sun, sand and many smiles

Where are we now? it is already next year!
Our new year's celebrations were a mini event of their own, but you get to see that soon. This post covers the final days of 2006 as we spent it here on the coast of Cambodia.













Yes... if you were thinking "oh my, that looks spectacular" you would be quite correct :)

The above photo shows the bottom of the steps from Queen Hill, where our cute little bungalow (it is named B1) is situated. There are 61 steps, according to Naomi's end-of-the-beach-day legs, which really isn't very far at all. At the top, bungalows ring the escarpment overlooking beaches as far as the eye can see in both directions.






















Elegantly strutting on its little stilts, our B1 has a breezy balcony that looks out at the sea, and off to the side we can watch fishing boats at the small village at the river's mouth with smooth sand stretching for six kilometres beyond.
That reminds me of two things - first of all, the sand here is wonderfully soft and smooth. Almost silky feeling... quite a pleasure to walk on, both wet and dry.
And as for the fishing village, they tormented us until the wee hours of the morning for our first few nights here. These guys work all day, and then gather in a few of the ramshackle dwellings where some have old pool tables, some have televisions and others just really big speakers. All make lots of noise. Thankfully, they do not party hard every night!























(kids at the river mouth in the morning, about 100m from our bungalow)

In short, the location is hard to believe and our bungalow is a delight.
Well - our enormous Western bottoms proved too much delight for the plumbing at one stage, but other than that brief awkward moment we have had a truly wonderful relationship with the bungalow.






















A swim in the morning before breakfast, followed by a little giggle at the puppy...






















and our day is begun.

On one day, I made a Goldsworthy inspired transient beach message for Naomi. It was a heart in the sand, cunningly depthless thanks to the bright sunshine and my sand moulding techniques. Here you can see the photo -

















awww... look at our silhouettes :)

Some time later, a young boy came along and tried to copy what I had done. It was very cute to watch him as he tried to work it out. One of my hearts was in the side of a small mound... and it was this one that the boy copied.
We moved on for the day while he was still working at it, but on our walk home we were excited to discover the extent he went to. He made it very Cambodian, with a nice pointy top, and several rings around the outside. The following image shows my partially destroyed mound in the background, with his rendition in front. The heart shape is hard to see, but he gave it a really good go.













Seaside strolls often result in encounters with creatures of various kinds,













our favourite smiley breakfast lady has to chase these cows away every morning - sometimes she just gives up and lets them wander through the tables and umbrellas.














It is good to know that even in Cambodia, the most diligent recycler can gather Lychee juice cans to make squillions from 5c refunds in South Australia. I wonder how many Cambodian kids dream of retiring to SA on a huge pile of tourist refuse.













Until Naomi introduced me to the joys of a good Coconut shake, I was very taken with banana shakes at every available opportunity. My sniffly nose (I had a headcold for a few days, which was particularly annoying) put shakes on hold, but now my head is clear and I am back in action with milky refreshments galore.






















So, the days have been long and hot, with much swimming and doing sandy things as we stroll back and forth along the beaches either side of our little peninsula. Soon we will head further down the coast where there are all manner of exciting things to see - we are particularly looking forward to a famous little island where you can stay with local families overnight, as well as an abandoned colonial villa on one of the coastal escarpments.

In the meantime, there will be an update in my next post on our New Year adventures.
And there is this fellow - who we spotted creeping up towards the window next to our bed! Bigger and more colourful than the tchk tchk lizards, it was a real treat to see some other geckos.











Wishing you many colourful and smiley things,

- Naomi and Guy.