the beach + three meals

This past weekend, the organization I work for organized an all-staff meeting in a beach town about 4 hours away from Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville. Though most of my time was spent trying to take the minutes of the meeting (it was held in Khmer...), I did manage to use breakfast time to soak up some early morning sun. The woman in the foreground was one of several selling snacks.
That night, there was a big dinner, where everyone played musical chairs (the girl in the leopard print won the women's round by pulling out the chair from under the girl in the red shirt!), ate lots of seafood (including delicious whole shrimp that you peeled yourself and dipped in spicy sweet and sour sauce), and sang karaoke. Below is one of a series of a photos that these girls and I took while waiting for the food to be ready. From left: Randi, Chakriya, me, and Viceka. Their English is excellent, as two of them have university degrees, and they're a lot of fun, if you can't tell from the big smiles on their faces!
The next morning, I stumbled upon a little seaside restaurant (literally, seaside - no problem getting a table with a view here!) and enjoyed one of the most relaxing breakfasts I've ever had. The beach was nothing fancy, no dramatic rock cliffs or picturesque harbor, just sand that gave way to waves and wide open sky, but there was something peaceful about that. Soundtrack: Colbie Caillat and Santogold.

And on the way back to Phnom Penh, the group stopped for more whole boiled shrimp and crab in these little seaside shacks with hammocks inside.

That night for dinner, I heated up a frozen pepperoni pizza and ate it on the porch of my lovely new apartment (more pictures to come later!). Not a bad set of meals for a Monday!