Hair...Cambodian style

Ok so after walking into a 'male only' hairdressers and being giggled at by the dudes in there, maybe we should have looked upon that as omen number 1. However both in need of a cut and drastic help on our routes we moved on and found 'Soy Beauty'. First impression...ok, English not too bad and the guy looks the part....a gay looking Vietnamese with his young female Minoans pottering about doing hair and makeup for predominantly Vietnamese women. So we sat down and tried to explain. After about ten minutes of “highlights” and “routes only” and “no i don't want my face made up” we finally got somewhere....or so we thought. Both sitting there looking abit nervous and smiling like idiots at the girls we looked on in shock as they started to squeeze 'Sunsilk' onto my head, dry! Actually they had mixed water into the bottle and that's what i realised when my hair started foaming up, however we were no where near a sink and Ive never had my head washed sitting up right...before the highlights go in! Anyway, not able to back out now we sat and stared and hoped they knew what they were doing. So hair washed and then a quick visit to the sink for a rinse i was back in the cockpit staring up at two Vietnamese, reeling off Baku foil and stirring a mix of (what i found out later) to be powered bleach. What followed was a joint effort with me handing the pieces of hair i wanted highlighted and the dude taking care of the dye....you see they have all the tools for highlighting here but appear to use them in the most awkward and time consuming way. For my mates back home who know about highlighting...they dont understand weaving, they just grab bits of hair and dye it in strips!!

I think the next omen for me came when i looked over at Lucy to find her in tears. Jesus christ it was all going tits up and after a re-group we decided to just go with it and hope we have hair left by the end of it. They were a bit cllumsey as there was dye on my top, my face and scattered about my head...but i soon fell into laughter at the situation and thought fuck it.. And finally upon omen number 3...a massive crack of thunder followed by turencial rain, we inspected the results...Actually mine was ok, my standards are'nt too high, so a clump of blonde here and there wont leave me to pissed off and the rest is ok as my hair is pretty light anyway, however Lucy has darker hair and she wasnt too impressed with her random strips and splotches of blonde. So if you're ever in Cambodia, id advise against going to the hairdressers.....oh and we took a rain check on the hair cut too.

Lucy and i took a little wander round the main town, where most of the shops, stalls, Internet cafes, restaurants and bars were. Lots of traffic and a constant mad dash to avoid it..Its pretty good and not too full of westerners. There were a lot of prostitutes hanging around but they were pretty discreet and dressed almost respectfully and to be honest most of their work comes from the locals rather than western visitors. You could defiantly tell the difference between the state of the roads and homes outside of the cities. That afternoon Lucy and decided to get our hair sorted.....

Siem Reap

Got rudely awoken at 5.30am by some Cambodian cackle coming from a speaker across the road. I think it was chanting and some other community messages backed up with percussion instruments (yes a live performance was going on). That went on for about 4 hours!! Seeing as Lucy was leaving tomorrow, i decided to sort myself out also. So i decided to book transport to Vietnam. Had to leave my passport and $45 with a local travel agent and stay on one more day, while they do a fast track visa for me. Then its a 12 hour bus to Ho Chi Min City. I must say, I still have some level of naivety in me as i thought i could just pass between (especially with a UK passport) borders with no need for organised visa's and paperwork, but unfortunately Asia is not as modernised or trusting as some countries. Everything is paid for in Cambodian Riel or US Dollars. However you will get change in both and sometimes have to pay in both....bloody nightmare and getting ripped off is customary here.

After a full day of humidity and dust and an arse recking tuk tuk ride, over what looked like the surface of the moon, we finally got back to base and went out for a khmer foot massage. So, day one was good and i was feeling fine if not a bit tired, until after an age of trying to open a cough medicine bottle, i then went and clumsily knocked it off my side table...bloody turd face!

Lucy, (30, from London, who by the way is training to be a dive master in Thailand) and I decided to hire a tuk tuk and visit Angkor Wat, Beng Melea and Bayon temple ruins providing some beautifully and intricately carved images of Buddha and Indian Bantteay Srei. We were able to walk through hidden passageways and climbs up and over the ruins and the massive tree trunks growing through and around the ruins was really cool. Not really knowing a lot about the History i was still impressed by the mystic and sheer size of the place. We also had lunch and then went to the floating village on the Tonle Sap Lake. The life and blood of Cambodia the lake provides most of the fish con summed here. The floating homes were incredible and the ingenuity that has developed to sustain a whole community of people has allowed the ecosystem to thrive. We stayed till sun down and thoroughly enjoyed the experience...it was really awesome and we also got to watch a Cat fish being freshly caught, butchered and cooked for us.

The heat is on...

Having survived the journey here we all checked into a Guest house called Rosy's run by a guy from Norwich who looked pretty rough but really friendly. My mate Maddy had given me the details for that one. Could only stay one night though and so Norwich sorted us digs with a mate of his down the road, an Aussie run place called Enjoy Villas. I knew the two must have been good mates cause they both had the same unkempt, stoned look about them plus when Aussie said hello, he had just drank from his bottle of water, however he stank of vodka...

For too long, this was the view out of the taxi windscreen...

Drive did eventually decide it was time to stop and try and create some kind of view for himself. Lucy, David and myself were relieved to say the least...

Cambodia

Well after being removed from bus number one I was soon onto a minibus number two, already full (so had to sit up front) the journey proceeded to Siem Reap. Drive stopped at a restaurant and we all had to hand our passports over along with a 'fee'. I managed to negotiate a fee of $45 as i only had $50 on me anyway. Then it was all back on the bus for the boarder crossing.. To be honest the scene around me was the most poor and undeveloped ive seen so far on my travels...

The crossing was a pain in the arse too, as we had to walk through the boarder and then fill in lots of different immigration forms and departure stuff...the thing is none of us knew when we would be leaving so we all made the dates up. I met a girl called Lucy and another guy called David, both travelling independently and both in the same boat as me...total confusion, as to what was going on most of the time. But we got through in the end and after another confusing short bus ride and a transfer to yet another bus (must add the buses were looking shittier as time went on) we decided to hire a taxi between us three, for the 3 hour journey ahead. And boy did we make a good move, the roads, well dirt tracks in Cambodia are bloody crap and would be more suitable for tour car racing. You basically drive on any side of the road until you have to dodge someone else. Plus our driver was a maniac and drove like his arse was on fire...we were air born twice when he drove at full pelt in the fading light over these massive humps in the road.

I'm not sure if I'm gonna miss all the crew on this gap experience...well actually...i know i wont!! Maddy, Laura, Vicky and Sophie were the tops and the most mature, down to earth, genuine nutcases i could have asked for, and we'll all be staying in touch.

Friday was our last day...

At meals times the atmos was subdued and a lot of us couldnt believe the experience was over. Personally i made other plans....instead of going back to Bangkok for the fair well knees up and obligatory shaking of hands and hugging and having conversations where the word 'face book' is used up teen times, i booked an early morning boat to the main land and a bus to Seam Reap in Cambodia. It takes about 9 hours, but it had aircon and i get to see alot of land on the way, which you miss on planes. However the journey was interesting...at one point i tried to get my head down for some kip...and in the middle of one of those dreams where a random noise comes from no-where...Well i woke to find metal pumping from the radio and rain hammering the bus. There was also a total twat head Swedish guy, laying right back in his chair providing me with just enough room to sketch a small geographical map of his balding bonce!

Thursday..
was my first time on a banana boat. A lot of fun and a small battle between us and drive to see how long we can stay on for before we all wipe out. We were pretty good actually and only fell off three times. I must say tough that on the second fall id just taken a breath in and wasn't expecting it.....i really thought i was gonna throw up, but i managed to remove most of the salt water from my lungs and nose to carry on. Had to launch my watch to sea though as it snapped whilst trying to (very undignified) scramble back on board the banana...bloody nightmare, especially when you've got the giggles and your life jacket is faulty and your bikini is about to float away....