I arrive in Cambodia near 3 pm during a heavy rainstorm. Person Ti_Ca and his father pick me up. We get driven to the hotel and Person Ti_Ca's father continues on to his home. After I get cleaned up we walk to Tra and Donald's new apartment and meet the cats and talk about what has happened since we saw each other 18 months ago. We grab a tuk-tuk to a new shopping mall and have a mediocre dinner in the food court. We then wander around the mall until Donald has to go home because he has a 3:30 am wake up. SO we get a tuk-tuk back home.
Friday, the 4th of July, starts a bit late. Person Ti_Ca and I have breakfast at the hotel and then I do laundry. I usually drop off laundry at a palce to do it, but there is a coin laundry nearby so I spend an hour or of my own time. I have a good conversation with two Khmer guys who work at the laundry shop as well as two British tourists who are also doing laundry. Afterwards Person Ti_Ca and I meet up with two of his friends and have lunch. We then go to have a massage. The massage is going well even with the Khmer lady walking on my back and kneeling on my back. Until she has some suggestive moves for a bigger tip. I keep pushing her hand away and try to get her to re-focus on the therapeutic massage. After the massage I go walking and checking out the streets of Phnom Penh. I know that I should get back to the hotel before the rain comes but I don't make it. Instead there is a torrential downpour that lasts for an hour. I sit under the canvas awning of a restaurant/bar that is not open. It must open at 5pm because the shopkeeper opens up and, since I'm sitting there, I have a Coke as I wait for the rain to subside. I start up a conversation with a very cute Khmer girl who works at the place and we talk about a number of things about life in Cambodia and in the United States. Finally I've waited long enough and I try to get back to the hotel.
I start by crossing the street and seeing that I'm trapped in 6 inch water I go back to the curb and flag down a motorbike rider. He starts us back to the hotel, sometimes going the wrong way down the street at my direction because traffic is so backed up, but we eventually get stuck in the middle of the street and 6 inch deep water when his motorbike quits running and won't start. He gets me to the curb and I can walk another 100 meters until I have to cross another flooded street. I'm 200 meters from the hotel but can't get back. I don't want to pay $2 for a 200 meter bike or tuk-tuk ride, so I wait in vain as the flooded streets do not subside. Finally, after a long wait, I take off my shoes and socks and start walking. I know what is coming next from the Khmer people. A motorbike rider is wading through the water as I make it to a curb and he sees my white feet and points them out to his girlfriend on the back of the motorbike and they stop and start laughing at my white feet. I pretend to charge at them with my shoes in hands and a smile on my face and they take off in a (hopefully acting) panic. I walk a bit more in the flooded street and jump up on a curb near some young Khmer boys (probably teenagers) and they start saying "white" to me and pointing at my feet. I can just laugh with them and continue on the journey to my hotel. (Recall that last year in Myanmar people at the temple were giggling at my feet when I had to take my shoes and socks off to go in. My feet are always in cycling shoes or running shoes or ice skates and never see the sun. So they provide an entertaining conversation or laughter starter.)
After a period of time, Person Ti_Ca and I go to a club in Phnom Penh and meet up with Tra and Tommy. We enjoy the reasonable mixes though most of them are somewhat old. Since we have to get up early on Saturday, I drag Person Ti_Ca out of the club before 1:30 am and we walk back to the hotel for sleep.
We're awake near 5:30 am to get ready for visitors. Person Ti_Ca's friend and her friends and us are driving to Sihanouk - a well-known beach resort in Cambodia. We get started and it seems as if we keep making all sorts of stops for breakfast and tolls and to pray at a temple and etc. And we finally get to Sihanouk near 11:30 am. ur hotel room isn;t available so we drive to a nearby beach resort and hang out. Some people swim, but I'm having a bad day. Is it the lack of sleep, the constant rain, the long drive, or something else? After 5pm we head back to our hotel rooms and relax. The air conditioning isn't working in the hotel room, so the maintenance worker comes and fixes it. Near 7pm qualifying for the British Grand Prix comes on and it is a wet but drying track. It's a wild session as the rain comes and goes and plays with everyone's strategy. Just before the end of qualifying I hear a drip...drip...drip and see puddles of water on the floor. The air conditioner is leaking. The maintenance man comes again and despite my warning of a wet floor he's almost on his rear end as he slips on the floor but stays upright. He takes 30 minutes to fix the leak and we'll see how this works.
The 7am required starts at 7:35 am. On time for Khmer time! We start driving towards Bokor mountain with many stops on the way. There are stops to let a rider off, for breakfast, for gasoline, to pick up fruit at a fruitstand, and to pick up vegetables. We finally get to the Bokor mountain national park as it starts to rain and we start climbing (in the car) towards the summit. As desired as one heads towards a haunted abandonded resort, the fog is rolling in and one can barely see 30 feet ahead. We take a detour to the new resort for lunch and then we finally make the push to the haunted resort (that was featured in the movie City of Ghosts). When I get out of the car I am instantly in love with this building! Even if I can barely make out its outline, I am in love with it! I have great feelings of satisfaction and (almost) ecstacy as we approach the building and it comes into clear focus. I spend a fair amount of time with Person Ti_Ca walking through the building taking pictures and admiring the building. I'm sure I'm holding people up, but I just love this building so mich: I love he feeling, I love the maze-like layout, I love the color, I love the fog surrounding it, and I love that there are ghosts here. Eventually my camera tells me that I am out of battery and I'm re-starting it almost every shot, so our visit is coming to an end. I still squeeze in a few more photos and tell Person Ti_Ca that I'm going to buy this building.
The rest of Sunday is anti-climatic after the resort at Bokor mountain. We drive on home with more intermediate stops. We also get caught in a traffic jam in Phnom Penh near the airport where it takes us one hour to move one kilometer. But then we make it to the hotel just in time for me to turn on the British Grand Prix from Silverstone, England. I'm watching the Grand Prix and picking out seats for my return flight when I realize that I messed up and that m flight from Bangkok leaves on Tuesday morning. Yet my flight to Bangkok from Phnom Penh doesn't get there until Tuesday afternoon. I scramble for a bit to correct the Phnom Penh to Bangkok flight and then I try to cancel a hotel night in Phnom Penh and grab a hotel in Bangkok. I manage to get this all sorted out but Person Ti_Ca is not happy when he returns since I as supposed to visit his grandparents again on Monday. I hope they last another period of time until I get back.
Monday is a slow day. I run some errands to get ready to go back to Bangkok for a day and then head off to the Phnom Penh airport. When I get to Bangkok I try to decide whether to just go to my small hotel near the airport for Tuesday's flight or to go into the city for some fun. I hem and haw and finally decide to have a quiet evening in the small hotel and just relax. As I go for a short walk on Monday night the reality sets in that this vacation is over and that I may not be back for a while.
I'm out the hotel door at 8 am for a short ride to the airport. On the first leg of the trip from Bangkok to Tokyo there is nobody sitting next to me (in my row of two seats. So I'm able to stretch out and read and watch movies. On the flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles I have an emergency aisle seat with lots of legroom. (Somehow ANA airlines lets you select an emergency row seat from the website. Other airlines assign those seats only in person.)
It's a typical return flight with movies and sleep and reading and walking and stretching as much as possible. When I get back to Los Angeles there are hardly any lines for immigration or customs - what the heck happened? There are always long lines for each of these. As I make my way home I help out a Danish guy with the trains so that he can get to his hotel. On the second traina guy pulls out a baggie of marijuana and starts rolling a joint. THe baggie has a label on it as if it was obtained from a medical marijuana dispensary though neither he nor his friends, all about 18 to 21 years old, don't look sick or ill at all. And when I get to my bus it looks like it is 45 minutes away, so I start walking home. Another guy has decided to skip the bus and walk also and we have a nice little conversation until he drops off at a 7-11. I continue on and get home to a house at 86 degrees F. It feels like I am (almost) back in Thailand or Cambodia. I take a quick shower, start the motorcycle and Person TI_ca's car (and they both start), start some laundry, and do some grocery shopping. WHen I return home I work on unpacking stuff and synching up various computers. On this trip I did not put my passport or wallet through the laundry before the trip. However, as I am doing laundry after the trip I discover that I have put my metro card (that allows me to ride the trains) through the laundry. I wonder if it will still work?