USA ->6:57 AM
Cambodian time-> 7:57 PM
Location: Angkor International Hotel & Restaurant on the Terrace
Hello friends! I miss you immensely and I haven't even been here a full day! I specially miss Bobby and the Pig-dog (our english bulldog). I figured I'd try to stay off face book (it's hard) as much as I can so I can stay nice and involved here! If you get bored reading, I apologize but I will be breaking this down in segments in case you do. and I really felt the need to record my month of living here!
Plane Ride.
The plane ride here was smooth for the most part however just as uncomfortable as ever in the expected fancy economy class. The downside is, I'm a much larger adult as oppose to my smaller years when these seats seem big enough for me to curl up in a ball and sleep. The upside: I was surprise to have my own television and pretty up to date movies (such as Black Swan, The Social Network, & Burlesque,) it did help the time pass.
The food was pretty intense but I stomached it. Why would anyone torture someone by serving fish on a plane? Why…
Family.
It's nice to finally spends time with family and even my mom's constant nagging and poking at me is comforting. My brother is much older and we don't really get to see each other much since he's practically a hermit. I'm glad to know he's grown up to be a witty and goofy person that he is & lastly I reunited with my dad at the airport (he had came here a week earlier to scope out some potential real estate buying,) it was nice to see him all dressed and fancied up, he's been like that since we've been here. At home he dresses more like a dude instead of a businessman.
We have also seen a lot of my other relatives here Samath, Scilla, and Sidney's uncle came to visit us and showed us around the city and gave Sunny and SIM card to contact the USA (no luck.. only local calls). We also have seen my mom's side of the family and my cousins are absolutely beautiful and I thought one of them was my age and it turns out she's only 15 and all I could think was: Why wasn’t I this good looking at her age? I’m sure I would’ve had boys all over me. Made me feel like a child. Oh well.
Hotel
We arrived at the hotel at about 2:30 AM, (USA 11ish AM) Sunny and I are exhausted. My dad had booked us our own room so we had our own space(10 bucks a night for two queen size beds, not bad eh?) We both immediately whip out the laptops (I'm lame) and huddle in the corner of the room and take the very little Internet we have. We get our electronic fill for the night (20 min. tops) I played my DS till' I went into a deep sleep and dreamed that Piggy was with me and they were trying to kick us out of our hotel room because she was snoring to loud.
My Actual Day
We both wake up to our mom and dad knocking loudly on the door. They visit with us for a little bit then take off to grab breakfast. Sunny gets up first and looks out the window to see the amazing view from our window.
Sunny: "This is awesome look at the city"
"Oh look a white person!"
"Oh there's another!"
"Haha, minority!"
Crazy huh? It's wierd to be around your roots and your origins but it's almost like I adapted here very quickly. I love the hot muggy 85 degree weather it feels super nice on my unusually dry skin.
Food & Exploring
The breakfast my parents brought: lightly fried and sprinkled sugar donuts, plain bread, and a rice & pork combination. It was absolutely delicious and was only $2 to feed the both of us. While my mom went to entertain her relatives my dad took my brother and I to check out the old historic and rustic yellow king castle that over looks the river (the old king resided there). It was incredible to see all the international flags line up alongside the newly built stone side walks. All the lights and boats were pretty neat floating alongside the river down a large embankment that stretched a good 2 miles.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped at a small sit down area off the side of the road and had some coffee and pickled tea. We walked back to the hotel and took a nap and then woke up around 6pm and enjoyed another small dinner with fried spicy chicken, fried pork rice, & egg.
Now the fried chicken isn’t like American chicken with the flour around it. It came out in small cutlets with spices on them (no flour) on a bed of rice. Lots of bone picking but flavorful!
Etc.
I'm a scatterbrain so I apologize for all my short and choppy stories. But that’s how I work.
I feel happy to even be sitting out here in this tropical weather with nothing but palm trees and fun weird plants surrounding me. The sound of french people behind me having a conversation, motorcycles, and khmer music, yelling, clanging… it’s all so awesome.
Did I also mention I did most of the above all before 11 AM, which means I woke up and ate at 6 AM. This time change is screwy but- I like it.
One more thing-the traffic out here is insane. My dad told me the locals replace horns and breaks almost every 3 months and it's pretty common. There are hardly any cross walks, no traffic lights, it's almost like go as you please-or if you dare kind of additude. Pedestrians treat this traffic as if they were Frogger in a game. Ha.
It's 7:38pm currently and I'm ready to pass the F' out. Tommorow we will be seeing my grandma in the country side (Pailin) and then visiting ANGORWAT. Hells yeah.
Love you all
Signing off
-Linda
