Howdy Doodee Folks,
I just finished lunch at an overpriced Chinese Khmer restaurant, but it sure was delicious and the fancy tranquil decor provided a little change of pace from the country side living I've been soaking in since Sunday. I can't complain about the country side vibe though, matter of fact I'm pretty sure it restored my sanity after the always surreal Occidental-Oriental voyage.
My travels got off to a slow start after a thunderstorm over the Charlotte airport and an inefficient boarding process by the LAX bound passengers. When the cabin stewardess asks more than five times for the passengers to turn off their portable electronics and applies the disclaimer "We will not take off until you do", and it still takes a few more requests, it might indicate that some of us are stuck in our own realities. After missing my connecing flight in LAX, my good friend Danny Blaze helped me book a room at the Baymont Suites. When I was eating my hotel breakfast in the morning it felt like I was already in a foreign country because nobody in the lobby was speaking English.
So I made it to the airport in time and took off with the Korean run Asiana Airlines. Boy do they know how to make their passengers comfortable. Each passenger is provided with disposable slippers, personal in flight entertainment systems, two full meals and all the free alcohol they want. I could just hang out on one of the planes for a vacation.
But alas, the journey must continue, and mine did with me arriving at Siem Reap international airport around 11 pm, and by the time I finished getting my visa and riding into town with my trusty tuk tuk driver Dragon, it was near midnight. By this time my body had very little sense of time but fortunately the part never stops at the Garden Village Guesthouse so I found a group of eager party people who I drank with until five in the morning, at which point I said enough. So had the Khmer guy who ran the whiskey stall we relocated too, he passed out so the clients took over the task of pouring the drinks.
Due my severe jet lag I woke up around 8:30 am. I ran into some of the folks I had been drinking withthe night before who, as I found out, had not gone to sleep yet. I met up with Dragon again and he took me to one of the floating villages of Lake Tonle Sap. After the hour long drive through the country side to get there I realized I was in Cambodia and not a post graduate college drinking district. As the wooden boat hummed down the river tributary into the lake we saw floating houses, floating schools. floating big sties and most of the features of a small town sitting on top of the water. When we made it out into the lake our boat pulled up by some small fishing vessels, which I guess would qualify as a floating fish market as Dragon went over and bought three bags of fresh lake critters, some of which were still squirming about. Now that dinner was secured we headed back to the boat landing.
On the ride back to Siem Reap Dragon stopped by his home in the country side to drop off a few bags of fish with various family members who I exchanged words but many smiles with. We made it back to Siem Reap around 5:30 and he invited me to come eat dinner with his wife around 7:30. When he left to force of jet lag came crashing down on me and I fell asleep until he came knocking on my door at dinner time. I pulled myself out of bed, ate a delicious fish and crab soup at his apartment in the city then proceeded to resume my overdue journey into the astral realm of subconscious energizing.
Jet lag got the better of me this round as I woke up at 3 am fully rested with no inclination to go back to sleep. It worked out well though as I wrote some overdue emails and went for a sunrise stroll around the city. As I walked out of the guesthouse I passed the the old whiskey stand and saw a couple of the guesthouse's residents covered in handprints made of day glo paint. Then I walked by the adjacent bar and it was packed to the brim with day glo covered party people. Then I several more day glo walkers came walking down the street and then it dawned on me that while 6 am was the time for most in the area to begin their day, for the good timing Reapers of Siem it was night cap time. Soon I remebered the purpose of my trip is providing services and then I knew, I had to go. So I met a driver, bought a phone and made for the countryside.
Hopping off the tuk tuk in Spean Kaek seemed to turn the jittery uncertainty of jet lagged dissocation crossed with balls to the wall party time into a cool, calm crisp vision what I am really seeking in this voyage. And now the real work begins, doing what I can to help the Chhan School, soon to be Samart School blossom into its next phase of function and productivity.
