Same same but different

Friday morning January 25, 2013
I forgot to mention that a few nights ago we thought we'd try a little restaurant called Romeo where we saw a lot of people eating. The price was only $3 for a combination plate of fish, shrimp and squid so we ordered two of those and 2 beers. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of sitting where I could see into the kitchen. It was like watching a car accident - I couldn't look away.
A woman was squatted on the floor chopping fish on an old board with a cleaver. Meanwhile, 2 or 3 dogs wandered in and out of the kitchen, one chewing on a small octopus. Nothing looked clean. However, the food was really tasty and neither of us got sick. Never look into the kitchen. Some restaurants seem clean while others are not. There doesn't seem to be any oversight of food safety anywhere. However, so far it's working for us.
The next night we went to Nyam, a restaurant down the street owned by an Aussie but featuring Khmer cuisine. Excellent food, nice atmosphere, clean tablecloths, candles and no view of the kitchen. Total bill: $9.

 Yesterday we took a tuk tuk down to Otres Beach for the day. Anita took this picture of the tiny sand crabs. We walked along the beach and parked ourselves under a tree on one of the long open sections where there are few people. We just enjoyed the beach and the ocean for a few hours. We wanted to buy some fruit to go with the nuts and water we had with us for lunch but we couldn't find a beach vendor. This is unheard of. There's always a beach vendor in on Occheuteal Beach but Otres is much quieter.

 Last night, as we walked down to a restaurant in the backpacker section, we took a few pictures. These two are of Hun Sen's mansion just across from our hotel. Apparently this is only one of his mansions.

 Same same but different. We've never seen any activity here although you can't see over the wall.

The street just a few metres past Hun Sen's mansion.

Same same but different. We walked up that little hill in the background and turned left on the main tourist street going toward Serendipity Beach. Somewhere we had gotten a flyer for the Sea View Villa restaurant which offered 2 starters and 2 main courses for $10 between 5 and 6:30 pm (the blue plate special, we called it). It was a nice restaurant, all outdoors as most of them are, with exceptionally good food. We had mango chicken, lime tuna, bruschetta and some cheesy spinach thing. Excellent meal.
We ran into Tim on the street. He had met a couple from Alberta and they invited us all to go for a drink with them which we did. After chatting about travel for awhile, we headed home for another early night. We called Anita's parents on skype which works really well for a computer to telephone connection and is really cheap.
Pleasant day.