well, i think i just had the craziest day of my life, just need to start by saying thank you lord for letting me survive
halfway through coming up to say holy hell is this long but seriously what a day
so the bus ride, i get on and im the only person on the bus with a few guys who are working, they picked me up at my hotel, mind you im paranoid about this hotel (and whole city) and have heard stories of people getting jacked and left in the middle of nowhere, being the only guy on........ then they drop me at the bus station to get on the actual bus with other people
finally see white people, sit next to a 25ish year old from LA, he has been traveling asia and australia for 3 months, been all over (said vietnam was the roughest he had been, i asked him if PP intimidated him as much as it did me and he said its nothing compared to there) he is heading to china next then india, just blowing his savings he said.... was fun to chat to and made me feel a lil better
bus is hot as balls, shirt soaked the entire way, i overpaid $9 since booked through my hotel, really charge of $6, but hey they picked me up and i had 2 big bags that i couldnt have got to the bus station on the back of a motorcycle, fwiw thats how u get around on here, just hop on the back of some dudes bike for a dollar, the sheer number of bikes in PP added to my being scared of the place
the ride went pretty quick, didnt even put the headphones on just looked at the scenery, dont get me wrong 5 hours or so is a heck of a long time, but i thought it would be worse, still if you have money and or are in a group get a cab, cut the time in half and dont sweat the whole way
so get in and so excited to be off the bus i get off and get my big suitcase out from underneath and go get a tuk tuk, im getting into the tuk tuk when i realize i just made MAJOR TRAVEL NOOB MISTAKE #1, i left my backpack on the bus, it should be mentioned that i had 3 things of value with me, money in my wallet, money in a flashlight in my other pocket, and my lap top that is..... you guessed it in my backpack, i run back and get on the bus and its gone
i get off and start scanning everyone looking for someone with my backpack, the dudes from the bus company can tell im freaking out which i totally am and their like lost luggage? i say yes and they start to look around, its gone
so i get back on the bus and check again, the driver had found it and moved it behind his chair (not hid it, when i got on the 2nd time i clearly saw it)
omg omg omg omg omg thank god, but somehow thats only the 2nd dumbest thing i did today
so then i go to charlie harpers, my entire plans for this city, all i know is go to charlie harpers, so thats what i do
i get to his place and i get shown a room, first off his bar seems nice and laid back, open air, should be mentioned that the power is off in sihinouk at the time but i dont even realize it cuz they have the generator on (more on this later)
theres a poker game going, a couple guys around the bar, the main man tony is back behind the bar i ask to speak to him, tell him im me and he says ok and has a kid show me my room, this is where all ish starts to fall apart
i am an EXTREMELY light sleeper, probably mentioned somewhere in the PI thread, but at any place ive lived the past 10 years the first thing i do when moving in is black out the windows, and i ALWAYS have a fan on to drowned out noise, so i go into the room he has one with a balcony for me but i instantly tell this is just not somewhere i can live because way to much light will be getting in, and its on the street side so noisy (though now that im here at night i realize noise at night wont be an issue there isnt the constant honking there is in the day)
so i ask what other rooms and he says 3rd floor has one but no balcony, im like great lets check it out, has the biggest window ive ever seen, this thing would be quite a task to black out, not even sure its possible.......
sigh
again nothing at all against his place, if i was just a normal friggin person that could fall asleep there would be no problems, but i aint, so......... cant really get into it on here about how great a guy tony is, but lets just say that he is still gonna help me with the main reason i came here even though im not gonna take a room, he seems like he would be a great landlord and if you had a problem he would do what he could to help fix it, so ya guys just cuz i cant sleep there that doesnt mean you cant and i would highly recommend you make his place your first stop, say hello to him, he is very knowledgeable on the area and runs a forum for the place
so anyways now to the rat, i go down the street and check into a place for $13 a night, didnt seem all that nice but as ive said many times i dont need nice, i just want to get my bags in a room and take a friggin shower, so i go into the shower and its only a cold shower, but it may have been the best (solo) shower ive ever had, 5 hours drenched in your own sweat on the bus, cold water couldnt have been better
get out the lap top to email the moms and let her know im here, start to look around the sihinouk forum to find another place, o ya i forgot that when i got to the new place thats when i found out power was out so i go around to see who has generator running, the dump i go to obv didnt, guy said the same thing as most people, they only run it if they have enough people staying, which at the time it seems most dont, he said the same $150 a month for his place as charlies but charlies is much much nicer, got another quote of 250 for decent place, another quote of 400 for a $15 a night place so they barely gave a break (thats where im at now its pretty nice and wifi is 4/4 which is great to see thats possible here, wifi at the dump was 2/4 at best but didnt go out in my 1 hour)
i cant believe how long this already is and im like halfway through, what a friggin day wow
so where was i, ummm ya another GREAT thing about charlies is he always has the generator going, that means i really have 3 options, overpay to find a "nice" place that also does the same, get a place as close to charlies and when power goes out which it does often put the laptop in the backpack and head over to his place and buy some drinks or food or something, or C figure out how to black out the massive window, not sure what im gonna do yet, i hate when plans dont work out but u gotta do........ so anyways to the rat again
so lookin through the forums on sihanouk when i see out of the corner of my eye and hear either a small to medium size rat or an oversize mouse run into the room and go behind a dresser, i start making noises to scare it hoping it will run out but it doesnt, hmmmm what to do, not much i can do i just think well im not staying here past tonight but ill be fine on the bed, 10 minutes or so goes by, ive got pillows against the back of the bed/wall and am leaning up against them when out of nowhere the thing runs up the side of the bed and goes inbetween the pillows, i scream louder than i can ever remember screaming out of shock, it wasnt exactly like a lil girl cuz it wasnt high pitched, it was a full out grown man scream out of horror
i jump out of the bed and he goes back down and hides, i instantly throw all my stuff (sweat soaked clothes included) into beds go ask for some of my money back (get $5 of $13 back thats all i asked for just wanted to move on with my life) and head across the street, find a nice place for $15 a night ($400 a month), i am so freaked out at this point, i mean and im sorry to use this term but its the only thing i can think of but im like a rape victim if anyone would have come near me i..... so i get into my room and its next door to a karaoke place and extremely loud, FML really i go ask for a room on other side of the hall and they give me one
i check for rats, rat poop, rat hair, dont find anything so all is good, look and see that the door goes almost all the way to the ground, no rats sneaking under that
o fwiw in these open air bars there are lizards just crawling on the walls and the people from here ignore them
so now its like 9pm, i wanna see what the town is like, i go down and walk out the door, fwiw this place is cambo owned and basically the whole family works here and runs it, and its a big family lol (i assume they are all family, seems like safe assumption) not sure why i point that out but anyways i walk out and one of the 30ish year old guys is like where u gonna go im like i dunno just gonna wander the streets cuz thats what i do (genius) so i ask where the bars are he says 4km that way im lik hmm thats quite a walk, i ask is this place girl friendly he says ya no problem, one of his friends (or maybe another brother) offers to give me ride for $2 im like ok (think he overcharged by a dollar tbh but whatevs) and i get dropped off in the middle of some bar district by a beach
im still freaked out by cambo and now im alone not knowing a damn clue about anything (genius) so i just start wondering, i see white females walking alone and kids out, this should make me feel better, im still scared out of my mind, just completely freaked out, the rat certainly didnt help, so i walk past what might have been a girly bar im not sure there were like 5 girls sitting around a table they yelled at me asked me to come in no one else there..... but naw wtf would i wanna go hang out with 5 girls lets keep roaming aimlessly (genius) so walk down 1 road then back up it after i hit the end that was the ocean, bars to my right, bunch of people including some kids with parents going to the left, ive been warned about the beaches at night so i turn around and head back, go down another street only because i see a white girl walk that way alone (sorry no creeper pic peoples) so i think its gotta be safe, get some food from quite a hot lady she says itll be ready in 5 minutes so i wander further, there are 5 tuktuks and now for the 2nd time a guy offers me weed, i say no thanks he says good skunk so im like let me see, its decent looking outdoor midgrade, im as picky as it gets wouldnt smoke it in the states but over here itll do, but im still paranoid so i dont get it, he says 20 for the bag seems high for this place but i dunno decent size bag probably over a halfz and really i doubt ill see much better around (hard to say that for the first one i see, but really i think it was like medicinal grade over here) so i say hmm not now but maybe later with no real plans of getting it, but for some reason i feel the guy is legit im like so where are the girls around here hes like i can take u and im thinkin girly bar so im like well let me think about it i ordered some food ill comeback by but if u get another customer just give him a ride
so i go eat, a small german shephard comes up and stares at me begging for food, the daughter of the hot lady (who was probably 15ish, sorry no creeper pic again peoples) sits at table a lil ways away and is texting, i know of all things over here dont even let anyone think ur tryin with a minor but im dumb so im like hey is this your dog she says yes i ask can i give the bone from my ribs she says ya, i ask what kind of dog she has no clue what i say, im like i think german shephard again no clue, im like how old she says 1 (i woulda guessed maybe 6 months, obv undernourished if that small at 1, but not grossly skinny) holy hell im rambling
anyways so i finish up and head back down, my buddy the tuktuk/moto driver who i know are the main people not to trust is ready for me on his bike, i get on and he says ok i take you there (genius)......
so i cant go any further on the public forums, if u want the rest u can pm me and if im confident you arent someone i know in the poker community back home i will reply, otherwise i cant have this out there sorry, and if u post what i send u will be cutoff from future things that are to bad for me to put out on the forums
ooooooo so happy to be alive and not scammed
somehow that was by far the longest post ive ever made and im not even putting in the shenanigans
