Karaoke bus, "Bonsai", and Reggaeton!

I'll just start off by updating my previous post- Ive made friends now. Lots and lots of friends. You just need to go out with one person and your list of friends will grow exponentially. Its been pretty nice cause Ive got to visit a couple bars, some restaurants, and the Russian Market because I now have friends. My friend from Hope has been really great about showing me around and I met some really cool people through a guy that I work with. Also, I went on an Embassy sponsored trip and I met some single Cambodian girls that work for the Embassy who are going to be my new best friends.

So let me tell you a little bit about that trip. This past weekend was a 3 day weekend as we had Columbus day. The GSO in the Embassy sponsored a trip to Sihanoukville, Cambodia which is a major beach/resort town here. Its right on the Gulf of Thailand so its gorgeous there...reminded me of the Bahamas. Unfortunately, like an idiot, I left the memory card to my camera in my laptop so I don't have any pictures, but everyone else on the trip has tons so I will steal those and post them soon. We drove down on Sunday in a bus and let me tell you a bit about that. First, the bus has a flat screen tv so I assume we are going to watch a movie on the way down, right? Wrong. It's like 8 am in the morning and here are the Cambodians busting out the beer and the *Karaoke* DVDs. It was awesome! We are driving through scenic Cambodia and they are belting out songs in Khmer at the top of their lungs. They even had some english songs and of course, I joined in. That's right...they call me Celine Dion! I think I sang "My Heart Will Go On" like 10 times. Everytime it came on, they kept handing the mic to me. When in Rome, right?

So we finally get there (we had to stop every 30 minutes because people kept yelling "Bonsai" which is a slang term for bathroom, including the GSO who had to pee like every 10 minutes...way to go Paul) and we spent the night at the Sokha Resort there. Its a 5-star resort. Google it if you dont believe me. Its gorgeous and they have a full service spa so I took advantage of that. I was treated like a dessert (buffed with sugar, brushed with yogurt, wrapped up like a fruit tart, and then kneaded like dough). It was 2.5 hours of bliss.

That night we had a grill-out at the beach and it was probably the most fun Ive had in a long time (besides the Karaoke bus, of course). It is definitely my favorite time in Cambodia so far. The AGSO brought a boom box (literally from the 90's) and hooked up his I-POD too it. As I was the only other one with an IPOD, we took turns DJing. He basically had rap music and I had the Spanish Reggaeton, salsa and merengue. My favorite part of the night was the first time I turned on the Reggaeton and the Cambodians went WILD for it. It was a crazy dance party and they loved the Reggaeton. So here I am, on a beautiful beach in Cambodia, playing Reggaeton and teaching the Cambodians how to dance dirty, like the Latinos. :) They took to it like fish in water. There are actual videos. I also taught them the Cupid Shuffle for the heck of it. And they returned the favor by teaching me how to dance traditionally Khmer. So now the local staff at the Embassy all think I'm a good dancer and singer. Just some of my many talents... :)

The next day we went for a boat ride, supposedly to this island with a beautiful beach. We stopped at this little hut for lunch where they had a bunch of chickens with little chicks, 2 grown dogs and 3 puppies, a pig, and a cat. These poor animals were terribly malnourished, especially the dogs, one of which was nursing the 6-day old puppies. So instead of eating my lunch, I gave it to the dogs. I tried to give some of my beef to the cat, but he was really picky. He wanted the prawns. So I would eat a piece of meat and then give one piece to each of the dogs. They were my best friends. I think I ended up giving them a whole human serving a piece. They ate well that day because then we gave them the left-over rice too. We ended up not being able to go to the island though, because the water was too choppy and we were in the crazy boats like they had in Peru. So we turned around and headed back. Then we got back on the Karaoke bus and drove back to Phnom Penh.

All in all, it was an awesome trip and it only cost me about $70 (excluding the spa). I met a lot of great people, including the GSO and AGSO who were 2 really cool guys. Both former military, of course and lots of fun. Also, most of the people who were on the trip were Cambodians (out of 30 of us, only about 4 were American) so I got to interact with the Cambodians a lot. They are a lot of fun. Ive been here less than a two weeks and already Ive made it outside of Phnom Penh. Im also going to the provinces of Battambang and Banteay Meanchey tomorrow and thursday with Perry for some work related business. Less than a month and I will have travelled almost the entire country. This is the life! :)

I love Cambodia!