What Do You Mean This Street is in Phnom Penh?

This was my reaction, the tone of which I'm sure was not well understood by the Cambodian taxi driver, when he told us that Lawrence's aunt's address was in Phnom Penh. Having just landed in Siem Reap, 6 hours north of Phnom Penh, we found ourselves in a bit of a pickle. So much for having a relaxing weekend.

As relatively seasoned travelers, we maneuvered our way into borrowing our cabbie's cell phone to call his aunt, who promptly told us she was confused about why we had asked to stay the night with her in Phnom Penh when we were flying to Siem Reap. Luckily, she had lived in Siem Reap one year ago and directed us towards her good friend's hotel. He took us in as if we were family.

After checking in, we decided that, having made it all the way to Cambodia after three years of trying to visit Lawrence's aunt there, the least we could do was take a bus down to Phnom Penh the next day and actually see her. (As a little bit of background, this is the third year in a row we've tried making it to Cambodia to visit Lawrence's aunt. The first time two years ago, the trip got cancelled because Lawrence's bowel decided to explode into its lumen. The second time last year, we ran out of time- a little thing called med school cut the trip shorter than we would have liked.) We skipped dinner and instead opted to walk around town looking for the one public pay phone that would allow us to call collect to the only open Bangkok Airways office in the world 8PM Cambodia time (in the US of course) to try to reroute our flight back to Bangkok out of Phnom Penh. And of course we were unsuccessful in finding the phone. Luckily, Lawrence had his iPod Touch (thank you Apple) and used the wifi upon our return to the hotel to carry on an email conversation with his mom over a course of 5 hours in order to have our flights rerouted.

The next day, we got up at 4:30 AM (after only 4 hours of sleep) to see Angkor in all its glory at sunrise. With our luck, our hired tuk-tuk driver never showed. The hotel arranged for us to have another guide, but we ended up missing the sunrise by 45 minutes. Bummer, but we proceeded to walk and be tuk-tuked around Angkor (through only 1/2 of the 122 square miles of it) for the next 8 hours, taking a lunch break at 10AM.

The Wats, especially Angkor Wat, were indeed spectacular. They are the definition of awe-some. The carvings and detail of every last free space on the Wats, the heaviness with which the Wats stood, and the resolve the Wats had to withstand nature, the Khmer Rouge, and otherwise really helped shape how in awe I was as I stood in front of the culmination of Khmer culture.

We rushed back to the hotel after a long, hot morning at Angkor to catch our bus to Phnom Penh. The bus is as miserable as would be appropriate for the trip: full of exhaust, equipped with a leaky air conditioner that dripped on Lawrence all 6 hours, and cramped. We finally made it to Phnom Penh, to Lawrence's aunt's apartment, to a fabulous shower, to an expat party, and then to a bed. It had been one of the longest days, maybe ever.

The next day, we walked over to Tuol Sleng, the high school in Phnom Penh that the Khmer Rouge used to detain and torture its "enemies" (local, educated Cambodians) before sending them to killing fields outside of Phnom Penh. It took us 4 hours to get through most of the exhibit. It was so saddening and horrifying that we couldn't finish going through all 4 buildings.

And I can't not mention the food, of course! For lunch after our Tuol Sleng visit, Lawrence and I had some absolutely delicious (though unidentified) meat on a stick with baguettes and pickled salad and coke for a grand total of $2! God I love the dining experience in Asia.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out with Lawrence's aunt, uncle, and expat friends at yet another party before hitting the sack. We woke up early the next morning and successfully returned to Bangkok, after risking our lives (again) in 7 km tuk-tuk ride through Cambodian highway craziness and a bit of negotiating at the airport to let us onto our rerouted flight.

Champagne or Green Tea?

These were the first words uttered to Lawrence and me as we sat down in our business class seats on the second leg of our flight from Dulles to Tokyo. All Nippon Airlines (ANA) had overbooked their flight, and I must have just smiled the right way at the desk attendant to get him to choose Lawrence and me for the upgrade.

And let me tell you, business class rocks! We boozed up (screwdrivers!) and were able to repose completely flatly across our seat/bed/massage chair. We had menus to choose delicious foods from and movies/music/TV/games on demand. We were loungin’. In fact, we were enjoying ourselves so much that we were actually sad to leave the plane.

And we were even sadder on the last leg of our flight from Tokyo to Bangkok when we returned to coach. Hitting my head on the seat in front of me as I grabbed the pen I so inconveniently dropped as I filled out the disembarking papers hurt that much more.

My Thai co-workers arranged for a driver to pick Lawrence and me up from the airport. That was particularly convenient because 1) we didn’t know how to get to our apartment and 2) it was 1AM and we were pooped. This was perhaps my least stressful departure from a foreign airport I’ve ever had. (No trying to sleep in the airport and then proceeding to get kicked out or haggling for a ride to town and a hotel room.)

We arrived at our place to find perhaps the nicest apartment Lawrence and I will have lived in so far. Ample shelving, two balconies, and even air conditioning! We unpacked and just savored our new place. We felt rested, relaxed. We are ready for our summer in Bangkok! More to come as life happens here.