Sisophon

Day 291 – Road trip

There was no relaxing on our first day in Phnom Penh and we were up early to get on a minibus out of town.  Jane and Michael’s housemates Ash, Morris and Clarissa, along with Ash’s friend Nichole and extras Rob and Matt were all heading to a 30th birthday party in Sisophon and so we tagged along for the road trip.  It was at least an 8 hour drive but this flew by reasonably quickly with the amount of banter back and forth and sometimes across the minivan, in dispersed with naps and Sudoku.  We also broke up the day with a stop at Gecko, a yummy restaurant in Battambang for some lime mint shakes and Mexican; a blow up pool purchase for the birthday boy Warrick, a fellow NGO employee and of course, to find a slab of beer.  The boys managed to find “Australia Beer, brewed under supervision of the Australian Brewing Company” – beer and an organisation the half a dozen Aussies in the car had never heard of!

Lunch at Gecko.

Matt and Michael and the minibus driver with the so called Australia Beer.

By the time we had arrived in Sisophon is was dark and pouring with rain.  The guys hadn’t booked accommodation, assuming it would be easy, but being a small town with a fair few expats in town for this party, there wasn’t enough room at the preferred Inn, leaving Jane, Michael and Morris (the Khmer speakers) to go for a drive and find some more options.

It was late by the time bedding was sorted, but that didn’t matter as we headed off to “Warrick’s place” to crash the party.  The Australia Beer was pretty awful, so when the collection went around to go out and purchase more beer we were in!  It was a short night in the end, on account of a long day and us not knowing anyone at the party!