On Friday, one of the other volunteers, Sarah, left. The School had a moving little ceremony where they presented her with a certificate and her children gave her pictures and things they had made, and then we and 16 or so other volunteers went out for dinner to the Khmer kitchen.
The Khmer Kitchen is a really lovely little restaurant on stilts where you sit under low red lights at low tables on nice loungy cushions. It would have been a terribly romantic setting and I found myself wishing I had someone to bring and share it with. The food was delicious too. The nice thing about Khmer food is that it has a indiany-chinesy-thai taste - lots of rice obviously, but it's not as hot.
Then Kristy, Olly, Geraldine and I all hopped in a cab and set off on the 4 hour journey for Sihanoukville. It was dark for the journey there, but on the way back today I was able to finally see some of the Cambodian countryside. It's stunning.
Having not been out of the insane hustle and dust of Phnom Penh, you could not imagine more of a contrast as soon as you leave the city centre. Cambodia is wonderfully lush and a verdant green that almost hurts the eyes, especially as the earth is an unbelievable deep terracotta red.
Stilted shacks and wooden houses line the roads between the palm trees and paddy fields, and amazing golden shrines appear around corners when you least expect them. Dogs and Cows with beautiful faces (and adorable little calves) trot peacefully along the verges to take you by surprise.
And Sihanoukville is ... well, people in Phnom Penh say that when they go there they never want to come back and I can see why. The town is full of pretty little Guesthouses that line bumpy little streets. the Coast is lined with long long beaches with cool spacious wooden beach bars with comfy loungers. Our guesthouse had a great sea view and spacious air-conditioned (woot!) rooms. Ahhhhhhh. Yessssssss.
The next morning after breakfast on the terrace overlooking the sea, we headed on an arse-bruisingly bumpy, but also at times pleasantly vibratey tuk-tuk trip to the beach. 
It was suggested by a friend from PP that we go to a less well populated beach up the coast where there are less children trying to sell you massages, bracelets or paint your toes and thread your legs; there were still a few.
Having waved off loads of offers and lost our entourage of followers along the beach I was finally persuaded to buy a necklace from a nice and not too pushy little girl, which she made beautifully as I helped. I was consequently hassled for ages by another girl who felt that I should have bought off her because she asked me first.
She then sat intrusively close whilst the other girl made my necklace demanding to know "why you not buy mine?" whilst I first mistakenly attempted to politely give reasons and then eventually tried to ignore her, getting more and more hacked off. She eventually moved some distance away to stare evilly in my direction for at least another hour; an interesting, if unsuccessful sales technique.
But the utter beauty of the beach completely made up for the intrusion.
Later as we waited for the Tuk Tuk next to another surprise shrine we sat on a warm round rock and watched clouds form and break, and tropical storms approach from the horizon.
Our rattly Tuk Tuk came to pick us up and we headed back to the hotel, stopping only once when the exhaust manifold fell off. Luckily our resourceful driver was able to reattach it with some wire that used to hold the seat on and the aid of a brick found by the side of the road. 
Olly and Kristy had hired a zippy little moto for the day so they missed the spectacle. Motos look LOADS of fun - I MUST do this !
You buy petrol from stalls at the side of the road - sold in screw top Pepsi bottles, and just funnel it into your bike. We had dinner at a rather swanky seafood restaurant right on the beach as the sea washed up and down just feet from our table. The food was absolutely amazing... I had blood clams which I'd never tasted before, which were wonderfully fat and juicy, fried with ripe tamarind.. (a really amazing combination, which I hope to recreate when I get home).
This morning it thundered and lightening-ed and rained a lovely warm rain, so I spent a pleasant few hours watching the storm, snoozing, and reading my increasingly unputdownable book (Matter - Iain M Banks) before we headed on back to PP for lesson planning and bed.
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