charlesbreland.com

wow, so there's a national department of cults and religons? how bizarre.

i'm now at the siem reap airport sitting on the plane (a prop-job decorated with fish). if there's one thing i hate, it's airport exit fees. you've got your ticket, you've checked in, you're on your way to security and wham! it's "please pay $25 airport fee." c'mon, that's not fresh. oh well, at least i'm not on an 8 hour car ride and doing the flight gave me just enough time to get a body scrub this morning. it felt really good to get 2 weeks of dirt and sweat off me. i'm feeling much better and joyfully beginning the long journey home. next stop bangkok!

well i thought i'd finish this trip with out incident (digestive that is) but it wasn't to be. i woke up feeling pretty weak this AM and didn't even make it to angkor until i felt "safe" around 11:30. that made for a little more fast paced day than i had planned, but i did see most of what i wanted to. unfortunately all i've had today are two pieces of toast, two egg whites and two ginger ales. also, unfortunately i've been sweating my butt off today. i've consistently been the sweatiest person i've seen all day long. i'm pretty sure i smell, but they do too (so we're all square on that) but i think people are noticing that i'm leaving puddles in my wake. anyway, i just saw a monkey (possibly hallucinating) and the sun is going down. i'm lying on a balustrade cooling off and watching the sun set on angkor wat. btw, there have been guys going around setting up lights on every inch of this extremely long walkway. as near as i can figure, they can't afford waterproof lights so they set these out every night. funny thing, on one exhibit yesterday at their national palace (where their god-king lives) they have a plaque next to a fresco. it explained wha the fresco was of and how the polish had provided some money for the restoration. it goes on to say that the people of cambodia are eagerly awaiting another donor to help finish the project. that just really cracked me up.

flights are sold out to bangkok for tomorrow, leaving me with two options….$11 and a 9 to 10 hour busride (and not on a nice bus) or $120 and a 7 hour car ride. do i really want to sit on a bus ALL DAY then get on a five hour flight, then have a twelve hour layover, then have another fifteen hour flight?that's not sounding good to me right now. all in all, i'm thinking i'd visit vietnam again, but cambodia may be a place that i (as my father used to say) "mark off the list". btw, a MASSIVE thunderstorm is just now sneaking up on me. this could be a very wet scooter ride home!

i'm currently in a car with a guy from germany (sebastian) and a girl from malaga (esther) who i met on the bus from saigon. they're here on holiday from classes in australia. all of the non-asians from the bus got together for dinner and drinks last night and the three of us decided to eschew public transportation and get a car to take us to siem reap. that leaves us where we are now. we were late leaving and then the driver got a phone call (ostensibly from his wife) and his rate of speed picked up dramatically. we're doing 70 miles an hour. i know in america that's not fast, but in cambodia it feels like we're weaving our way across the forest moon of endoor. so, if all goes well, i'll still be in siem reap by 8:30. btw, the guy got his back seat re-upholstered and didn't do cutouts for the seatbelts so they're trapped behind his rich corinthian pleather. for this reason i have a seatbelt wrapped around me like an anaconda right now. i'm not sure if i'm doing myself any favors with that.

oh, and we just stopped and met his family. his mom kept speaking to us even though we obviously don't know a word of khmer. they seemed nice though and they did (of course) have the requisite naked baby that they wanted us to see. til next time…..