a few random words from southeast asia

We are currently in Cambodia, where I got a haircut for $1.50 and where last night I accidentally ate tongue. It took me a bit too long to process what "smile beef" meant on the menu. Yeah.

We have been getting really dirty and really sweaty here. Like, REALLY DIRTY. We'd already taken two showers by noon today. There is a ring of filth in the tub.

We have been checking out the Angkor Wat-ness, of which there is a lot-ness, and trying not to get killed in a tuk tuk (a cart very precariously attached to a motorbike driven by people of sometimes questionable skill). We pretty much got run off the road by a van today and so we are glad that there are a minimal number of tuk tuks in our future.

But the tuk tuks are better than walking on the streets with no sidewalks, lots of garbage, and gigantic freaking gaping holes in the road. The first night we were here we started walking to dinner, only to be greeted by a massive hole stretching the entire width of the street. There was a tiny little rubble-strewn track-like thing running along one edge which people were using to cross the street. A six-inch wide, rubble-strewn track with a fifteen-foot drop on either side. The second night we tried to go in the other direction, only to be greeted by another gigantic freaking gaping hole. We went back to the hole of Night 1 only to discover that our little track had disappeared and there way no way through the street. So we went back to our hotel for the third time and then briefly considered walking down a tiny, unlit alley which now has the traffic of a four-lane highway b/c of the construction. We took a tuk tuk home. And did I mention there are almost no street lights?

We have, however, been enjoying bootlegged DVDs from the local market--"One DVD, two dol-lahs!" We have enjoyed less being mobbed by women and children selling assorted crap at every single temple. "Ten bracelets, one dol-lah! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. You buy? You buy from me? Only one dol-lah."

And finally, checking out Cambodian food. If, like us, you have no idea what "Cambodian food" actually means, to first approximation it's pretty much like bad Thai. But it grows on you--I mean that in a good way. It uses a lot of the same flavors as Thai food but it's much subtler and more mellow. Which is a good thing. My digestive tract couldn't take too many more of those Thai bird chilis. They also make fruit shakes (smoothies) here which are really killer. We had a lime shake today that about knocked our socks off.

We are actually enjoying things here, but it's pretty wild and extremely poor. Perhaps more tomorrow when we return to Phnom Penh.