SIHANOUKVILLE: DAY 2

BEACH SELLERS
The next morning was absolutely brilliant. I met Katie out on the beach as she was surrounded by a cluster of 6 Cambodian girls, talking with them as they succeeded in selling her hand-made bracelets. I ended up with 2. She was also getting a mani/pedi from an older Vietnamese woman. I laid down in the beach lounge next to them to get some reading done while soaking up the sun. This was apparently too much to ask. Within 2 seconds of taking my place, I became the new focus. Bracelets, necklaces, fruit- everything I had always wanted was for sale from the kids there. That's when the mani/pedi lady's sister showed up. She claimed she would simply start on one hand- free sample- and then I could decline. But everyone knows that you can't just start a mani/pedi and then stop all of a sudden. After trying to resist, I caved and got my 2nd mani/pedi of my life. The first being bringing some gnarly hands and feet back up to U.S. Health Department standards after 3 weeks in Kenya.

THE EVERLASTING SWIM
Armed with perfectly formed, glistening nails, Katie and I jumped in the Cambodian tropical water for the first time. Perfect temperature. So perfect, in fact, that we decided to make a swim of it. Spotting a rock peninsula that seemed close enough, we began swimming. After 15 minutes of kicking and paddling, the peninsula seemed further away. "How is that even possible?" I wondered. Needless to say, it was much more of a workout than we had anticipated. Which turned out great. Especially when the final 200 feet were spent falling on each other while attempting to walk across sharp rocks to reach the destination first. It was the slowest moving race I've ever witnessed.

SCOOTIN' ADVENTURES
After exploring the wonderful rock peninsular region in all of its beauty, we walked back to the beach. We had bigger plans. Those plans involved driving our scooters 12 km outside of town to the Ream National Forest. I was on empty, so it was high time to put some gas in my hog. We drove to a nearby station, and about 1/4 mile before arriving, the beast began to putter out. As my hog slowly lost all power, I shifted over lanes of traffic, until I ran completely out of gas and it died on me at the intersection in front of the station. I reacted quickly: pushing the scooter out of traffic and onto the shoulder to avoid being killed, and then up the hill to the station. Whew! What a relief that I made it! I had the attendant top me off, and Katie and I were off again- smiling the whole scenic drive.

NOON: AWKWARD SITUATIONS ABOUND
We arrived at the turnoff for the park, and followed the road until we saw a sign that read "National Forest Tourism Office". Assuming this was the start point, we entered. We had no idea what we were getting into. As we pulled in, a Cambodian guy in his late 20's walked out to greet us. "Hello, I am Noon. I am guide for National Forest. I will take you on tour." "Great!" we thought.

Noon showed us the different hikes we could do. Then he told us it would be $7 each. "Noon- why does it say $4 each here on the poster?" I inquired. Without skipping a beat, Noon replied: "Oh, that was made in 2003. It's more now." I knew we were in for a treat.

We payed him the $14 and began walking to our scooters. Noon stopped us: "Oh, also, could I drive one of your scooters? I don't have one." Hmmm... this was getting strange. "Ok, fine." I said "take Katie's, and she'll ride with me". As we got ready to leave, once again, Noon had a great idea: "How about I take the girl with me?" "You mean my girlfriend?" I asked. "Yes. I want to practice my English," he nonchalantly replied. "Uhm... no. You can practice your English with us when we arrive." Noon seemed content with that answer and we were off.

We drove up to a random Cambodian military base in the forest, and parked our scooters. Noon walked ahead of us, explaining the geography and ecology of the area. All of a sudden, Katie screamed out that she had gotten stung. We stopped, and sure enough, she was either stung or bitten twice on her back by some huge Cambodian bee thing. I was bummed. We did our best to medicate the stings, but she was in pain. She was a total trooper though- continued on hiking without a single complaint. That Katie Martin- she's one tough woman. As we hiked, Noon informed us of others that had been stung by bees like that. "Once, a man was stung by bees here, and then he died." "WHAT?" We asked, "Are you KIDDING? Noon- this is serious." "No, but you're fine. Don't worry. He was stung many times." Way to instill confidence , Noon.

Then, Noon stopped us at a tree. He told Katie to put her hand around the tree. Then he told me to as well. Then he asked Katie for her camera. "Ok. Now don't cry!" he told us. Then he took a picture of us. Holding the camera up again, he then said, "Ok- now kiss." Caught off guard, we asked "What?" Unphased, Noon repeated: "Kiss now and I take picture." This exact same situation happened about 12 times. We arrive at a rock formation: Noon wants the camera. We arrive at a barely trickling waterfall: Noon wants the camera. We arrive at the beach: Noon wants the camera. It was unlike anything I've ever experienced.

The scenery was beautiful, and Noon definitely added some flavor to the hike. We went back to the scooters to head to our final destination: the beach. Once again, Katie and I were about to hop on together, and then Noon worked in a smooth proposition: "I will take Katie with me this time, because it is hard for me to squeeze the brakes for going down hill." "Uhm... no. She's not riding with you. And beyond that, no one should ride with you if you can't squeeze the brakes," I replied. That seemed to suffice for Noon. We took off, chuckling about the situation. While driving Katie's scooter, Noon stopped off twice: once to buy himself water (with the money we had given him) and the second time to buy cigarettes (with the same stash). Finally, we arrived at the beach and noon pulled another one of his classic "I take picture- now kiss" moves. By then it was time to head back and say farewell to Noon. In order to make certain that Noon wouldn't try to pull some funny business (as he had already the whole afternoon), I told Noon to hop on the back of my scooter with me, and Katie would drive separately. This actually made for some really good conversation about Buddhism and Christianity. By the end, I encouraged Noon to look into Christianity to see who Jesus was. It was an unexpectedly blessed time.

We bid adieu to our friend and guide, Noon. He had grown on me alot. All of his quirks and strange phrases were starting to become endearing.

SCOOTER DANGER!
Katie and I drove back the 12km to Sihanoukville, as the wind howled, pummeling our little scootrs and making staying on the road a task. Add to this the fact that there is no shoulder, and cars & trucks go whizzing past, barely making enough room for the American tourists putting along. At one point a huge bus was coming at me in the opposite lane, and out of nowhere a bus appeared next to me in my lane, pushing within inches of my scooter. I was so freaked out I almost lost it and pulled off the road into the dirt, but going at 30mph that would have been treacherous. Luckily the bus missed both Katie and I, and we arrived back in town safely. Thank you GOD!

Once again, we were lucky enough to have another incredible evening of dining on the beach with fresh caught & grilled seafood. By this point we were so exhausted and sunburned from the day that we each went directly off to bed after dinner. What an adventurous day!