Dolphin shack attack!

I haven't updated my blog since the day before I left Cambodia which was about another 3 weeks ago. This update is to include the past 6/7 weeks of my travels though Cambodia and Thailand so a lot of it will be very hazy on the details. Laura, Ellie, Emily and I left Vietnam and started in the capital - Phnom Peng. A very vibrant city and best known by the travellers as the site of the Killing Fields, a place where 200,000 Khmer people were killed in a massive genocide of the country. In total the Khyber Rouge killed roughly 1.4 million - 2.2 million people out of a population of 7 million. We went to the killing fields which in all honesty was simply a normal field, except filled with tourists with pensive attitudes of the overwhelming atmosphere of past murders. There was a vat filled with aparantly 8000 human skulls which i found a bit wrong for them to be on display. There was also a tree against which babies were routinely bashed against to kill them. Dark.

I only stayed one day in Phnom Peng as I had an really odd loss of endorphins in the evening and really didn't want to be around anyone. So i booked my bus to Sihanookville. I was only meant to stay in Sihanookville for about a week but I ended up staying there for whole month. I arrived at 5 oclock and took my usual explorative walk around the town and then down the beach. At 5:20 I walked into Dolphin Shack and started talking to my future boos Marie about getting a job. Marie is a hilarious girl/woman of 33 with I think she said 14 piercings (only 10 of which were visible.) She gave me the job and i went across the road to sort out a room. There i encountered Emily, Ellie and Laura. I don't mean to say that this was to my dismay, but I had already travelled with them 2 weeks and the main reason for me leaving Phnom Peng so early was partly as an escape so I was a little pissed off to find them coming to the same hotel as me. However it's a free country and that and I dealt with it. I told them about my job which Emily liked the sound of and after looking for another job for her at the other bars I accepted that she would work at dolphin shack. At 7 we went down to work and I began work in the bar. I loved working in the bar at dolphin shack as alcohol for the staff is free so I would just get progressively drunk as the night went on whilst learning to make all the cocktails on offer: Mojito, Pina Colada, Black/White Russian etc. I know them all and it became a big hobby for me to learn how to make different cocktails which over the month I like to think I mastered, even creating a new cocktail "the Hamish." I know it sounds silly but people did start requesting "the Hamish" which I either assume as something to do with the taste or the fact that it was probably the best value for alcohol content.
Over that week with Emily we flicked between me ignoring her after fights, us getting on as neither of us can hold a grudge and quite open animosity after the worst of the fights. Since the big fight me I went completely off Emily which served for some difficult times, but I think we have worked it out now and we can be friends, or at least I sincerely hope so as she is a really lovely person that I get on with really well.
There are so many stories from Sihanookville (most of them forgotten due to alcohol and repression.) For the full scoop you would have to ask me as I have some stories that I feel are even to disgusting to put up on the blog on which I have been as open as I have dared to be. However the things that stick out in my mind would be Naomi and Gary (the most lovely British couple that have semi-retired to live in Sihanookville and are the dolphin shack's most fierce regulars), the australian navy ship that descended on the bar, Jimmy (my manager) Dan (my khymer boss) Tida (my baby boss) Marie (my nutty boss) and the several infections I got from open cuts and a distinct lack of caring for myself. Naomi and Gary were really chilled out and I hope to see them when I get back from my travels in London. I could talk to Naomi about anything and she knew a lot more about me than most people by the end. She took absolute care of me. I trusted her and Gary with my cards and my passport as I trusted them more than myself. Naomi and Gary were the people that forced me to go to the doctors when my foot got really bad. When I went to the doctors he identified 11 different infections below my knees from stubbing toes, mosquito bites, and the infamous crater in my foot that got to a diameter of an inch before I got it checked out. The australian navy ship was moored for 4 days in the port and every day we had the majority of the ship in the bar getting very very drunk. They were awesome and although always drunk, they were also very respectful of the other customers and the rest of the staff which was why they were so appreciated. The first day they came I had got up early as the night before I had had the night off as I hadnt slept for 3 days due to abusing the free redbull behind the bar, which is loaded with amphetamines. I came down to the bar and no sooner had I poured my first beer of the morning, about 60 australian navy lads poured into the bar asking for rediculous drinks like buckets of Long Island Iced Tea and buckets of black russian. I saw one guy over the course of one afternoon drink 8 buckets of black russian - I couldn't have been more impressed. They left and the captain gave me hit hat as a tip. I cherish it and it is one of the few things I have checked on as regularly as my cards and passport on my travels. That's all I can write about for the moment but there is so much more to tell. I guess you will have to wait another month for the next update. Thanks for reading!