9th December 2008
Some highlights of the Cambodia holiday:
a) Rain, rain, rain! After fervently promising a total lack of rainfall, the second morning of Claire’s visit resulted in an absolute down pour! One second no rain, next second full power-shower. I will never live it down – “you said the rainy season was finished!” Hmmm, yes well...
b) Doing my (unconscious) level best to get kicked out of every tourist place. Ok, I admit it, I am way to relaxed now, so these weird rules surrounding tourist places kinda fly over my ‘rules radar’; resulting in promising threats to get thrown out and many, many disapproving glances from officials. Oops. But seriously, I got told off for leaving my shoes on the floor instead of on the shelf (directly above!) WHY?? Were they damaging the floor?? And I honestly didn’t see the sign that said no entry, I didn’t realise it was the Kings house! (He could’ve shown a bit of courtesy and offered a cuppa anyways...)
c) Toul Sleng Genocide Museum). No, not a good highlight. In fact one of the most horrible experiences I’ve had in Cambodia. It’s just unfathomable to me why people are so fascinated with death and torture. Its heart-rending enough for me to know people who have been through the Khmer Rouge, to read books about experiences during that time; why do people want to go and visit one of the places where countless of people were mindlessly and horrifically tortured? Isn’t it possible that by keeping these places as ‘Tourist Attractions’ gives other sick bastards ideas? Isn’t it enough to see torture apparatus, cells and photographs of hundreds of dispirited faces without taking photos of it? Is that really a shot you want in your holiday album? I know the images will be with me for a lifetime without having a photographic record.
d) “Camera! Camera! Where’s my camera!” Claire’s frantically excited, though somewhat delayed response to seeing Sambo, the Wat Phnom elephant walking down a busy street in Phnom Penh, perfectly at home among the motos, with not a care in the world.
e) Singing Tree restaurant. The true beginning of Claire’s chill out holiday. Big squashy chairs, soft music, great food. I think we would’ve stayed all night had not a loud bunch of Aussies come in.
f) IT’S A BALLOOOOOOOON! IT’S A BIG YELLOW BALLOOOOOOON! A kid’s animated squeal at seeing the hot-air balloon at Angkor Wat, causing Claire and me to grin and repeat throughout the holiday like loons.
g) Oh dear, more rain! Am appalling holiday rep! As we exited Ta Phrom the heavens descended once more, hurling their full wrath upon us. Should we wait, try shelter under a tree or just go for it?? Decisions, decisions. Try as I might, even my powers of belief couldn’t deny that the trees were offering little protection from the deluge; worried about our lovely tuktuk friend we dashed out into the ever growing torrent. Within a minute we were absolutely sodden. To illustrate the rains force, we stopped briefly under a signpost; the water was roughly 50cm away from our feet. In the time it took to put 2 cameras in a back-pack the water was already flowing around our toes - marooned we were! Not content with being wet, we aimed for full on saturation as we walked around searching for Lucky and the tuktuk, ultimately concluding he was entirely more sensible than us and was waiting INSIDE somewhere. I genuinely love these moments; it was invigorating, childish and enormously comical; my cheeks hurt from laughing so much.
h) Banteay Kdei temple. First time to this temple, but now ranks as my favourite. There before any other tourist the three of us had the place to ourselves, to wander freely in the cool morning air, amongst the mossy stones and spiders webs. Thick tall trees looming overhead, projecting a shady, green atmospheric light. Perfectly tranquil. Like being in an ancient castle alone and having the freedom to explore every nook and cranny to your hearts content. The peace to imagine other civilizations walking the same passageways, holding banquets and dancing to the Gods.
i) Floating forest. A whole forest under approximately 6-7foot of water, only the highest braches reaching the surface, creating a truly picturesque tree-boat network. Nothing to hear but the rhythmic splash of paddles propelling the boat along and some bird-song - oh and Lucky biding me to “concentrate!” ‘Course, as he instructed me to do so, I turned around to look at him, swiftly getting hit upside the head by the very branch he was kindly informing me to be wary of!
j) Claire laughing at me because I wore my jeans and hoodie to bed in Rattanakiri; in the morning I asked if she slept well only to get the response it was fecking cold! Uhh-huh! The second night she was doing the same J
k) 
Elephant ride. Unfortunately ‘Hatchet Harry’ was the driver, lucky for him he didn’t utilise it too much or he would’ve found himself staring up at the underside of the elephant. Elephant was very ‘rumble-y’, yielding low warning sounds, which vibrated through its body whenever a moto or car appeared.
l) Social ant experiment... Who would’ve guessed ants could provide so much entertainment? We found an ant colony fervently trying to transport a cicada to their nest. Imagine a round hole and a square object and you will get the idea! I could see an easy way, and hypothesised what the ants would do if I moved the cicada nearer to the ‘round-hole’. Complete chaos ensued! 
m) Claire took enormous step into challenging herself and swam in volcanic lake, too deep to feel the bottom. Respect birdie.
n) The Khmer dime bar was born! We nearly succeeded in total devastation of my cooking pots in the attempt to make condensed milk sweets... nicely ending up with V tasty dime-bar-esque candy. Well done Claire!
o) Death-defying travel! It started with missing the ONLY bus ever to leave on time in Cambodia. Literally 3 minutes (ok, maybe 5... or so...) late, we earned ourselves another judgmental stare at the bus station, before hopping on a moto to catch up with the offending bus, to cower into our seats giggling like kids. Arriving safely in Phnom Penh we manage to hire the world’s slowest tuktuk who also didn’t know where he was going. Later on we find ourselves on a hell-for-leather moto, where even I have my eyes squeezed shut to avoid seeing what we are headed into... Oo-er missus!
10km run achieved!!!
Awesome
Amazing
Fun
Stupendous
Pretty easy
Immense team spirit
Just some words I’d use to describe the Angkor International Half Marathon day. There was ‘team VSO’ in our matching red T-shirts and white caps, most of us doing the 10km race. I guess there was over 2000 people participating in all the races, so the atmosphere was quite exciting. And to run round the ancient Angkor temples was simply remarkable. Before the race Jen asked me if I felt nervous, and I can honestly say not one bit. I was filled to brimming with anticipation, ready to get going and be part of the event. I wasn’t disappointed, I felt electrified at seeing so many people there, crowding the streets around Angkor Wat. Delia joked during training that her reason for going was as a social occasion, and running the 10km, that’s what it felt like. There were so many people to watch and talk to or cheer on en route that I hardly noticed the running. Delightedly Delia and I even managed a joint sprint and whoop at the end!
I enjoyed it so immensely I am contemplating coming back next year to try the half marathon (and Hor has asked you, Mum, to come too!)
