Holiday season

Early April was party season in Cambodia in the run-up to Khmer New Year, which was on the 14-16th April. It was the third of the new years that are celebrated here (Chinese and international being the other festivals borrowed as an excuse for a public holiday), and is the biggest, with most people taking a week or two off and going back to their home villages.

In the weeks before, work starting to wind down as most of the schools closed, and there was a string of parties and weddings – the rainy season is on its way so couples are under pressure to get married soon or have to wait until November. Jen is staying in Mondulkiri for a few weeks so she also went to some of them, including a New Year’s party at the bank and the wedding of one of the teachers we work with.

If you look closely, you can make out the empty tables around us - this month we perfected the arrive first, drink lots, leave last technique. It's all about value for money. 

We also visited a few waterfalls, including Kball Preah which is probably my favourite – quite dramatic, but not as impressive as Bousra and therefore attracting fewer crowds. It also requires a half-hour walk which helps, too, to put people off – I forgot to mention this when I suggested Kball Preah and I think when this photo was taken everybody was a bit pissed off with me.

It was worth it though.

For the holiday itself, we went to Kampong Som on the south-west coast. There were five of us: Tak, Eng, me, Jen and Rachel, who was travelling in Thailand and met us for a week or so in Cambodia. It was a really nice few days of swimming, eating fresh crab and squid, and drinking. (Gone are the days when I assumed holidays were about doing things; now it’s all about sitting around and drinking.)

Eating fresh crab on the beach.

Evening at the beach.

I was hoping that by the end of the weekend I would have cafe au lait coloured skin (admittedly with extra lait) to complete my Cambodian conversion, but Jen said Strawberry Nesquik was the best I could hope for. The following photo is of the two pinkest men on the beach.

On Saturday Ingran and some of his friends from London arrived, and the following morning Dave and Helen turned up too, so it was nice to see them although we had to leave a few hours later. We had a night in Phnom Penh on the way back, taking Jen and Rachel to DJ Club which was good fun as always.