A big day in the life of Peter; it's the day I take Thornin, Boroith and their families to the seaside. It's my annual thank you for all their hard work with the dentists. I got up at 6am so that I could do a few thousand steps before breakfast and then Boroith and family met me with a rickshaw. Fortunately, with it being a Saturday, the traffic wasn't so bad and so it took just half an hour to get to where we had to get off. We'd arranged to meet Thornin and family on the side of the road. It was a miserable place to stand and wait; there was construction going on and dust and dirt everywhere. A couple of men came along with their barrows, collecting plastic and beer cans.
It was good to transfer to Thornin's car but the traffic was terrible and so slow. There's no getting away from it nowadays in Cambodia because ever major 2-laned highway is being upgraded to four lanes. There were four children and five adults in the car so it was a typical Cambodian car journey. Luckily the kids were well behaved. We stopped off for a simple roadside breakfast and Serey had to give her daughter a bath as she'd already peed in her clothes. We were in an SUV so the boys climbed into the back and managed to sleep among all the luggage. I had just one small backpack but the other folks were loaded down with lots of bags because of the children needing to change their clothes quite often.
We did quite well this time, finding our hotel. Normally, the male drivers here think they know everything and so we drive around and around because they won't ask. Fortunately, Thornin said he'd learned to ask. The resort is quite small and it has bungalows around a very nice pool. It says the bungalows are Bali style but I'm not sure what that meant. Each bungalow had just one room so they were quite big rooms. I had to double beds to myself as others I invited decided they couldn't come. The first thing the children did was jump into the pool. There were a few areas that were safe for children and they headed Boroith's warning, "Don't go over the white line." It's interesting how the three boys now speak a smattering of English and so I can have a conversation with them. We stayed in the pool for 3 hours and then it was time to go to the seaside.
We found a picnic spot on the promenade, overlooking the beach. People provide mats and hammocks and we are able to order food from them. The food is generally the same, no matter where these picnic areas are. When we'd found our spot we set off for the market to buy shrimp and crab. The ladies examined the crabs, which are brought in from the sea in baskets, and chose the ones they want. They then took the crabs and shrimp to other ladies who prepared them and then cooked them. The ladies dealing with the crab, push a long metal rod into the head and it presumably kills the brain so there's no pain. Those doing the shrimp, remove a long black stringy object which is the backbone of the shrimp. We stayed in the hammocks and enjoyed our food until around 8 pm and then we returned to the hotel. The youngsters wanted to go into the pool but I headed for my room as I couldn't stop yawning.
