Christmas and Jon's B-Day Celebration, in Cambodia

Upon arriving in Cambodia we quickly head for the beaches in the Sihanoukville area. We found a fantastic french owned and managed guest house right on the beach, and found the place to be better than we could have hoped. The food and company was excellent, and we became friends with the french owners, Khmer (Cambodian) staff, and other guests alike. In one direction lay a collection of small guest houses, restaurants and bars lined up along the white sand beach, and in the other lay a similar beach, undeveloped for most of several kilometers. We spent over 3 weeks at this guesthouse on the beach, enjoying outings to other nearby, and even emptier beaches. We swam, did some snorkeling trips, rented motorcycles and explored this part of the country. We also enjoyed several good parties, countless excellent meals, and the luxury of having friends that we had known for more than just a few days. Later we hope to share more pictures, but as of now the only photos we have to share are those of our Christmas celebration and a long motorcycle tour we did with some friends, which were taken by others and given to us on a CD before our departure. The rest will have to wait.


Our Christmas celebration was really just a big feast and party, and began with another beautiful sunset over the Gulf of Thailand.

We had spent part of the day decorating the beach, and eventually sat down at a long table on the sand with about 25 other people, gathered by our hosts, family, friends and other guesthouse occupants such as ourselves. We feasted for some time on fresh, local seafood. A pate course was followed by a smoked fish course by a steamed shrimp course by a huge barbeque of chicken and ribs.

Plenty of wine was passed and soon all were merry.

Charlotte and the chef, Valton, had been plotting. To Jon's great surprise a massive cake was produced and everyone commenced to sing happy birthday. Apparently this party was to have a dual purpose, the second being to celebrate Jon's birthday which had gone uncelebrated due to unforseen incidents in Mongolia.

In the above photo you can see Valton feeding cake to Jon, in the company of Rico, a Canadian with whom we fast became friends.

There were fireworks...

...and even some dancing! One of many fun evenings on the beach in Cambodia, special for the fanfare, but similar in the company and good times.