At the end of my trip I went back to Kuala Lumpur where I met up with my friend Meghan. We spent a couple days in KL then traveled north. Most of the spots we went to I have been before. The only stop we had in Malaysia was Cameron Highlands (It is still beautiful), then we crossed into Thailand. Getting into Thailand immediately made me homesick for Cambodia. Thailand is much more similar to Cambodia than any of the places I had visited, and it just made me want to go back to Cambodia. Meghan and I went to a couple nice islands in the South. Koh Phangan (which I had a already visited) and Koh Samui (first time). Then went north and spent a couple days in Bangkok. I’m not too fond of Bangkok, and I couldn’t wait to get out of the city.
My flight got delayed by like 30 minutes. Once the plane took of I was really giddy to think I would be in my favorite country in about one hour. After landing it took me a while to get through immigration. I got my bag and left the airport. Outside the airport, overpriced tuk-tuks wait, I decided to walk out of the airport on to the street to take a cheap moto. As I was walking through the parking lot one of the moto drivers hanging out there struck me as a little different from the rest. Instead of the saying “Moto” or “Hello my friend” he said “Excuse me sir, you look like you are in need of transportation”. His line worked I decided I would ride his moto into the city. We agreed on the price and I jumped on. The sun was setting as we rode into the city and I was in heaven. It felt so good to be back.
Sopheak (the moto driver) spoke really good English, and I quite enjoyed our conversation. He invited me to come to his home town for dinner. Sopheak dropped me off at the OKAY guesthouse and I took down his phone number.
After checking in I put on my running gear and ran a few laps in the park near Independence Monument. I can’t begin to express how good it felt to be back.
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I have been back for about five days now. I went to Kandall province for dinner with Sopheak’s family, it was a very memorable night. I have caught up with my old friends. I went to the Foreign Correspondents Center and voted (thanks to the Democrats abroad). I went to the Hash, and slogged my way through some rice paddies. Now I am in my sublet apartment, which I will be staying in for about the next month in a half. It is so nice to have a place to call my own again, and to not be living out of my backpack. I love backpacking, and I can’t wait until my next trip, but it is also nice to be in a city that I am familiar with, sleep in the same bed for a while, and be able to cook some of my own meals.
This weekend I had orientation for my TEFL class, the actual class starts today, and it looks like my schedule is going to be pretty intense for the next month (class starts at 9:00am and I don’t finish until 8:15pm) but I am looking forward to the challenge. I have been thinking about going home for the Holidays and possibly going back to Japan to work. I have no idea what I will do once I finish my TEFL, and I need to move out of my sublet. But right now I think I just might stay in Phnom Penh, I'm sure I will find it too hard to leave. I’ll have to wait and see.
