I got a small taste of what Phnom Penh is like in the rainy season. When I left the hotel this morning, there was just a slight drizzle and I was kicking myself for not purchasing an umbrella when I had the chance. I was determined to go see a different part of town today even if it meant that I had to get wet. I set out for the riverside area which is the main tourist venue. This is where the high priced hotels, European pubs, and fair-trade Cambodian craft stores are. I had two things on my agenda for the day, getting a “seeing hands” massage, (a massage from a visually impaired person who has been specially trained) and going to the national museum. Neither of these activities required a camera. The museum wouldn’t allow it and the massage….no one wants to see photos of that. I arrived at the museum before it opened, so I strolled along the Tonle Sap River until the weather turned sour. The gray storm clouds cut loose with a deluge that would have soaked me if I hadn’t packed a rain poncho. Still, it was coming down hard enough to force me to take refuge in a riverfront restaurant. I indulged in a western-style, calorie-rich breakfast of a cheese and mushroom omelet, a baguette with butter and jam and iced Vietnamese coffee. You don’t get toast in Laos or Cambodia, it’s always the baguette, which tastes wonderful, but I am always embarrassed about the crumby mess I leave behind. This morning in addition to leaving a crumby mess, I also had a wad of soiled napkins that I had used to clean off the backs of my legs. Mud splashes show up so well on alabaster skin.
It was back to a drizzle when I finished my breakfast, but I knew that it wouldn’t last long. I headed back north and found the seeing-hands massage place before the next wave hit. I ordered a Khmer massage just to compare it to a Thai and Lao massage. When I was changed and settled, the massage therapist came in to work on me and I was surprised because….she could see. Apparently the visually impaired massage therapists are taught Japanese massage and a few others, but not Khmer. I accepted this and made mental plans to come back for a Japanese massage. I didn’t want to start whining, “but I want a blind guy to do it.”
By the time my massage was completed, the monsoon had returned, but it was too late to request a second hour. I put my raincoat over my head and double-timed it to the national museum. There is not much to their collection. Most of the artwork from the Khmer civilization went into the temples of which there were a few good examples, but the real museum is at Siem Reap which is where I am headed tomorrow.
When I was quoted $40 to fix the “membo” on my camera, I should have had someone write it down and sign their initials because when I picked up my Canon at the camera shop they asked me for $45. “But I was quoted $40,” I said. We went back and forth about what the original quote was and who told me what. I know that I was quoted $40. To my credit, I did not get upset. I was so thrilled to have my camera back that I probably would have paid the $45. To his credit, he honored the alleged “original quote”. Was it a miscommunication or a bait and switch
