In My Wildest Dreams

Lee how eeee.....!

Yeah--something like that. Goodbye in Khmer, um, I think. Am in the Tokyo Narita airport, which is beautiful and clean and lots of stores calling my name, but I'm trying to resist the temptation. My bags are absolutely packed solid after shopping at the Psar Chaa Market/"Old" Market in Siem Reap, but, man, duty free Chanel....... :) :) Yea, okay, so I already succumbed to the duty free Chanel in the Singapore Airport. Maybe I'll just settle for dinner (and there's this really cool meditation bell in the Japanese gift shop...that's a spiritual thing, right, so it doesn't count????).



Well, last coupla days were mostly (m restful, shopping, massage :), laying by the pool, getting my reading done for class, and, um, making frequent frequent trips to the bathroom. Yes--of course, I just HAD to drink the fresh palm juice from one of the villagers at Angkor Wat. I had a feeling that was not a good move, but where else will I drink fresh palm juice? Plus, it's not really quite the same experience w/o a good case of the sh*$s!!!! (I know, certainly, there are those who would beg to differ). So, being down and out for a couple of days forced me to chill out by the pool, which is exactly what I needed before going back to the 'real world.' Fortunately, Jennifer had been through the same experience a few days earlier and talked me into starting the CIPRO she brought with her, sooner rather than later. I didn't need much convincing. I had already developed a rash on my arm earlier in the trip and was beginning to think that, now with the diarrhea and flu-like symptoms, that maybe I had typhoid or some other wild swamp disease, being the hypochondriac that I am.

Sunday morning we left Siem Reap by boat. Fortunately by that time I was almost back at 100%. We hopped up on the top of the boat, which left from Siem Reap's Floating Village, and geared up for the 6 hour boat ride up the river to Phnom Penh. Apparently, so did all the other American and European tourists in Cambodia that day. We had not run into so many tourists during the whole trip.... There's just something about American tourists that makes me feel, well, "full of judgment," as Jennifer expressed it. She and I shared the same sentiment, so practiced acknowledging judgment and letting it go--pretty much the whole boat ride there. Good meditation :). He he...I'm still practicing a bit, I think, b/c I still feel like I'm on the boat, rocking back and forth.... Mildy uncomfortable, but oh well. (Is this karma?)

We arrived with enough time for me to shower at Jennifer's hotel and get to the airport for my flight to Singapore. Good, b/c I was pretty grimy and in no condition to make a good impression on Meng's sister, who was planning to meet me at the airport. After a good clean up, I made it to the airport without managing to get too covered in dust. Flight was easy, and Vivien was waiting for me as I walked about of Singapore's (incredibly low-key) customs. She and I went to grab dinner--lots of food, noodles with shrimp, fish ball soup, rice paper rolls with something yummy but unfamiliar on the inside, chicken and lamb satay, sugar cane juice, and fish paste in banana leaves. Needless to say, I was quite full and went to bed with a happy tummy after she took me for a drive around the city at night. It was really nice to meet her; she's very sweet, just like her baby brother :). Got 3 hours sleep before the cab came to pick me up. Had originally been assigned a really crappy middle seat from Tokyo to SFO (the longest part of the flight), but upgraded for a reasonable fee to a window seat in Economy Plus (oh boy, 5 more inches of leg room...amazing that this seemingly silly pitch actually works these days, with Economy being so amazingly sardine-ish).

So now I'm here in TOKYO!!!! Well, not really. I'm here at the airport. Gonna go grab some noodles, I suppose.

LOVE,
Me

posted by Sara @ 11:48 PM