Going with the flow, back in the city...

We are in Phnom Penh currently and realizing once again the intensity of crossing a city street in Asia. After being on many beaches with low traffic and islands with no more than foot traffic making adjustments to the craze and disfunction of traffic flow is more than dazzling. In Thailand we became accustom to looking right then left, but here in Cambodia they drive on the right side of the street like at home so we are quickly relearning to look left then right. Honestly it is pretty much irrelevant which way you look in either place because there are absolutely no apparent traffic laws so every time I step off the curb I feel like a jack popping out of the box, my head bouncing to the right, back to the left and then all over the place as if it really were spring loaded. You learn to do this while dancing between moto-bikes, tuk tuks and anything else moving. It's quite a thrilling experience, every time. What I really mean by going with the flow is much broader than crossing the street.

Everyday is something new so you have to be flexible, patient and understanding with every step. Fortunately for us, we usually are or can at least balance one another out. Island life is easy and time seems to stand still, but entering a different country can be frustrating and exhausting for reasons ranging from language and currency to transportation and food. It was mind boggling when we first entered Cambodia. We were becoming pros with getting through Thailand and dealing in baht. 100 baht is approx. 3 dollars - no sweat. In Cambodia 4000 riel is 1 dollar - a bit more units. In Cambodia they except baht, riel and dollars interchangibly so you quickly need to get use to using all three currencies interchangibly. We didn't, because that's insane - and why dollars in Cambodia? No problem we're American; maybe the only two in the world without any US dollars. That's how our first few days went and then it was off the mainland - Ko Ru bound - that's Bamboo Island - and we posted up for 6 or 7 days. No resorts, no power until after 5:30 pm, no roads or vehicles and hardly any persons - that's where we spent the celebration for my 28th birthday (please send gifts to 801 kemp st. or deposit directly in bank account; thanks). The day prior to the most important day in the world was capped with an evening fishing trip off the island in which we accompanied an Aussie couple and a couple chaps from England. Pretty chill sunset fishing excursion - we were all reeling them in. Some colorful fish referred to as cucumber fish. I should mention we are fishing Khmer style which means you have the line in your hand, a hook with some squid and a plastic spool to wrap the line around. Pretty basic we thought which is why we were not expecting what happened next. Jane is pulling in another one, no big deal until she is taking an aggressive stance and racing time to get her line pulled in, suddenly she is working her way, like she had done this before, around the front of the boat and on around. Now she seems like the catch. She continues her battle while our two Khmer guides make it her way, fishing net in hand, to help out. Within minutes there's a shark in the boat. SHARK!... in the boat... The looked like a great white, but it was only a few feet long. They said it was a crazy shark - like that's the species and that is about as big as they get. They also said they had never caught one so this was new for everyone. The following day, most important day in the world, was my birthday. Oriana, the ever thoughtful Queen that she is, was full of surprises. First a couple of mystery bottles of red wine emerged. Wait that's second. First a bottle of whiskey, a book, some balm and a package of my favorite slims were revealed. The wine was later. I spent most the day completing my sand fortress which turned out after a couple days. A little later on while eating dinner the bottles of red were opened and flowed about. Now, you are all probably thinking 2 bottles of red wine - cool, but there was no wine on the island - it had to be specially delivered from the mainland. Good work baby! So we are having a good time, all the other guests are wishing me well and who would of thought, a cake came out. CAKE...there isn't cake on Bamboo island and definitely not a bakery - where does cake come from? The mainland where like the vino, was carefully and discretely boated an hour over to the island. Good work baby! So we had a little celebration and enough cake for all the guests present. I thought I was excited, but you should have seen the Swede, Marvin sitting next to me. When the cake came out he lit up like a little boy. It was great. To top everything off the staff rolled me a quite large khmer cigarette which put a grin on everyones face. So we left the island the following day and arrived in Phnom Penh yesterday. We are staying at a nice guesthouse on the lake and like I said before, getting use to the city again.

Tomorrow we are going to see some sites which I think will be a heavy load. We will see the killing fields and torture chambers where hundreds of thousands were brutaly murdered under the reign if the Khmer Rouge. In a few days we will head north to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat, then back this way to head into Vietnam. We are lovely and miss all of you. We know we need to load more pics but we lost our camera charger so until we resolve this be patient. much love-