Phnom Penh - Thursday. I flew down from Siem Reap this morning to go to an interview with the Australia Centre of Education (ACE) here in Phnom Penh. It was not planned but with the 9-week journey about to end, it was time to come home with something.
The interview went well and I was offered a position provided my credentials are genuine. No problems - but I could not take up any offer while Honey is still alive and needing me around. Well, that's the feeling at the moment.
Siem Reap is an amazing town and, still amazing, Janet and I will have spent nearly two weeks in total at the Angkor Hotel and still have not been out to see the world-famous temples and archeological sites. Janet is on intimate terms with about 20 books and the hotel's huge swimming pool. I am just busy waiting on her.
This is a town where I feel most alive. The people, for a start, are wonderful. We have made so many friends with hotel staff and done things for them that we are part of their family. The morning's attendance in the dining room is the closest I'll ever get to being considered royalty. There would be over a dozen people come to express their enjoyment (or amazement) that we are there once more and we really feel warmed to the core - this even before 8.30 am. I shall miss them very, very much.
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Just some indelible memories of our journey:
In Saigon, I saw from my taxi, across the boulevard, an old person in a wheelchair, pushing in the compacted traffic, with a collapsed body of a young teenage boy lying across his lap. What does one do? The scene receded and I lost sight. Looking at it, even for those few moments, was painful. But what can one do? It reminded me of a sight my friend John recounted a few days ago after he came back from Dhaka. He said he walked past a youth, probably again a teenage boy, lying half on the gutter, his right foot missing and his left leg suppurating from massive infection. The boy was in septic shock, lying in the sun, crying softly to Allah, nearly unconscious. People stepped over him as they hurried about. John was new to the city and looked back, wondering what he should have done. This, I think, will haunt him.
In Taipei, we went to what was recently the tallest building in the world - constructed in an abstract design resembling bamboo and rising 101 storeys. Of course, on the day we visited it was raining and cloudy.
In Bangkok, we went to the state tower at the sun set and viewed this glorious city at a height of 61 storeys. Bangkok is unbelievable at any time, but with the city lighting up and the colours of red and black, it was sheer magic.
In Hanoi, the 36 streets of the Old Quarter provided more magic as streets swarmed with tourists from around the world. They competed with motorscooters for space on the roads as the sidewalks were blocked with locals eating. Someone will bring a portable light, some plastic stools, a gas-fired wok and some food, establishing an instant kitchen. Locals stop to eat, chatting to each other or the cook and feeding themselves from her cooked meals for as much as $2.
In Siem Reap, a local took me to his favourite eating place where laminex tables, fluorescent lighting and paper strewn all over the floor gave no hint that two very tasty fruit smoothes, a large plate of beef stew and fried rice as well as soup, could be purchased for $2. Of course I was stared at - Westerners do not eat at places like this, or even know about them.
At the elephant camp an hours' river taxi from Chiang Rai, I was feeding an elephant with sugar cane when four other Thai elephants, said to be the most gentle of their breed, caressed me with their trunks. It was like the Day of the Triffids. Their trunks were seemingly controlled to exactly within an inch of where they wanted them to be.
In Kuala Lumpur, the home of the spectacular Petronius Towers, all glittering, twinkling and shimmering at night, I visited a modern food market in the basement area, only to see the locals clustering around a particular shop and ignoring the wonderful Malaysian food. The shop was the doughnut specialty shop.
Janet has had the most amazing overall: from manicured fingers and toes, each painted a frosty pink, to her new Gucci glasses, to her wonderful dental work, to her new rusty red hairstyle, to new clothes and suntan, she looks gorgeous.
No place disappointed, except for Saigon but we were both sick there. We've met marvellous human beings and our affection for them is such that it has been painful to walk away. We are concerned for their country, their politics and their futures.
If you've got this far, thank you for your patience and dedication to reading events we thought were worthwhile recording and despite the varying quality of reporting, the people we left behind were all mentioned at practically every stop. Now, we look forward to seeing you and not discussing our break as you know as much as we do about travel, surviving, and launching ourselves into this incredible part of the world - South-east Asia.
