Finishing up Cambodia

I almost feel guilty writing this post, because I assume most people reading it have spent the last week at home working in very cold weather. Jason and I spent the last week on a beautiful beach on the southern coast of Cambodia on the Gulf of Thailand! The town was called Sihanoukville, and we chose to stay on Otres beach, which is the quietest one there. There haven’t even been places to stay until the last year, and now there are a handful of very simple places right on the beach. We paid $5 for a room about 10 yards from the water’s edge, and almost had the place to ourselves. Our days consisted of swimming, reading (I finished War and Peace!), and eating. The water was so clear, we could go out to where we couldn't touch and still seem the bottom. It was perfect sand too, no shells or rocks. One day we splurged and went out on a boat to an island about 2 hours off of the coast. It was amazing!! The boat was 3 levels and owned by a guy from Germany that takes people out on different tours. There was free good food all day (we’d eaten very little to save money for it so it was nice to feel full!). There were about 25 people on board, and the first stop was for some snorkeling by an island about 45 minutes from the mainland. The snorkeling wasn’t spectacular but still great fun. They prepared a delicious lunch for us, then we went to an uninhabited island with perfect white sand and a calm lagoon. We went on a short hike through a mangrove swamp on the island, and then went swimming and played on the beach. It was so great to be out on the water, and everyone on the boat was so fun! We got really lucky too—we happened to go on the day that 2 guys came to celebrate one of their birthdays, and they both work for Angkor beer, the main beer company here. One of them is like 2^nd in charge there sooooo…..we got free Angkor beer all day!! It was great because we wouldn’t have spent money on it otherwise, but we (actually I) definitely got our money’s worth of the free stuff! So needless to say we’re very happy, relaxed, and tan! And it was just a preview of the gorgeous beaches to come! But before that we get to go to Myanmar! We’re slowly working our way to Bangkok where we fly to Myanmar on the 22^nd. We will probably cross into Thailand tomorrow (however I woke up with a cold this morning so if I’m all sniffly they might not let me in!). Jason got his 3^rd rabies vaccine, so only 2 to go! We have lots of pictures that will probably go up once we get to Bangkok and have a good internet connection. We'll post again before Myanmar, but have heard mixed things about the internet there. Apparently the government tries to block it like they do in China, but doesn't do it very well. So we may have trouble accessing email and the blog, but I'm assuming we'll be able to at some point. We'll write again soon!