I tossed and turned for about an hour after I got home last
night and just as I was drifting off to sleep two of the girls came storming
into the room and started freaking out because their friend wasn’t in her bed
even though neither of them had seen her in ages. I told them she left the bar
with the hostel manager and they were kissing so she probably went home with
him. I was trying to give them some peace of mind; letting them know their
friend was safe but they tried to tell me I wasn’t at the bar so how would I know
what happened. The two of them continued to talk at a volume comparable to a
yell for about half an hour before one of them wandered off and found their
friend on the roof with the hostel manager and dragged her to the room. You would
think things would calm down at this point but the three of them just got
louder. Every few minutes someone would ask them to be quiet and they would
respond with ‘why? Everyone is awake’ I wanted to kill them all.
They finally shut up and went to sleep and after some more
tossing and turning I was able to do the same. I managed to get a few hours
sleep before the three girls got up at 6am to leave. They were still quite
drunk and because they are inconsiderate jerks they didn’t pack any of their
stuff last night, meaning they needed to do it at an ungodly hour this morning.
It also means they made a hell of a lot of noise cramming things into their
bags and talking extremely loudly to one another for what felt like an hour. I was so angry at this point but there was nothing I could
do about it. I just had to sit there and wait for them to leave. Finally there
was quiet in the room and I was able to get a few more hours of sleep before my
alarm went off and I made my way downstairs for breakfast.
Freya, Alfie, and I had made plans to go check out a
waterfall this morning but Alfie didn’t know how to get to our hostel and it
seemed silly to pay a tuk-tuk driver extra to go pick him up so we met him in
town and walked back to our hostel. We knew that there was two waterfalls in
the area but weren’t sure which one was the one we were interested in so we
asked the receptionist only to find out that the one we wanted to visit is not
accessible by tuk-tuk so you need to book a tour and it leaves before 9am and
it was already 11 so our plans went out the window. There was still the option
to go visit the smaller waterfalls but it would have cost $30 just to get there
and they didn’t sound overly exciting.
Alfie headed back to his hostel and Freya and I went our separate
ways for a while eventually meeting up to head into town around 1:30. We wandered
through the old markets and haggled with some of vendors. I am a terrible
haggler but managed to get them down to the price I wanted almost every time. I
didn’t buy a single thing though so I would imagine a lot of them were quite
angry with me by the time we left. Freya managed to pick up some designer
knockoff sunglasses for $3 though.
We were both pretty hungry so we found a place for lunch. The
restaurant we picked looked quite busy which is usually a sign of a good
restaurant but in this case it was just a sign of slow terrible service. The menu
was a giant binder that was thicker than the Sears Wish Book so it took quite a
while to flip through. I decided on a rice dish and Freya had some soup.
After lunch we ran a few errands and while walking around
town we happened upon a parade of monks and high school students who were
dressed in their school uniforms with a black ribbon pinned on it. The King
died in October and there were funeral services for him in Phnom Penh today
starting with a 101-gun salute before he was marched through the streets in a
golden casket shaped like a bird. I can only assume the parade we saw today was
to pay respect to the king. Although it was a sad occasion it was interesting
to see and I almost wish I had been in Phnom Penh to see the actual ceremony,
however that would mean being stranded there for 4 more days because the entire
city seems to be shutting down to mourn the loss of the king so it’s probably
for the best that I’m currently in Siem Reap.
Before we headed out this afternoon we decided we needed to
be brave and try out one of the many fish spas located all around town. I was
sure we could find one for $1 but we got tired of walking and were able to
haggle a guy down to $1.50 from $3 and decided his tub of fish would be just
fine. I took off my shoes, sat on the ledge, put my feet in the water, and
freaked out completely as soon as the fish started nibbling at my feet. I was
actually screaming and people around me were laughing hysterically at me. I don’t
like animals and I don’t like people touching my feet so I have no idea why I thought
this would be a good idea. I lasted a minute or two before pulling my feet out
and calling it a day. I tried something new, I hated it but at least I tried.
Freya seemed to enjoy it though and let the suckers nibble at her feet for
ages.
The fish spa was about all the excitement I could handle for
the day so we made our way back to the hostel. I’m headed to Malaysia tomorrow
so I needed to get my ducks in a row. The AirAsia website is ridiculous and it
actually took me hours to check-in to my flight because it kept timing out on
me for no apparent reason. I managed to get it done eventually but it was a
pretty painful process. I also booked my hostel and arranged for a tuk-tuk to
the airport in the morning.
A few hours later we headed back into town to meet up with
Alfie for dinner and that’s when I started to feel like garbage. I’ve had a
scratchy throat off and on since Phnom Penh but it was really starting to
bother me and I was getting hotter and hotter. When I we finally found a
restaurant I plopped myself down in a chair and started sweating bullets. I couldn’t
even concentrate on the menu to order I was just so hot it was all I could
think about.
I decided to bail on
dinner and come home to bed, which is where I am now. I only have 2 nights at
my next destination and I need to make the most of my time there so hopefully
with a good night’s rest I will be good as new by tomorrow. Fingers crossed
anyway.
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