Loud Music, The Beach and tons of Kids..

We have just spent the last couple of days in Sihanoukville after a 4 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh. Our first night we stayed at the most insane semi-bar/guesthouse. The place was basically a long hut with tiny rooms at the top, with nothing at all inside them (but it was on the beach) We were just happy to find a place to stay for the night. Unknown to us the bar was open 24 hrs and they were pumping trance/house music till about 6:30 am. Needless to say, dispite the amount of beers I had to try and put me to sleep, I still didnt get much shut eye. The next day we moved to a new guesthouse across the street which was slightly more expensive but offered a good nights sleep (which is really priceless). We would just go over to the bar at night and party. Beach life is usually really relaxing, here it is a bit different. Due to the New Year celebrations, kids are out of school. To make money they sell various items on the beach, strolling up and down, trying to get people to buy. I can tell you that these kids didnt give up. "You promise me", "Get money from your friend"... They had an excuse for everything. I think the kids really liked us (we didnt really buy all that much) because we had about 10 or 11 hanging out with us on the beach for a couple of hours. We ended up buying a few bracelettes, some fruit salad (6 fresh fruit in a big bag, umm) and getting a ton of free bracelettes. They now know us by name (I am MR. DJ, or Monkey Man) which is even more trouble. We packed up this morning, grabbed a good breakfast (the food at the guesthouse was amazing due to the french influence which was in this reigon years and years ago) and have to catch a bus back to Phnom Penh today. Tomorrow we may help to build houses for disloacated locals then off to Vietnam for a couple of weeks.