Today is our last day in Pnomh Penh so we decided to have one last look around. We didn't really see much in the day that we hadn't already, so at night we went to the casino. I persuaded Louise to go, it could be our Christmas treat I said. She agreed and so off we went in the tuk-tuk. When we arrived it wasn't much cop, lots of rich Khmer's and lots of Japanese (Surprise!). We thought, 'OK we'll give it an hour.' We didn't last that long. When you go to a casino, it is of paramount importance that you take some money. We arrived there with about $20 between us and there wasn't a single ATM within 2 miles, just some Moneyscam exchange bureau's that charge you 5% on your credit card and give you a crap exchange rate on top. We left.
After our $8 tuk-tuk ride around PP in the dark, we arrived back at our guesthouse about an hour after we'd originally left. We sat ourselves down and had a drink, talking about our wasted evening, when we saw the young girl we'd talked to a few times still out selling books. We asked her why she was still out at 10:00p.m, why wasn't she home in bed. She told us that although she was very tired (I'm not at all surprised. The books that she was carrying weighed around 20lb and she had the physique of a 10yr old even though she was almost 14.), she hadn't sold enough books to pay the family bills. Her father had had one of his legs blown off by a landmine and her mother was also disabled, so this meant that she was the only person able to work and earn money. We sat her down and bought her a coke, and spent the next hour teaching her how to write some basic English phrases and words. She was quite fluent in English but she was unable to write much beyond her name and 'how are you?' I then taught here some French words that I could remember from school, such as months and days etc. She had spent around 90 mins with us and filled around four sides of paper with words and phrases that we'd taught her. Although it was around 11:30p.m, she was insistent that she had to go and sell some more books. We told her there was very little point as there was almost no-one around other than us, and she had to be at school at 7:30a.m. She was still saying that she wasn't allowed home yet (probably for fear of a beating off her father, unable to work but still able to thrash his young daughter.), so Louise gave her a $10 bill and said 'Go home and get some sleep.' The shock and surprise on her face was a picture. I don't think anyone had ever just given her money for the sole reason that she should go home to bed. I hope that in the future somebody else is a little generous to her but I won't be holding my breath.
TUESDAY 30TH DECEMBER
Away to Sihanoukville today for some NYE partying on the beach. The bus journey was nothing to behold, just bumpy roads and rest stops at the most overpriced place on the highway. Imagine Little Chef but not as good, and replace deep fried sausages and bacon with deep fried cockroaches and tarantulas (True!).
We thought that we'd get to SV the day before NYE because it would be easier than arriving on NYE. Oh how wrong we were. It took us:
- 2 1/2 hours
- 25+ viewings of guesthouses/hotels/hostels
- 9 miles travelling back and forth
- $14 in taxi/motorbike charges
before we found a reasonably priced hotel that was 50yards away from the bus station at which we'd arrived almost 3 hours prior. Oh joy of joys. The guesthouse was good for the $14 a night we paid as it had cable, which can turn out to be a good money saver when you're on a budget. We did little else for the rest of the day as we were psyching ourselves up for tomorrow nights festivities and an excuse to get completely bollocksed on beer and gin.
What's on Star Movies? Ooh. Spiderman 3.
HAPPY FUCKING NEW YEAR.
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