Khmer New Year! 13th-16th April

Hello everyone!

Some of you may know that in Asia, most countries celebrate their new year not on December 31st like western Countries, but within the month of April, for example the Chinese new year and the Thai new year. In Cambodia this year, their new year fell between the 13th-16th of April and so my school decided to give all of its teachers a full week from work to celebrate this fantastic holiday. Most Cambodians go to visit their families in the province's and give thanks to each other and for all to have a social drink!

For most expats however, the Khmer New Year is a brilliant excuse to head to one of the popular beach resorts, Namely Sihanoukville, for its legendary beach parties on golden sand and drinking into oblivion. Me and my friends (Geoff, Léana, Dennis and Matt) decided (on Matts previous experience) however that instead of hardcore partying and blacking out in a ditch somewhere, that we would rather go into Nature and live self sufficient for 4 days.

Below is the video of our epic journey through the beaches and jungle of Cambodia. that saw us discover beautiful islands, golden beaches, Hundreds of Ants!, fishing, swimming and loving life and all kindly edited and uploaded by Matt!

So please enjoy!!

The Friday Feeling!

So after my 50 hour working week, Its finally Friday!, and in Phnom Penh that usually only means one thing, to venture into this sprawling city and experience some more of its vast and varied nightlife; from the smaller bars around Riverside where you can easily grab a cheap pint and play a game of pool. To a full night around Phnom Penh's (PP's) Notorious street 51, where most of your hearts desires can be found, which usually means leaving the clubs merry but exhausted and being greeted by daybreak and the city starting to come to life for its daily grind.

 And last night was no different!, Me and my housemates had heard from our local Tuk Tuk driver that Loco bar, a rather small bar around Phnom Penh's riverside, have a brilliant happy hour from 7-10pm

                 
So after pre-drinks at my apartment, our group of 6 jumped into the car and headed over to Loco to see if the bar is worth the attention its been given. In short it was! What it lacks for in space it certainly makes up for in friendliness and enjoyability. On arrival we were greeted by the owner, who kindly showed us to some stools right by the bar and within the minutes the drinks were flowing  and each of us trying our hand at the bar games offered to us by the bar girls. Needless to say we lost 80% of the games!

Me losing terribly at Jackpot

We stayed around Loco much later than expected due to how much fun we were all having, meeting all the workers at the bar plus many an Expat, our group ended up looking like a contingent from the UN.

On leaving Loco around the early hours of Saturday, the owner happily gave some white 1664 bottles' for the road and an open invitation to return whenever we wanted! And so our group, Beer in hand, headed to the Notorious Street 51 area seeking another bar called Howie's which has a free American Pool table with the rule of winner stays on, a brilliant way of meeting more people in the city and enjoying your night to the maximum.

Geoffrey playing against the owner himself! that Concentration!

After staggering from Howies around the glorious time of 3am, with only one pool win between us. we were split between going to PP's biggest club Pontoon and heading to the dizzying heights of the Rooftop bar with the stunning views over most of the city and after a quick group vote we chose the latter, again the drinks were flowing and at this point in the night most of us were particularly merry and we had already lost a member who had to stumble into a tuk tuk and get home before the spin of the room knocked her down!

And now the time had hit 4:30am and unfortunately i had to attend a meeting at work at 8am so for me the night was over, a small but epic trip around Riverside and Area 51 was a blast and the group had a blast. Soon after my departure the remaining 4 ventured to PP's biggest Casino to try their luck on the cards and wheels with even some small success had! but for what can be said for the nightlife in Phnom Penh, you could venture here for months and still not be able to visit the many bars and attractions to be seen in this epic city.

The First Post

So my name is Sam Henshaw and Ive been living in Phnom Penh (Cambodia) for just over a month now. I'm currently an English teacher at an International English school teaching Kindergarten. I've never written a blog before nor had much of an interest in writing. But after traveling for a while now I thought it'd be a good way to keep a collection of my travels for my future self to look over with fond memories. The blog will basically
cover what i get up to in Phnom Penh plus tips I pickup while on my travels.