Aug 13, 2009
Meghan Nay
It was five months into my trip that I found myself in the last place I ever thought I’d wind up in my travels — in a relationship. Turns out, one of the friends I left with was more than just a friend. By the time our group arrived in Cambodia, Luke and I were inseparable and even decided to spend an extra week in Sinoukville all by ourselves. We stayed at an amazing hostel right on the beach. Okay, so the rooms weren’t exactly the best (the walls were paper-thin and there was that time a rat crawled over my face), but other than that, we were in heaven.
I remember one particularly rowdy and romantic night we decided to go skinny-dipping. Normally, I’m shy about this sort of thing; normally, I’d say no, but that night, on the beach, under the stars, it was just so friggin’ beautiful I could have written a poem about it.
And the alcohol didn’t hurt either.
For hours we splashed about in the calm, warm water. I felt daring and free. It wasn’t until we were mid smooch that I noticed — out of the corner of my eye — a group of people walking towards our clothes. I detached myself from Luke and motioned for him to look.
“Hey — those people are going for our clothes,” I cried.
“Oh shit,” he quickly looked. “It’s a group of kids.”
Now, anybody who has ever been to Cambodia knows a few things about the children there.
As an extremely poor country and one that attracts a lot of tourists, the local kids are often expected to bring money in for the family — usually by selling bracelets, begging and often by stealing.
And that’s exactly what they were doing. But what could we do? Clearly my yelling and screaming wasn’t working, and Luke only got up to his, well, bellybutton before he lost his nerve. Seems that I wasn’t prepared to run naked after them and neither was he. So we watched as they walked away with our clothes, our shoes and what little money we had left.
After about an hour, time was starting to pass very fast and the water was getting cold. The romance had definitely died off and I was ready to be dry and clothed. Luke figured since it was late we could probably make it back to our bungalow without anybody noticing. I was freezing, and too tired to argue. Before I knew it, we were walking naked to the shore and doing our very best to cover everything we could with our hands, arms and a seashell or two. It wasn’t really working. But as we crept towards the light of our hostel I thought we might just be in luck. The main lawn chairs were empty, and I couldn’t make anything else out in the dark.
Wrong.
As we got closer, we were startled to find out it was movie night at our hostel. There was everyone, huddled around the TV by the stairs. Twenty heads looked up at us. Twenty mouths dropped open. It was horrifying. I didn’t know whether to cry or to laugh or to sit down and start watching Legally Blonde with the rest of them. Luke stood next to me, equally stunned.
Finally, I grabbed his arm and dragged him upstairs to our bungalow as fast as I could. Mortified, we collapsed on our inch-thick mat on the floor laughing hysterically, the sounds of Legally Blonde, and “oh-my-gods” echoing up from below.
Even the rat was smirking.
Meghan Nay
It was five months into my trip that I found myself in the last place I ever thought I’d wind up in my travels — in a relationship. Turns out, one of the friends I left with was more than just a friend. By the time our group arrived in Cambodia, Luke and I were inseparable and even decided to spend an extra week in Sinoukville all by ourselves. We stayed at an amazing hostel right on the beach. Okay, so the rooms weren’t exactly the best (the walls were paper-thin and there was that time a rat crawled over my face), but other than that, we were in heaven.
I remember one particularly rowdy and romantic night we decided to go skinny-dipping. Normally, I’m shy about this sort of thing; normally, I’d say no, but that night, on the beach, under the stars, it was just so friggin’ beautiful I could have written a poem about it.
And the alcohol didn’t hurt either.
For hours we splashed about in the calm, warm water. I felt daring and free. It wasn’t until we were mid smooch that I noticed — out of the corner of my eye — a group of people walking towards our clothes. I detached myself from Luke and motioned for him to look.
“Hey — those people are going for our clothes,” I cried.
“Oh shit,” he quickly looked. “It’s a group of kids.”
Now, anybody who has ever been to Cambodia knows a few things about the children there.
As an extremely poor country and one that attracts a lot of tourists, the local kids are often expected to bring money in for the family — usually by selling bracelets, begging and often by stealing.
And that’s exactly what they were doing. But what could we do? Clearly my yelling and screaming wasn’t working, and Luke only got up to his, well, bellybutton before he lost his nerve. Seems that I wasn’t prepared to run naked after them and neither was he. So we watched as they walked away with our clothes, our shoes and what little money we had left.
After about an hour, time was starting to pass very fast and the water was getting cold. The romance had definitely died off and I was ready to be dry and clothed. Luke figured since it was late we could probably make it back to our bungalow without anybody noticing. I was freezing, and too tired to argue. Before I knew it, we were walking naked to the shore and doing our very best to cover everything we could with our hands, arms and a seashell or two. It wasn’t really working. But as we crept towards the light of our hostel I thought we might just be in luck. The main lawn chairs were empty, and I couldn’t make anything else out in the dark.
Wrong.
As we got closer, we were startled to find out it was movie night at our hostel. There was everyone, huddled around the TV by the stairs. Twenty heads looked up at us. Twenty mouths dropped open. It was horrifying. I didn’t know whether to cry or to laugh or to sit down and start watching Legally Blonde with the rest of them. Luke stood next to me, equally stunned.
Finally, I grabbed his arm and dragged him upstairs to our bungalow as fast as I could. Mortified, we collapsed on our inch-thick mat on the floor laughing hysterically, the sounds of Legally Blonde, and “oh-my-gods” echoing up from below.
Even the rat was smirking.
1 comment:
Please, for the love of god: don't skinny-dip in Cambodia or commit any children loving scenes on the beach of Cambodia either, the locals will be freak'n out.
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