sitting in a nicer café waiting for a psychoenergizing videocall that is the only reason (apart from this blog) to have taken long the laptop.
It was an edge if I wanted to stay in Siem Reap a day longer to do this, as otherwise I think I would have travelled today. Also I would have skipped Angkor Wat sunrise. It means getting up at 4 (always reminds me of Cinzia & Simonetta in Palmyra complaining about the lack of a decent Italian espresso machine….) and people have told me over and over again it’s a high risk due to rain season, and what if you don’t see anything because it’s cloudy.
Well.
I went to the Cambodian Circus yesterday which was a blast and has my absolute recommendation. Go there to early, feel a little stupid, negotiate the Happy Hour for cocktails (1 to pay, 1 for free, if you have my alcohol-consuming abilities that’s a serious problem) to make it one cocktail and one virgin cocktail….. and then enjoy dinner. Happy hour – one dinner for me, one for the mosquitoes because I forgot the anti-repellent.
Anyhow great circus. I caught a tuktuk on the street to go and in the rain, and I liked Mr. San 08 (that’s what it says on his tuktuk). Mostly because he stood at the everything-shop around the corner of my guesthouse, buying some stuff, and didn’t see me, while I was seeing his (empty) tuktuk PLUS he was suspicious for wearing a moto-helmet. He turned, saw me and of course asked the question all tuktuk drivers ask (do you need a tuktuk). Which I found sort of heroic because it’s him, not me, who’ll in consequence will have to drive through the rain (tuktuk DRIVERS in rain are covered by their helmet, the rest is a very wet sauna gratuit. So when i answered positively, he got got excited in a reluctant Cambodian way, which means his helmet window (yes I lack an English word here, thanx for asking) crushed down over his face due to his excitement. And it gave me clear focus on his eyes, so I decided Mr San is nice, and so he is.
After he had convinced me it would make sense to wait for me at the circus (that meant waiting for over 3 hours) he also reacted cool when putting the classic question on the way back „what are you doing tomorrow, where do you want to drive?“. That was after fellow travellers had showed off with their sunrise-pics and I decided I should got today. And when I wondered how easy or not it would be to catch a tuktuk-cab at 4am in the morning, it became clear Mr San would be my victim. So I asked him, how long he’d need to sleep, upon which he (heroically) replied „i don’t have a job“s and then we time-negotiated our way towards meeting at 4h45.
There’s almost no pics from the circus, as I decided to simply enjoy it. My category C (cheapest, have I mentioned I’m a bit mad at those business attitudes…) ticket was upgraded to B (where you sit higher than in category A which is nicer) which eased my anger quite a bit. I chatted with my seating neighbors all along, of course apart from the Northern Germans sitting behind me, who only identified themselves in the end, so no chat here apart from where are you from… Anyhow nice.
Also my malaria-fear (the elephant-project region, Mondulkiri, is malaria-region, as I learned from the email-confirmation and I haven’t brought any tablets) got better this morning, when talking to a sweet elderly couple next to me that seemingly have been everywhere. She said the tablets are really harsh and it doesn’t give you a guarantee, so if you’re not staying in the middle of nowhere, getting medical help once you have symptoms and using a lot of repellent in the meantime is the better approach. And, I inquired to the couple, probably drinking enough Gin tonic?!, upon which the man was the perfect British gentleman and answered with a clear yes. Thank you.
Also thanks to Akiri and Takashi (or Takeshi, not sure here, which is embarassing, because I mix that up from watching way too much Takeshis castle decades back in France) for booking the Tomle Sap tour yesterday which got me booked in as well.
I’m close to being a pure vegetarian instead of a fishy one, after having seen the fish on the market in Rolus (the name is close to that, I’m pretty sure). I loved the market and the snails and the frogs were already dead, but the fish and some crabs are not, and sometimes there’s „garbage“ on the floor, which means a fish escaped and is trying to make its way on land, which is not working out really. I know those fish are probably much happier than anything Captain Iglus Fischstäbchen in Germany has ever served me, however I still wish they’d have a nicer ending. Before ending up in the yummiest curry ever, I mean.
Need to finish as I have ten more minutes to my videocall, and I did want to post some pics, right. Too many…
I still want to mention i saw the first snake, touring the lake. The guide saw it and told me… A small one, hanging on the end of one hammock, the hammock again swinging between the trees, the trees again standing in the flooded lake. Tomle Sap is beautiful (to Nuia – yes, pics will follow…) ((one day…)). I liked that snake.
Off now. I travel tomorrow, I doubt there’s wifi on the minibus, as well as I’ll not show off I have a laptop…, maybe more on Sunday. Or not. If not, then it’ll be a few days more….. Cheerio!