Imagine this: Luscious green tropical trees surround you and the Bahama blue coastline of Sihanoukville at your footsteps. You are sitting under the shady breeze of a bungalow, sipping on some ridiculously fresh coconut juice. Now, picture you and 41 other perky university students enjoying a good time playing cards, eating fresh seafood and exotic fruits and swimming in the super chill Gulf of Thailand. With no worries in the world, you relax and let time fly by. At this moment, you are at absolute peace.
This was no dream.
But just then and there, your concept of peace and your sense of tranquility become tainted to the reality that plagues Cambodia.
Two vehicles loom in the distance comes to a screeching halt. As they step foot out of their plush Land Cruisers, a mushroom of mafia-style smoke hovers over them. (Feels like a scene out of some Tarantino flick)
Their clique had no more than 15 people. All but two were males aged 21 to 25 at most. They had nice, clean, casual clothes. However, the two girls had on some of the skimpiest outfit I have ever seen. (Yeah, even skimpier than the Asian girls at the University of Washington during spring quarter!). Anyways, my instincts rubbed off negative vibes. I had a gut feeling that they were тАЬbad news.тАЭ
An hour after their arrival, my instincts began to take form. The first signтАУlarge consumption of alcohol. Contrary to the TV commercial, Red Bull does not give you wings, especially when mixed with Angkor BeerтАУit just makes you rowdy. Second, excessive smoking. I swear I could barely see their faces in the cloud of smoke they were puffing. And then their irrational behavior. Who in their sane mind would run around the beach yelling like wild baboons? Sure you can argue that these activities and behaviors are common among young adults, and rightfully, that is true. But let me drop in the final variableтАУguns.
Not one, not two, but I counted them allтАУ13! Everyone had a small pistol stashed at their back, tucked underneath their nicely pressed shirts.