on our bumpy bus ride up into the hills, we stop to take a swim before dinner at a local watering hole. aside from the backdrop noise of swimmers and bystanders, i can easily imagine myself all alone perched on this warm rock in the middle of a stream deep in the rocky hills. when i concentrate, an entire other symphony of sounds comes into hearing - there are woodpeckers in Cambodia. i am physically farther away from everything i know at this moment.
our group dines outside on local dishes by the light of one lone bulb powered by a car battery. it's probably best that we cannot see what we are eating. mealtime is punctuated by the frequent shriek of someone startled by a large flying bug accompanied by much flapping of hands/shaking of hair. perfect entertainment while munching on grilled frog. yes, frog does taste exactly like chicken.
it is completely pitch dark as we carefully trek back to our sleeping quarters. the night sky is absolutely breathtaking - thoroughly sprinkled with stars and there are so many that i can no longer pick out any recognizable constellations.
my nighttime ritual is now pared down to brushing one's teeth with one mouthful of bottled water, applying bug repellent and then carefully crawling underneath the canopy of mosquito netting. it's not even nine o'clock when we are all in bed. electricity is a luxury here. one of my traveling companions reads his favorite book - Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss. cannot remember the last time someone read me a bedtime story and to get one here of all places just confirms the wonderful serendipity that is part of traveling.
