A very bad day

I got into Sihanoukville yesterday (Sunday) for a couple of days of relaxing on the beach after such a long week on the motobike. Met up with a nice british gal, Kathryn, and we're sharing a room here in town. We went down to the beach today to get some sun and read our books, and didn't listen to the expat who told us to go to the ritzy private beach of a hotel where you don't get hassled as much. So we went to one of the main beaches and OH MY GOODNESS, the kids and women there are horrible. They've got good maniputlative marketing skills, but it's all very upsetting. They try and try to sell you string bracelets with you're name woven in them, and cut fruit, and hair removal, and massages, and manicure, and you name it! You say no no no, they say maybe later, then they give you a "free" bracelet so that you'll remember them. But then they keep coming by to remind you that they gave you that bracelet, and you have to buy something from them. So we agreed to have our leghair "threaded" off, Kathryn had a quick halfhearted massage, and I got the worst manicure on the planet. So when we started to negotiate what we thought were reasonable prices for things, they flipped out on us that it wasn't enough. Here we are surrounded by a dozen people, half of them pissed off that they didn't get to sell us something, and the other half pissed that they aren't getting 20 dollars for a sucky massage! One little boy actually threw the dollar in the sand that Kathryn had given him for a little string bracelet. So after all the time in the countryside seeing these dear sweet children who really have nothing but still play and laugh like children, I just couldn't handle the corruption and manipulation anymore. So we paid them what we thought was fair and booked it out of there. I was just left feeling so objectified and used. It's tough being here and always feeling like a walking dollar sign and an opportunity for everyone to make some money. I guess it is just the bad side of that survival spirit that I love so much, but it's hard to handle sometimes.