farewell cambodia

so what laura forgot to mention in the recount of her new years eve was the three hours of shopping hell that proceeded this outing... because foolishly i suggested that new outfits might be in order for new years... this suggestion occured about 5pm. however the hotel staff quickly confirmed that the market would be shut.... however they then tell me the shopping centre is open to 8pm. so we rushed off in a tuk tuk to the cambodian version of a shopping mall. which was pretty entertaining for the first hour. by the second hour my enthusiasim had some what waned, however lauras ability to actually make a decision appeared to have been left back in the hotel and only returned with the impending closure of the shops. oh well, eventually we made it out. apparently when the shopping centre opened a couple of years back the security guards had to teach people how to use the escalators. awww.


so obviously i slept through new years, one of my preferred ways of seeing in the new year. i did wake up at about 12.30 and begin to question what i was thinking letting laura go out on her own, but fortunately she walked in soon after, before i'd actually begun to call people in australia to ask them at what point it would be reasonable for me to panic.

today started pretty late, with another late breakfast before a day of not much. went to the main market, but i think we're actually beginning to reach market saturation point. having said that i bought a number of green turtle objects and jewellery... oh well... went up to wat phnom, the temple which contains the story of the naming of phnom penh... phnom means hill, penh was some woman who found something washed up on the hill... buddas i think it was.... this particular wat was surrounded by a small park area... full of MONKEYS. laura was a model of lara croft style strength and resilience, walking through the monkey park and even stopping to take pictures of the monkeys!! we found our way make to the hotel via an irish pub of sorts... i managed to fall asleep again briefly before we decided to check out the much talked about foreign correspondents club and their half priced happy hour margheritas. laura seems to feel its her mission to introduce me to cocktails. anyway, it was a nice place to sit on the balcony and watch the people along the riverfront, before heading to a nearby khmer restaurant for our last cambodian dinner... more amok, and some delicious fish in palm sugar...

we've bought a lot of random books from street kids in the last few days.... including a camodian lonely planet and a vietnam lonely planet. we probably dont need them, and they are just photocopied fakes, but they're handy, and for $4 they're probably worth it, at least for the kids if not for us. anyway, we have big plans to come back.

so now to try and get all our stuff into our bags. we suspect we will be shopping for a large extra bag in the morning. excess baggage here we come!