We're officially on vacation now. Yes, other than the one week of work this whole thing has been a vacation but there has been nothing relaxing about it until we hit Phnom Penh on Thursday. All major ailments have cleared up except the rash on my arm is back with a vengeance. I hate to admit that I might be allergic to this kind of heat.
We started our vacation with a $6 one hour massage at a place called "Seeing Hands". They train blind people to give massages and they are pretty amazing. Especially for $6. Our attempts to see the palace were thwarted by international women's day so we did what any reasonable person would do - went for a reflexology foot massage ($20). It was really too hot to do anything else. The next day we hit the palace early but in truth, I think we are temple/pagoda/stupa'd out.
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| Royal Palace grounds |
So now we are in Kampot - a sleepy little town near the southern coast. Our guesthouse is on a river - they tell me it is swimable but without clear vision to the bottom, I'll stick with the pool. It took a while to relax and get over the feeling that I had to see or do something. After all I'm in a new place. There must be something to see. But there really isn't. It is just beautiful and relaxing.
We did take the owners suggestion to ride to the top of Bokor Mountain. A 22 km up a twisting road with no shade. At the top was supposed to be a resort and waterfall. I'll never know because I bailed about 80% of the way. The sun was frying my head and the heat was sapping every last ounce of energy. But the ride down was fun.
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| Bokor National Park gates |
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| View of the ocean - near the top |
After the ride it was all I could do to stay awake until 8:00 pm. We had a terrible sleep the night before due to the oversize cockroach crawling across the bed. That just led to thinking everything was a cockroach resulting in one of us sporadically jumping out of bed, swatting the sheets and insisting another cockroach had found us. But last night I was too tired to care and fell asleep to Cambodian karaoke blaring somewhere in the country.
Until 4:30 am when a for real cockroach ran across my body heading for the end of the bed. I screamed. Peter flew out of bed, flip-flop in hand and for the next 20 minutes we tracked the beast. It took 5 attempts but Peter finally managed to kill it. That was not the start to the day I was looking for. That said, I'm now sitting by the pool with my computer waiting for our taxi to show up.
We are headed for Bangkok today - the last leg of the tour. I can't believe it is almost time to go home. I'm ready. There's work piling up despite my best efforts to stay on top of it and I could really use a break from this heat. No joke - it is beastly hot right now. They say you get used to it. I guess that is what we say about snow.
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| View from the bar at the guesthouse |
So now we are in Kampot - a sleepy little town near the southern coast. Our guesthouse is on a river - they tell me it is swimable but without clear vision to the bottom, I'll stick with the pool. It took a while to relax and get over the feeling that I had to see or do something. After all I'm in a new place. There must be something to see. But there really isn't. It is just beautiful and relaxing.
Until 4:30 am when a for real cockroach ran across my body heading for the end of the bed. I screamed. Peter flew out of bed, flip-flop in hand and for the next 20 minutes we tracked the beast. It took 5 attempts but Peter finally managed to kill it. That was not the start to the day I was looking for. That said, I'm now sitting by the pool with my computer waiting for our taxi to show up. 
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