Singapore to Cambodia

Dear Internet,

Yesterday is exceedingly difficult to remember, considering all of today happened. But this underscores how fickle my memory is, so I will persevere with this blog.

Let's see, let's see. What happened yesterday...

I woke up, yes. I threw all my sheets into Surabhi's washer, which was unfortunate since I left before I could take them out, so much for being thoughtful and saving her trouble.

Then what?

Oh. The cab to the airport. My cabbie was a chatty fellow. He had many thoughts on the state of Singapore and society. Too many to tell here. But he also had thoughts that appealed to me in my current state. He said, 'Oh you have the travel bug! When you are on fire, you gotta burn! Don't get married and have kids before you're done burning!'

Which kind of makes me think of Salem witch hunts of unmarried women, but I'm pretty sure he was trying to be encouraging. Not that I'd told him my marital status, but I suppose I can't knock him for a correct assumption.

Koi pond in the Singapore airport.

Then I flew to Cambodia. Made friends with a nice but dumb-as-brick middle-aged couple from New Zealand who sat next to me on the plane. They kept wanting to chat while I wanted to read LOTR. They also did not know how to fill out customs forms and kept asking me. And I kept giving them my seasoned-traveler advice, "Fill in the blanks."

They were weird.

My tuktuk driver for my time in Cambodia is a man who goes by Keath. He is nice, a bit too chatty for my taste, but then I am innately rude. He drove me to my hotel, the Siddharta Hotel, by way of 'downtown' Siem Reap. It's a tiny place, and the downtown area is basically a 3block hub of shops for tourists. I plan to spend some time wandering there tomorrow night. Last night though, I got settled in the hotel, which is absolutely charming, and appears to be carved straight out of the jungle. It's two wings surround a jewel blue pool, and the entire edifice is nearly overrun by the jungle. The hotel is decorated in cheerful oranges and reds. Overall, it leaves one with the sensation of living inside a very ripe papaya.

Two beds. In case I get lucky, and then need my space.

After getting settled, I headed off to dinner and a show with traditional Cambodian dancing. The restaurant, Koulen, featured a mega-buffet, complete with noodle soup, fried noodle, and grilling stations, rice pancakes and dumplings stations, desserts, fruit, salads, soups, traditional Cambodian food, some Thai options, and some Chinese options. 

And an array of fresh-squeezed juices was available to order. So I ordered a carrot juice, fast becoming a new favorite even though it makes my stomach hurt. Here is a glimpse of said meal.

The show was wonderful, and I highly recommend it as a great way to get your feet wet with the stories and legends you'll see portrayed in the temples' wall carvings. I tried to get a few shots in, but the lighiing was awful for iPhone photography, though it was gorgeous in person, and I didn't figure out the feature on the iPhone that helps correct for this until this afternoon.

After dinner, I came back to the hotel to unwind, write yesterday's blog, and get ready for the next day's adventure, starting at 4am to chase the sunrise at Angkor Wat. There are several hundreds of photos involved with that endeavor, so I'm not hopeful as to how timely my blogging is going to be.

I'm definitely forgetting something that belongs in this entry. But what? 

Xo,

S