Happy New Year!

Fun and happiness to all for 2011.

Well, here we are into another year, another decade, so far sooo good!
Hi Mark, so pleased you have been able to join the bloggers and are now able to keep up with all my adventures, get you, in front of the computer, lol! xx

Joe and I spent a second day going off in a tuk tuk. This time we went to the National park and walked  the 8km path around, which was a bit tough going in places as we climbed quite high but well worth it for the view, very pretty and lots of colourful butterflies (Mum).

One of the views of National park, the thatched roofs are of bungalows available for holiday rent

We then went to some caves which were 15 mins drive along a very bumpy dirt road.
This was in fact a village full of local people going about their lives, rice fields with cows grazing, coconut and palm trees, green hills, children playing and the usual shacks on stilts making up the ever present beauty that is the Cambodian countryside.

The drive to the caves

We were met by a couple of local boys eager to show us around the caves. We knew they wanted a dollar or two for doing so, but they were really nice and polite and both having 1 hour English lessons a day and so we got to learn lots of things from them about the caves and village life.
We had a really good chat, they said they liked me as I was funny and not all tourists were, I took that as a compliment



This field was right next to one of the lads houses.



This cow belonged to his family, beautiful.

The eldest boy was one of 6 and helped his Mother and Father with the farm and children.
I asked if he and his brothers and sisters argued or fought and he responded 'why would we? we come from the same Mother'
I have to say, the children are always playing nicely together wherever I have been, they don't appear to have any toys (maybe the odd ball) but they are always engrossed in something together or chasing around laughing.
On all coach trips I have been on it always amazes me how the children are perfectly quiet the whole journey, and I have been on some for 6 hours.
So, back to new years eve, Kampot isn't exactly a party town but we heard of a guest house about 10 min tuk tuk away having NY celebrations.
We decided to pitch up there with a bottle, J went and bought a bottle champagne (he gets better by the minute)  and go to the 'party'
By the time we had faffed around and had cocktails and food it was getting on for 11.15 by the time we arrived.
It only took 5 mins for us both to realise we had been having a better time by ourselves and we prefered to go back the other side of the river to where we had come from.
By now the only tuk tuk driver around was inside the party having a bowl of noodles and in no hurry to be going anywhere.
With half hour to go before midnight I climbed into the back of the tuk tuk and opened the champagne, it was so funny as we realised we had nothing to drink it from and it would fizz up swigging from the bottle.
So Joey had this great idea of cutting a large plastic water bottle in half and creating 2 'glasses' to drink from.
15 min later the driver came out and seemed suprised we were using his vehicle as a bar, we said we needed to get back asap as it was almost midnight.
So, there we were in the back of a tuk tuk under the starlit sky, laughing like crazy, locals really looking in at us with our bottle and plastic cups, bombing down the street and over the bridge to get back just in time.
I was quite tipsy by now and thought the whole thing was so funny, and laughed my way into 2011...well, and kissed!

Who needs crystal cut glasses?

The next day we got the late morning coach to Phnom Penh, the capital.
We had a chat and decided to travel together for so long as we are having a good time, and so far we are.
The plan is to stay here for a day then head north tomorrow for week or so.
I have a flight booked to Bangkok on 9th Jan and then off to the north and maybe on to Laos, and who knows, I might just have a companion?