Friday
So we didn't wake up until 8.45 this morning which was heaven...the alarm woke us so I think we could have easily slept longer if left to it.
We spent the morning packing our bags and getting sorted at a leisurely pace whilst watching animal planet in the back ground...we're going to miss these programmes! Luckily there was no ill lasting effects from the fried cockroaches and quails on a stick we ate lastnight either.
By 10.45 we were at our usual watering hole with James, where we spent the next couple of hours chatting, eating, drinking and generally getting sorted for the next stage of our journey.
We then walked to our last class at the orphanage where the normal number of firms was up to normal but for some reason only 1 boy which was disappointing. But we had a nice lesson with the kids clearly a lot more comfortable with us and making it a difficult thought that it was our last time with them. We went over numbers and did some maths with games in between which went down well, before we knew it it was the end :( we had a few pictures taken and said our goodbyes, ceremoniously handing over our board pens and rubber to James whilst we were at it.
I headed back to the hotel whilst the boys headed off for a game of football on a pitch they saw a bunch of people on. I watched a bit of tv, washed some clothes, did a bit of grooming in terms of plucking eyebrows and cutting nails and joined the field of testosterone an hour or so later. I sat a long way away from the field and read my book, trying to snap the occasional zoomed in pic of Liam mincing around the pitch! I'd brought all their bags ready to go teach straight away but they were so dirty by the time they finished they needed a shower so we went back to the hotel anyway.
After they got themselves more presentable we headed to our last class with the boarding school boys. It's a shame due to the holiday that not all the students were there all week but its made the time with the boys more personal so we can't complain. We spoke about general stuff, correcting as we went as usual. We then had a go at building some pyramids from the left over straws, biggest and sturdiest wins. By the time that was over it was end of class but we stayed behind for half an hour more for them to sing us songs and mess around a bit, we took a few pictures and drew the goodbyes out. We had lifts back to the restaurant to eat where more goodbyes were said, borin insisting on having a hug before leaving. A collective shout of "jaye roy!" was shouted in reference to "cheers" in khmer from their night of beers and off they drove up the road. We will miss those guys!
Despite me being sooo tired we stayed at the restaurant until later than usual due to talking and stuff so we didn't get to bed until late. After goodbye hugs from james we set the alarm 5.30 and tried to get some shut eye....I wonder how we will manage tomorrow on our travel day.
Saturday
An early breakfast, a sad goodbye to the staff at the restaurant including a little girl we just want to put in our bags, and we were at the bunong place saying our goodbyes to the team there. Got a nice big hug from haang, said bye to bill and memong and away we went in the taxi. We will miss the place despite feeling like we made a mistake with the prices.
We travelled down with one of the uni students who had been up to visit his family so we chatted to him some of the way, tried to doze and generally watched the scenery pass us by. The journey took 5 hours but wasn't toooo bad. Although the taxi dropped us miles away from our hotel so we had to take a tuk tuk we got there earlier than expected and had time to sit down to some lunch and book our bus tickets for tomorrow morning. When we first arrived in pnomh penh we wondered at how peaceful it seemed for a capital, the traffic isn't all that bad at all ( for Asian standards) and the level of honking was lower than most places. Getting back after 2 weeks in the country...well it felt a lot more hectic! It's such a shame, we have a feeling that if we ever return or if our kids ever go then most of Cambodia will be more like the city. There's a lot of deforestation going on and lots of land grabbing, the younger generation seem to be more interested in adopting western culture than they are at maintaining their indigenous roots. Perhaps we are being dramatic but if you want to see Cambodia I would suggest doing it sooner rather than later...I predict that by the time we have grandchildren most places all over the world will be very westernised and travelling for a culture change will gradually become a thing of the past because everything will look practically the same world over! I hope I'm wrong.
We then walked about half anhour to go for my much awaited and anticipated hair colouring session. They looked like the knew what they were doing, they were doing everything right from past experience. I even had a lovely hair wash and dry before hand. After develop time had passed I was taken through and had my hair washed again only this time they incorporated the most wonderful head and neck massage for about 20 minutes...heavenly. After having 2 of them dry and style my hair Liam and i realised that the dye hadn't worked and my hair seemed lighter. I had asked for streaks of my natural darker colour to be up through...why was it lighter? I said this and he tried to tell me after 2 washes it would be how I asked. I smelled billy bull and I think he knew because he said he would try again. After soooo long of being in there I came out lighter than before, I don't know what they did. We tried to get money off but only managed to get 6 dollars off the total price. the 3 months i just spent growing my roots out had just been completely reversed and it had cost me money...and i had missed the twilight showing. My mood was well and truly surly and Liam wasn't too happy either!
We walked for around 20 minutes back to the area our hotel is, any annoying people shouting "tuk tuk??" in our faces was met by a rather rude NO! from me today, i just was not in the mood to humour them! we walked past a lot of pet stores with puppies in little wire cages on the streets. we just wanted to buy them all, pay the fees to get them to england and get them good homes. there was even a huskie puppy in one of the cages. Liam then took us to a shopping centre close to the hotel in the hope the little cinema there might have twilight showing....and wooooweee it did! With no subtitles either! We watched it in a "couples seat" which was at the back and a nice 2 seat sofa. After thst and some popcorn I was back to feeling not so surly and Liam actually "didn't not like" the film which was great!
Liam watched the football and I stayed on the Internet as long as I could waiting for the Facebook explosion that was sure to happen once Jennifer got engaged, I had known about it since before leaving the uk and couldn't wait for it to be out in the open! Unfortunately nothing happened and I had to give up and get to sleep.
