Tuesday 11 August 2015

Day 287: Once bitten...

With today being a designated rest day, we got up late for breakfast, then, after doing some school work, the girls jumped in the pool and didn't get out again for a very long time (by the time they did, the tips of some of Zoe's fingers were red raw).

For lunch, we went back to the pizza place (our pizza took a lot longer to come this time as they hadn't stocked the wood-fired oven yet) and then walked to a special cafe that Kate had found online. With tourism slowly engulfing the whole of Southeast Asia in its commercial grip, hospitality schools of various types have become popular with foreign community-development NGOs. Most come with a restaurant or cafe attached, giving the students hands-on practice of dealing with customers in real-life situations. This was just such a cafe. It specialised in cupcakes, offering a bewildering array of options and we all ordered a cake each, Kate and I washing ours down with a pretty decent coffee.

Back at the hotel, the girls jumped back in the pool, and as the sun started to head down, I cracked open the bottle of 2010 Madfish Riesling that I had bought at a big, bright supermarket around the corner last night (and chilled in the fridge in our room). Kate had managed to get a couple wine glasses from reception and we sat by the pool and sipped (it took all of our powers of self-control not to gulp) what proved to be an absolutely delicious wine – crisp and ever so slightly off-dry - matching it was a nice crisp packet of shrimp crackers.

For dinner, we went to another place with a school attached – another establishment called the Haven. We started with some satay sticks then had a chicken amok and fish with ginger and chilli. The food was top notch – by some distance the best we've eaten in Cambodia. 







Back at the hotel, the girls jumped back in the pool, while I went up to the room to do a bit of work in air-conditioned comfort. Soon, however, there was a knock on the door and a very excited Sarah implored me to come downstairs to see something 'really cool'. One of the locals had come in with a Tokay gecko on a string. These orange-spotted geckos are truly impressive – the world's second largest, they can reach half a metre in length. I was hoping to get to see one while we were in Southeast Asia, but these weren't really the circumstances I was hoping for, with the poor lizard tied up and probably doomed. The locals were all terrified of it, shrieking as I reached down and picked it up. When I tried to show it to a little local girl she screamed and hid behind her father's legs, just a very small step away from full-blown hysterics. In order to show everyone how harmless it was, I stupidly stuck one of my fingers in its mouth. With the whole width of my finger being bitten, all was well, but then, when I tried to get it out, the gecko's jaws slid down until there was just a little bit of flesh being pinched by its now very firm and rather painful bite. And it didn't want to let go. I kept my calmest face on as I tried everything I could to extricate my now throbbing finger and eventually got it loose, bearing a neat red jaw mark that took several days to fade. 


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