Lazy morning! No plans until 9:30 pick-up. Nevertheless, we’re both up about 6:30. Breakfast and then back to completely empty my suitcase and begin the process of better packing for the long voyage ahead.
Our coach awaits and we head out to a couple of shops recommended by an ex-pat from Ireland who curates a local gallery – chatted with her last night during Jazz. Wander and explore and stumble into the interior of a block filled with locals shopping for housewares, foodstuffs and a mid-morning snack. Believe it or not, fried chicken is a favorite in this part of Asia!
Our time up there, we head back onto the street and stop (along with a couple other American tourists) to stare at the cart groaning from a huge pile of teeny tiny clams. Dare we try some (no way!)
then a bit of a walk through town to the Lemongrass Spa for pedicures and back-shoulder-neck massage for an hour and a half, all with the hefty price tag of $24!
Lunch at an awesome Khmer restaurant in “The Alley” – actually our first local food since being here (due to Valerie’s upset stomach). Excellent! We started (de rigeur) with spicy raw papaya salad:
then I had “amok”, which is a traditional food of fish/beef/pork/whatever that is steamed in coconut milk and wrapped in a banana leaf.
So pretty and delicious (and well-labeled!). I prefer Cambodian food to Burmese, for sure. That could be unfair, though, since we mostly only ate street food and in local restaurants there and only in more up-scale places here. Kind of burned out on the street food scene, honestly, although I don’t regret one bite.
Home, James, after lunch for some afternoon pool time (Valerie) and packing and rest (me). Feeling myself quickly coming down with some respiratory thing – cold and throat. Of fucking course – just as I’m about (once again) to go to a bucket list location for scuba diving. Ground zero for underwater biodiversity on this planet. If you weren’t following or don’t remember, this happened as I went to Sulawesi in 2011. I may have to kick it Rob Petrie style once again! I will power through it, but just a major bummer.
Anyway, headed down a long, washed out bumpy road (needed a 4-wheeler) to a highly recommended Khmer place
and then back into town for a last spin around the night market. Hard to imagine the streets, identified by bright neon signs, filled with crowds of tourists and hawkers yelling out “Madam, would you like a tuk-tuk? Please come and see my store!”, huge tanks of fish, being advertised as “Dr. Fish”, into which tourists would drop their feet to be nibbled on, ostensibly until all the dead skin is removed and they’re soft as baby feet (but oh, that water is stinky and dirty),
large areas with lounge chairs (could I sell them the ones in my basement?) and touts trying to reel people in for $1 foot massages, trinket stands, Cambodian spices, silk scarves and dresses, etc. One shop that we loved made messenger, shopping and miscellaneous bags from recycled cement, rice and fish food bags. Really cool. Not quite as cool as the plate of bugs one of the young men was eating, though:
Through the crowded alley’s that have been cleaned up and house back-to-back restaurants and bars, with raucous twenty-somethings drinking and bobbing to thumping house music. And the beat goes on….We cruised by a couple of touted bars to check out the nightlife. Then home again, ready for another early wake-up call and our flight back to Bangkok.