Sihanoukville

August 19, 2009. Could you have a better day? I think not. We were picked up at the Sunway Hotel in Phnom Penh by our van driver Buntha and driven to Sihanoukville, a town on the Gulf of Thailand. We checked into our hotel, which was paradisaical--with 25-foot marble pillars at the entrance, palm trees, coconut trees, beach front, swimming pool, spa--and 5-five star luxurious service extraordinaire. For example, as Don was checking us in at the front desk, we were all escorted to a comfortable waiting area, given hot, white cloths to freshen our hands and faces, and offered icy fruit juice in fancy glasses (and this was just for checking in!).


We drove to another nice beach for a seafood lunch of fried crab, steamed red snapper, fish soup, sweet/sour pork (that entree was for Daniel, although he did try the fish and admitted it was tasty).








All the seafood with our waterfront setting inspired us to rent a boat to go fishing (Ben's is one of the few missions that allows rides on boats, and that's due to the floating villages). Bunta knew exactly where to take us, and the four Parkers plus Seiha went fishing in the Gulf of Thailand. We had a skipper and one deckhand to help us, but the process was pretty simple. No poles! A simple 80# test line wound around a plastic bottle with a fish hook and sinker tied onto the end. We used squid for bait. Don caught the first fish right away, but fishing went flat after that, so we pulled up our line and went to another spot. . . slight improvement, but still not too much action. A fisherman on a neighboring boat was pulling fish in regularly, so we took not and our skipper ordered via cell phone some shrimp for bait for us. We went ashore for the bait, and that did the trick. I even caught by first fish ever and could then boast a lifetime LFI (linear fish inches) of 3! When the shrimp bait ran out, we pulled up our lines. Mine somehow became a tangled puzzle that I couldn't unravel,so the skipper took my bottle and the mess of line; he salvaged the good pieces of line by touching his cigarette that was hanging from his lips to the line surrounding the tangle and whoop, into the water went the tangle, and problem solved. At the end of the fishing, we gave our 5 kilo of fish to Buntha to take them to his friend's house for their dinner.

We fished about three hours, had a Khmer meal at a local restaurant that had live Khmer entertainment (singers) and then returned to our hotel haven. I walked along the beach, showered, and then indulged in a one-hour full body massage at the spa in the orchid room. What a massage; every muscle in my body was stretched and massaged. The Khmer lady masseuse even walked on me and often used her hands and feet to help with the stretches. When the hour of heavenly massage ended, she said, "Now you will sleep very well tonight." And I did.