All Hail DavidandMonicaDoTheWorld

3 September

Drinks at the Foreign Correspondent's Club in Phnom Penh our last night there, to announce the winners of the Odyssey 2009 best-blog. And you currently have the honour to be reading the winning blog (look what good taste you have!) Actually, Paul (Part Way Round) and I both won, as we're the only ones who still even have current blogs, although Amy tried to squeeze in with a chance by updating hers in Vietnam. Too little too late, Brooker!

Paul and David are going to get some diving in Malaysia out of this, and I'm off to a spa treatment of one sort or another in Bangkok. I admit the thought of some recognition did encourage me to keep up with the blog, but I'm actually quite enjoying my time with all of you. I may be a tad competitive (or so they say), but I also am pleased that we'll have a record of this little adventure in the form of the brown-and-orange blog. Tim & Cheryl had the FCC make a cocktail just for all of us—the Odyssey Blue is, well, blue.

The FCC is posh and airy, overlooking the Sonle Tap river, with big ceiling fans and cushy leather chairs. It looks more like a movie set than a bar, and is populated with the obligatory cast of hard-bitten-esque leathery middle aged Western guys in linen trousers who look like they might still own an actual typewriter. And are all sitting with tiny-tiny Cambodian girls. Who no doubt are there for the stimulating conversation. Cool t-shirts, though.

On a side note, Paul was offered a range of items by a tuk-tuk driver in Phnom Penh. These included a tuk-tuk (fair enough), a motorbike, marijuana, coke, women, and what was euphemistically termed 'a small woman'. Just going to have to hope that this is not in fact a child, but running with the theme of a country that does still have some issues, it probably was. Ugh.