My walk back from the beach today was interrupted by seeing a crowd of people surrounding a Coca Cola promotional area just back from the beach and some odd noises coming from the microphone. As my Khmer is still limited to just two words, I am assuming it was some sort of X Factor type audition. A stage and three judges at the table in front and a series of pretty bad singers taking turns to do their bit. Most were pretty awful but there was an almost SuBo moment as a lanky schoolgirl in uniform started to sing a western song surprisingly well, the crowd went quiet but it didn't last and her voice soon petered out. The guy with the guitar did ok and the hit of the day was the guy doing beat box on the mic who got the biggest applause.
There were no big buzzers to stop a bad act, just the guy in the middle who thought he was Simon Cowell, who rudely interrupted the performance with what I took as a disparaging comment and the act immediately stopped....
But the power system here certainly doesn't have the Xtra Factor, unless you consider loud, smelly generators as an extra. The power has been erratic here since I arrived with the hotel generator kicking in every so often. But since it went black at a restaurant last night, the generators have been going non stop all around town. Ok if you are staying somewhere with one but a nightmare if you are without. Lots of the little shops have to close once it gets dark and many of the small retaurants can't open at all. It's now been off for over 24 hours and it must play havoc with the small business economics as well as the environment, they all belch out huge amounts of black smoke. It's also playing havoc with my laundry plans as no power means all the twin tubs are out of action. At this rate my laundry will be back to being washed in the river, but as by now it all seems to be the same colour anyway, I guess that won't matter much... Just hope Ant and David aren't planning any swish dinners in Vietnam... And this was brought home to me today. I have obviously turned into an ageing hippy. As I walked along a tuk tuk driver hopefully asked "tuk tuk?" After my negative reply, he looked me up and down and said "smoke smoke?" I haven't been offered drugs until now so perhaps I ought to sort my laundry after all!
As with all of Cambodia, there are some sorry sights here begging. Whilst I don't give to children as apparently that encourages them not to attend school, I try and up my karma quotient by using the Cambodian riels you get in change to give the guys who look like landmine victims and some of the bent (probably younger than me....) old ladies around. But I think beggar inflation has hit Sihanoukville. Last night I handed a bundle of old notes to a guy who promptly turned off his begging face, sorted them out and then looked back at me as if to say "if this is all you can manage, you might need it more than me..."
I can also report that the "happy meals" I saw on the beach last time have moved mainstream. On the road down to the beach there is a smartish Pizza place, and they openly advertise their "Happy Herb Pizza". I must say I would expect a pizza to be topped with a herb something like basil, but not here. Here you get a "happy herb topping". An Xtra factor indeed.....
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