Day 86

Wednesday 26^th Jaunary 2011

As I suspected Franky awoke still very much drunk and demanding to know why I had set the alarm for 11.00am. He was less than impressed when I reminded him it was because we had to vacate the hotel room by 12 noon and his belongings were scattered far and wide – an amazing feat since the hotel room was only about 10 feet square!

By 11.30am I had finally coaxed him out of bed. Largely by the use of paracetamol, ibuprofen and anything else I could promise would help with the impending monster whiskey induced hangover that he was brewing. Miraculously by 12.05pm we were in reception and had successfully checked out leaving nothing behind. Although Franky had employed his usual trick of packing his bag relatively easily and then discovering major omissions like his trainers which he would then attempt to stuff into his hand luggage to avoid the need to repack.

Next door but one was an Irish bar called the Green vesper which did a a monster breakfast called the full monty. Almost worthy of a place at Frank’s family breakfast on Sundays this comprised 3 eggs, 3 sausages, 4 rashers of bacon, 2 hash browns, 2 slices of toast and REAL HEINZ BEANS. Franky ordered it immediately in the hope it would help with the beer sweats he was now experiencing. I, however, decided to was more lunchtime than breakfast and had a roast beef sandwich.

We had a couple of hours to kill before we went to the airport. Initially the plan had been to go and shoot some guns. Well Franky was going to and I was going to watch. Allegedly you could play with AK47s, M16s. shotguns, bazookas and grenades. However, we’d met a couple of boys who had gone to play army the day before and said that in reality they had no ammunition for the majority of the weapons and it wasn’t worth the money. There was no one more surprised than me when my desperately hung over husband turned to me and said that instead he would like to go shopping. Shopping??? I nearly fell off my chair! Seemingly one of the few conversations he could remember having with Gordon as they exhausted the whiskey supply of Hotel California last night was that Gordon had been to the Russian markets. Yes, Russian markets in Cambodia! I have no idea why they were called the Russian markets as there was nothing Russian about them. They were full of Cambodian people selling Cambodian produce in Cambodia. However, the crux was this, much of the designer branded stuff we buy at home today is made out here in the east. This market was selling off the reject stock, a stitch may have been missed or the size wasn’t quite right. Apart form that it was genuine designer brands at massively reduced prices. And Franky wanted some.

There was a throng of tuk tuk drivers hovering over the entrance of the restaurant as we ate. The tuk tuk drivers of Cambodia really take getting your custom to the next level. They generally come into the bar where you are eating or drinking to see if you will want a tuk tuk once you are finished, if so they will wait. This really infuriates us so on principle we walk out of the bar and then find a different driver just down the street who hasn’t been mithering us. It’s petty but pleases us no end!

We get to the Russian markets after another hair raising journey through the streets of Cambodia’s capital. Unfortunately we don’t have a lot of time to spare here before we have to head to the airport. This is perhaps a good thing. It is baking hot amongst the tightly packed stalls. The market is very sensibly divided into genre. We, however, seem to miss the clothing section completely as we enter and waste time wandering through hardware, motor cycle parts and the butchery section where carcasses are being chopped up – every conceivable part being used and put on sale. I wasn’t hungover but the stench in there made me feel positively nauseous.

We happened across DVDs which weren’t on our list originally but soon were. We came away with Family Guy series 1 to 8, The long way down, The long way round,  film with Matt Damon that Franky took a punt on as it was less than a quid and the Killing Fields which stars the guy whose book I have been reading.

Finally we found the polo shirts Franky had been hankering after in a huge pile, Abercromie and Fitch originals for £3 each. There was a tiny Cambodian stall owner stood on a box peeking out over the top. The sizes were quite variable so he had to strip off and try them on – no mean feat when you’re dripping with sweat and there’s no space to move. After choosing 4 T-Shirts we really had to go and it was back to the tuk tuk.

We picked our bags up from the hotel and headed out to the airport, glad to leave the crazy Cambodian traffic behind us.

We had a flight to Bangkok which took just one hour. This was with Air Asia, the budget airline equivalent of Easyjet. The seat pitches were of the same size too. Franky folded himself in and as the seatbelt sign clicked off the tiny Asian lady in front reclined her seat… but not for long before Franky told her to put it back up. For God’s sake we’re only travelling for an hour in the middle of the day!

We arrived at Bangkok and lost another hour of our lives in the immigration queue. Although at least they don’t charge for your visas. We’d been charged $20 to enter Cambodia and $25 to leave!!!!!

From arrivals we headed straight to departures and checked in for our next flight to Koh Samui. Fortunately this was only a domestic flight and so immigration didn’t have to be involved.

This was another short flight and we touched down in Koh Samui at 10.00pm. I was mortified to see that the tarmac was wet. Not more rain, please not more rain? I was so hoping for the last 8 days to involve nothing more than sunning myself by a pool sipping cocktails – a true honeymoon end to the honeymoon.

Out hotel minibus was waiting for us as arranged and soon we had been whisked to our resort. We were checked in and lead to our room…… to discover a heart made of rose petals on the bed – awwwww! We keep forgetting it’s our honeymoon – after all we’ve been married almost 3 months but little reminders like this are cool.

We were pretty tired after our day of travelling but I was keen to have quick scoot around. We found the pool let straight out onto the beach from our hotel and along the beach we could see coloured lights and signs of life. Drawn like moths we headed towards the light to see what was going on and found a little reggae bar on the beach with people chilling out on the sand and having a beer. We joined them for a drink and then decided to walk up to the road and see what else we could find.

We learned that we had actually come in the opposite direction from the centre of town and so walked back, past our hotel and on into the centre. The centre of Chaweng was pumping with music blaring out of brightly lit bars and people enjoying themselves. I think this is going to be right up our street for the next couple of nights. Although I was slightly perturbed by the fact that many of the revellers were made up of pretty young Thai girls who were scantily clad and hanging off the arms of Western men who were old enough to be their Father.

We weren’t really in the mood for this party scene tonight so after a quick beer in one of the quieter bars we headed back down the hotel for some sleep.