I think a bit more information is required regarding our little faux pas with Miss Caitlin at the genocide museum. You see this place was very depressing, had multiple real photographs of people being tortured in addition to them having left some of the rooms with remnants from those who were tortured….ie blood on the walls, floors etc. So after having walked through multiple cells, group prisons, having read many personal testimonials that helped one just begin slightly to get a picture of what life was like there 30 years ago, one can now understand why my mom instincts went into overdrive when we enter a new block of cells and Caitlin was no where to be found. I moved like the wind from cell to cell, having watched far to many abduction movies, calling her name whilst imagining some long lost Khmer Rouge cadre had stalked us from the moment we entered the museum plotting the most opportune time to make his move on my poor unsuspecting daughter, who most likely was at least one foot taller than him and outweighed him by 20 pounds! When a few hours had past, ok a few minutes but seemed like hours, we look up and see Caitlin waving at us from behind barbed wire fencing on the second floor. The relief consumes my over-active imagination, having already worked through how I would need to alert CNN and the Canadian Embassy to create a task force and put out an alert on the worldwide web…….but all is good now. Whew!
So now let’s turn to the real reason I am now sporting the totally funky tropical braided look. You see when your husband tells you your current hairstyle “isn’t your best look” or that “it’s too severe” and “it really ages you”….you don’t have many options when traveling in developing countries…that thought actually will ring true for Kirk who will bear some rather creative consequences for such comments! Yes, I chose not to bring my straightener and waste 1/2 an hour of my holiday each day ironing my hair, however, one would think that said someone would have mentioned this rather profound revelation much sooner than week three! Very little time elapsed from those very memorable words passing through his lips to me sitting on the side of the road in monsoon rains in an alley in downtown Bangkok for an hour and a half getting the new do…..it passed inspection….I got the “it’s now the Bo Derek look”….considering his age…I’ll take that as a compliment. Oh, the whole experience was worth it as I was sitting through one of their torrential monsoons a rat tore across the street in front of me trying not to drown in the river of water flowing down the street. He headed straight for an unsuspecting Caitlin, who Kirk said afterward cause I couldn’t see it, did a great jig on the side walk as the rat ran through her legs. I wish I could have seen that!
Food wise Caitlin and I are doing well….although both Thailand and Cambodia will need to import additional rice this year to make up for the four meals a day, two each, that we consume….with the odd pizza and grilled cheese sandwich thrown in for good measure when we can find them.
As you will have read from Kirk’s previous blogs we are back in Thailand now and although it is also a good experience again, so far we have only endured two colds that Caitlin and I are now nearing the end of, Cambodia is the hands down winner from my perspective for a place I will look forward to returning to……fried tarantulas and all (those were on the menu in Phnom Penh). And although they have the craziest drivers ever (they are not only deficient in rules, guidelines and suggestions, they truly just make it up as they go along and amazingly it works) they have some of the most sincere and pleasant people we have met so far.
Thirty days in Thailand 