S, M, K&T, The Asian stoner from Luxemburg and a new face M. It's lovely having familiar faces from along the way pass by in waves, now we're on to our Frenchy S, and E and his girls from The Isle of White. Most of the long-timers live with us in the 'Sunshine House' accompanied by 4 naughty little kittens. Next door where we work 2 little puppies Ronnie and Reggie (The Cray twins) have joined the gang. We're bringing up the next generation of Otress animals - chasing after them as they run next door for a shit or get their heads stuck in motorbike wheels, naughty buggers.
One photo I lost that I can't get out of my head is those kids running through the smoke as the fire rose around a square of land near Serendipity. Driving through the smoke was hot . I closed my eyes and held my breath, imagining what it would be like to be caught in a fire like that and shaking off the thought. We drove 45 minutes away to the waterfalls we clambered up the rocks, watched the monks bathing in the clear water with their bright orange robes. We sat in the hammock briefly before resorting to the floor after being charged $4, pshh..  
We escaped the sun with a trip to TopCat, so far we've fit in 'Argo', 'The Shawshank redemption', 'American Psycho', 'American Beauty', 'Sin City', 'Mars Attacks' and a few more I'm sure we can't remember. All of them, were great if you're looking for one to watch. From where I'm sitting I can see a dog curled up in a circle chair, the look on it's face is 100% relaxed and comfortable - the goal. A phone's ringing and I don't respond to it like I used to before, it's nice not having a phone or something to constantly check. The disconnection with technology apart from the occasional Facebook update makes you feel so much more connected to what's going on around you. When you're engaged on the phone it's as though nothing around you really exists, having one almost takes away a part of your presence.
I wonder if humans will ever get to a point where we'll be conditioned to prefer technology over nature, I'm glad it doesn't satisfy every need just yet.
Good tunes are coming from our place, it's so nice now that our other bosses R & K don't have an influence over the music.. Taylor Swift and Nicky Minaj were getting old..


I smile as I remember what the space cookies had turned the night into. Kicking in faster than expected the last few hours of work went in slow motion as I sat useless at the bar, G. had passed out on a chair in the middle of the courtyard, eyes were red and spirits high. My boss S wonders behind the bar with red eyes and I whisk him up a munchie- shake -overload of 'fake oreos', milk, bananas, chocolate sauce and whipped cream - he was happy. The cinnamon from the cookie resonating in our mouths. 4.20 was celebrated in an appropriate fashion. J got a blind taste test with the tropical fruit he claims to hate. We had a few winners :) At the wee hours we ordered $3 wraps from the wrap man that will deliver amazing chicken wraps to you at any hour of the night - our hero. A conversation about vaporizers took off and I came to the conclusion that if the government legalized weed and vaporizers were encouraged, they could decrease health risks and make money, wouldn't that work?
Work.. that's starting in an hour or so. I'm glad I've finally bonded with 'Tida', the 18 year old chef who's taught me to make Lok Lak, Spicy Khmer chicken salad and coconut curry, easy and delicious! She doesn't speak much English but can play connect 4, snap and now backgammon :) - it was funny trying to teach someone a game without words, if everyone learnt sign language our troubles would be over. I washed my hands and little brown specs came out in the water - gross. The other day a mate told me that when it rains and the tanks overflow the sewage mixes into the water tanks.. hmm.. we're not dead yet i guess?

The puppies are tumbling around the place like 19 year old boys and the kittens are in their box. Yesterday J and I went to check out all the other beaches in the area. Rife with tacky, expensive Russian resorts and empty beaches we swam and played. On the way we explored an empty club that had a huge airplane in the middle of it and the DJ booth had been modeled out of the front of a truck - bizarre. We drove on and stopped to watch the baby monkeys jump around clumsily hanging off the netting attached to a nearby tree. The dogs are barking again - I can't tell you the amount of dog politics around here - the beach dogs control the turf. The other night we were driving back, after my usual 10 minutes of paranoia as I looked around for the policeman that would stop us, the guy that would mug us and the bump that would make us crash again. A mad-eyed dog started chasing the bike and we zoomed down the bumpy dust road to Sunshine, eventually losing it. We returned to meet a man that like was on the run for a longer stretch of time, from the Thai and Cambodian governments.. I shiver to think what I'd do in that situation..

Swimming this morning was beautiful, diving below the surface to swim alongside a camouflaged crab as it scuttled over a piece of white coral and dissapeared into the surrounding blur. It's almost Saturday but the Otress market isn't on anymore. I remember at the last one, during one of the performances, as though in a dream everyone's eyes became transfixed on the petite, enchanting blonde with the hula hoop infront of the stage, she spun it and danced with it, curling her body to every beat played on stage it was amazing. After the act we went over to the stalls, buying a backgammon board made out of scraps of hammocks from all over India to assist us on our travels. I fancy a game now before getting on our feet again - tough life.

Recipe of the day: Lok-Lak

http://www.food.com/recipe/beef-lok-lak-cambodian-recipe-496461