So M
eka and I have parted company. We left each other in Phnom Penh after spending some wonderful days in Siam Reap exploring Angkor together. She is now in Hanoi while I have headed south to the Cambodian Coast. I detoured through Kampot, a sleepy little village, as I wanted to visit Bokor Hill Station which is an eery 1920's abandoned french town. It has a gigantic old five hundred room hotel perched on the hill. Sadly it is being rebuilt as an top end resort 
and they are bulldozing a road up the hill at the moment. It was almost impossible to get there unless you are willing to trek five hours each way through the sweaty tropical heat. I wanted to (yes, it's true) but it sounded like a lot of hard work and would have taken too many days out of my slowly dwindling holiday time (I added a photo from th einternet top left so you can see how amazing it looks). Instead I sat in the guesthouse with an Australian girl I met on the bus as we both enjoyed happy hour and moaned about our bad luck. The town didn't have much more to offer, even the waterfall was inaccessible due to the redevelopment and it rained the entire time.
The next day I caught a minibus to Sihanoukville, Cambodias answer to thailands beach culture. I 
have not seen so many traveller in one place since Khao San Road in Bangkok, they are literally swarming the place and it is low season at the moment, it must be crazy here in high season. The weather is temperamental but the water is still warm and refreshing. It is all guesthouses, bars, seafood and sand. The beach sellers are everywhere and it is impossible to escape them. Sitting on the beach attracts them in hordes and while the kids are adorable and have excellent english it is impossible to relax. Their are quieter islands off the coast but the boats don't run often because of the weather and I can't afford to be stranded on an island while my flight home leaves the Bangkok airport tarmac.
Last night my new Australian friend and I headed for the beach bars and drunk a few vodka 
buckets. As we moved onto our third bucket and after an older Camodian woman and I had danced around one of the busier bars (hair flying, big grins) I heard 
someone calling my name. I turned around to peer into a familiar face, an old work colleague from the 90's and good friend of my ex-housemate and friend Natalie, Evan. He works in China teaching English and is on a one month holiday here in Sihanoukville. Crazy little shrinking world! In fact I am heading to the beach now (it is not raining) to have lunch with him (grilled fish and lobster, anyone?)...
And finally, I am glad Meka has finally accumulated stuff and and is filling her bag. Travelling with her always made me deeply ashamed of my heavy bulging backpack compared to hers which was almost empty and light as a feather.