Weeks End
Great weekend. Saturday Dani and I went to Udong by Tuktuk. Tuktuks generally go about 20 kms an hour and Udong is 46 kms away. It was quite the journey. Udong appeared to my eyes to be a pagoda on a hill rather than a bustling town that the guide books had promised.
A mere 540 steps later we were sweating buckets but were atop the hill. Dani and I had two little boys each to fan us on the way up. They stuck with us the entire time and though appeared around ten they were actually thirteen. Spoke fantastic English. We gave them a couple of dollars and they were delighted - a month's worth of school. We saw monkeys - the Khmer word for which is "soier" or similar - both big and small. The small ones were quite cute but they bite and have all sorts of nasty diseases so we kept our distance.
Restaurants in Udong are not really like anywhere I have been before. You sit cross legged on a wooden table, about three feet from the ground, and eat the scrawny roast chicken and rice - the only thing on the menu - wash it down with water. The salt and pepper are mixed in one dish and you then squeeze lime juice over the mix - pretty tasty. Then relax into the hammock or just lie flat out on the table and sleep. The kids will fan you for as long as you want, and then some. All the while, people come over with things to sell - flowers, fruit, toys, laundry baskets, turtle eggs still in the turtle ... I bought a wicker basket to keep stuff in - the endless business cards, anti mosquito bite cream, my parker's cartridges which I was delighted to find in Phnom Penh.
Well we headed back to Phnom Penh because I'm forbidden to travel after dark, and because I had to pick up my clothes from my tailor so I would have something to wear to work today. Felt like royalty on the way back. Every kid we passed yelled "hello" and smiled - so cute. Got sunburned on selected body parts - both knees, right forearm, and a heart shape near my left collarbone - very random. My clothes weren't ready because of electricity cuts but I bought DVDs instead. Went to bed early but sunburned burned and I was too hot to sleep!
Sunday was a day of luxury. Eva, a Finnish girl, invited me to a spa with her in a very expensive hotel. I sweated it out in the gym for as long as I could before joining her by the large, luxurious, outdoor swimming pool. It was surrounded by trees and I did not even hear the noise of traffic. Fluffy towels, waiter service, free bottled water - ab fab! It was like those ads you see for expensive resorts - made me forget the developing world for a while. After a few hours of lounging in the pool, I headed off for the Khmer Kitchen where I had lunch with some colleagues - yummy yummy food. I meandered home under the hot sun and set to cleaning the apartment. Relaxed with a book.
A mere 540 steps later we were sweating buckets but were atop the hill. Dani and I had two little boys each to fan us on the way up. They stuck with us the entire time and though appeared around ten they were actually thirteen. Spoke fantastic English. We gave them a couple of dollars and they were delighted - a month's worth of school. We saw monkeys - the Khmer word for which is "soier" or similar - both big and small. The small ones were quite cute but they bite and have all sorts of nasty diseases so we kept our distance.
Restaurants in Udong are not really like anywhere I have been before. You sit cross legged on a wooden table, about three feet from the ground, and eat the scrawny roast chicken and rice - the only thing on the menu - wash it down with water. The salt and pepper are mixed in one dish and you then squeeze lime juice over the mix - pretty tasty. Then relax into the hammock or just lie flat out on the table and sleep. The kids will fan you for as long as you want, and then some. All the while, people come over with things to sell - flowers, fruit, toys, laundry baskets, turtle eggs still in the turtle ... I bought a wicker basket to keep stuff in - the endless business cards, anti mosquito bite cream, my parker's cartridges which I was delighted to find in Phnom Penh.
Well we headed back to Phnom Penh because I'm forbidden to travel after dark, and because I had to pick up my clothes from my tailor so I would have something to wear to work today. Felt like royalty on the way back. Every kid we passed yelled "hello" and smiled - so cute. Got sunburned on selected body parts - both knees, right forearm, and a heart shape near my left collarbone - very random. My clothes weren't ready because of electricity cuts but I bought DVDs instead. Went to bed early but sunburned burned and I was too hot to sleep!
Sunday was a day of luxury. Eva, a Finnish girl, invited me to a spa with her in a very expensive hotel. I sweated it out in the gym for as long as I could before joining her by the large, luxurious, outdoor swimming pool. It was surrounded by trees and I did not even hear the noise of traffic. Fluffy towels, waiter service, free bottled water - ab fab! It was like those ads you see for expensive resorts - made me forget the developing world for a while. After a few hours of lounging in the pool, I headed off for the Khmer Kitchen where I had lunch with some colleagues - yummy yummy food. I meandered home under the hot sun and set to cleaning the apartment. Relaxed with a book.
|
Bookmark this post:
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment