Living the shipwrecked dream
So, I left Charlotte in the City of Phnom Penh for a few days and headed off on a small island adventure, it was amazing! I spent 3 days on Bamboo Island, on the south coast of Cambodia and it was an island like the kind you imagine an island to be like...the pictures don't do it justice.
Basically I spent a couple of days swinging in a hammock, reading books and running in to the sea for the occasional cool off - it was pretty ace. It was just like the island they use on 'Shipwrecked', the place where I was staying was a row of huts, and there were only about 20 people there, there were a couple of other places to stay on the other side of the island, but on the side I was on there was no-one else so it felt really remote. It took me a while to get in the swing of doing not much, but by the second day I seemed to have it down!
On the bus journey I sat next to an old lady who was rolling tobacco in leaves and eating it, I asked TR (Charlotte's boyfriend), and apparently this is pretty average behaviour for older Cambodian people.
I don't think I have mentioned this yet, but Cambodians go out in their PJ's. As in, they will wear them in the day, work in them, go shopping in them, stick a pair of heels on and go out in them in the evening...it was really weird to start with, but now I have kind of got used to this crazy behaviour, I have yet to wear my own outside the house yet...
I have been trying to capture just how crazy the roads are over here so I can show you, it is probably one of the things that has intrigued me the most whilst I have been in Phnom Penh. Again, these pictures are just a snap shot - you pretty much have to see it to believe it, and also these are really normal scenarios, this stuff is everywhere, but I took these from the bus so they are not that great.
Tomorrow I am leaving Charlotte, and Cambodia, and heading off to Thailand for 4 weeks. I have really enjoyed my time in Cambodia and there are some things I don't want to forget, like seeing 3 dead pigs on the back of a bike, 20 dead (or not quite dead) chickens hanging off a bikes handlebars, having "tuk tuk laidee?"shouted at you as you arrive anywhere, the amazing exotic fruits, the friendly people, the 'fresh' fish at the market which has its head lopped off while you buy it and the 'kramas' - red and white checked scarf which every local has and uses for everything, ranging from head covering, to towel to rope...I think I might have to get myself one as a souvenir.
The roads look very similar to how they were in India. Do they also beep their horns all the time?
The island looks amazing! Look forward to speaking to you soon x