Happy New Year from Sihanoukville!

Happy New Year to each of our 38 faithful blog followers (of which only 5 of you make comments). Don't worry, blog stumblers, and unofficial followers, you too are still appreciated and included in my HNY!

After our loneliness during Christmas time, Ty and I declared we'd bring you all to Cambodia (in spirit) and that we'd all have an awesome and joyous New Year's together. We decided the destination should be Sihanoukville, Cambodia. Sihanoukville is a wildly popular New Year's destination spot for locals and foreigners alike. Some years as many as 50-70k assemble on the beach, eat, light off fire works (and I'm talking real fireworks that would make Ivar's nervous), and basically just enjoy themselves.

We rolled into Sville the night of the 30th, and would you have guessed it? They didn't have any rooms available! Anywhere. So we huffed our way through the night knocking on guest house doors and trying to look pathetic (check). Finally, we found a place with a room: Good news - it was ten bucks a night. Bad news - everything else about the joint. I'm surprised the bugs that camped there with us didn't just keep looking for some cleaner place in which to poop and bite people. Luck would have it, though, that the very next day some guys canceled out on a reservation up the street and we are able to pick up their room. We checked in and were finally able to check out the beach. Serendipity Beach is quite nice with white sands and clear water.


Some guy in Phnom Penh told me "the water in Sihanoukville is sooooo clear you can perfectly see your feet under it." Well, I tried it, and to be fair, I could, in fact, see my feet. But here's the deal. Who wants to! What a boring activity to look at ones feet under some water. This type of thing can be accomplished in any standard bathtub or bucket. My goal was to capture the pointlessness of it all and then show it to you folks. Done.




And then there was a problem with the boat.













A little help please?













I can't believe I made it out alive.












We were so happy after my near-death-experience that we grew even closer that afternoon. The reason I'm a little white here is because I was still pretty scared.











A lot of the earth here in Cambodia is a really cool red-clay color. It contrasts nicely with the greens and blues.

On another and possibly more entertaining note, at some point, this guy on the bike began to think I was taking pictures of him. He seemed to like the attention as he slowed way down and then didn't break eye contact with me until he was well behind. T0 keep up with the charade I snapped a few more after he passed me. He looked so happy to be noticed that I figured the least I could do is throw him in the blog.

The sand on this side of the beach, and I pardon the cliche, was like baking powder. Not just in color but in its uncanny consistency as well. The rest of the beach was crowded and quite dirty.










Around this time, I thought I was going crazy. You see I have little "floaters" in my vision especially when looking up at blank surfaces or skies. They drive me crazy. Well, this time I was sure I was seeing something similar in the sand right below where my feet were. This optical illusion lasted a few seconds before I realized what was really going on.



There are only two reasons we're glad we came to Sville. New Year's Eve (we'll get to that later) and these crazy sunsets.































This is actually the beginning of New Year's Eve. Ty has found a little girl who she believes rivals Boo on Monsters Inc. in overall cuteness. The picture doesn't do her justice, but she was adorable.









The "One-Man Wolf Pack" made a quick cameo which I thought was nice.












Ty feeling happy that she gets to ring in the New Year while sitting on a beach in Cambodia.












Not going to lie, we were both very excited to be here. The beach was pretty segregated with more "western" type establishments (and people) on one end and many more locals about a mile down the beach. We chose to hang with the locals and see how they get down on New Year's. We already know how we do it silly!






As you can see, Sihanoukiville is the place to be for NYE.




We didn't get to watch the ball drop this year, but I'll take this.

I thought big red suns like that were only in movies.









The little mountain to the left there is like a floating playground for the kids: mountains, trampolines, slides, etc. When I was little we had Water Wienies.










And then came the fireworks. Khmers know how to throw a party! The structure all alight in the background is a sand replica of Angkor adorned in candlelight.

Everyone has these long Roman Candles. Others have rockets and some actually go as far as to light HUGE mortars - the kind you'd see at the big shows. I'm not sure how they get the professional grade fireworks but it's sure impressive to watch.




This one wins the award for the creepiest and most ghostly picture of the night. Maybe someone wants to explain this to me.











After being awkward and alone for a little while, we were officially welcomed and treated as one of the family.











Where's Ty? After this picture, Ty decided that she better use her sunscreen a little more liberally. Although she's not too depressed that she's developing that beautiful Cambodian skin-glow and I'm jealous.

We shared a lot of laughs with these new friends of ours and I can't think of a better way to celebrate (while abroad) than with new friends.




One thing that was really special about how the Khmers celebrated is that they hang out together as families. We saw grandfathers and grandsons holding the bottom of a roman candle together. We saw countless families like this one, eating, laughing, and just enjoying each other as a family. It had such a great joyous vibe throughout the night.






And then the beach (and Ty) went crazy!




We crawled into bed just minutes into 2011 while still hearing the rockets and the faint music from a million beach discos. I drifted off to sleep feeling pretty lucky. What will 2011 have in store?

On a side-note, there are no pictures of Lita and Sarom above. But on New Year's Eve, Ty became friends with one of the waitresses. As we were leaving that night, we promised Lita that we would return before we left Sville. Our 2nd to last night, we went back and visited Lita and Sarom. We sat at the same table, from NYE and shared stories and laughs. Lita works seven days a week, all year with the exception of one week per year where she makes the short bus ride home to see her family and reunite. Lita does not have a computer or a cell phone so keeping in touch with her will be tough, but like many we've met on this trip, she taught us a lot about priorities and the importance of friends and family! Consensus: Happy New Year.

After New Year's we were forced to downgrade into a dump of a guesthouse where we stayed in Sville for two more days in order to recover some squandered budget money. Now we're back in Phnom Penh as a jump off point to Battambang to the North. We leave on Thursday, so today we're off to a nearby orphanage to help out. More pics and stories later!

N and T