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.
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.)
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 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.
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.)