Farewell to Jingle Horse

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Though long, the flight from Incheon to Seattle was manageable, with a tasty ssambap (Korean lettuce wrap) for dinner on the plane. Less savory was a breakfast of rice porridge with fish, which I declined. I don't want congee that badly. This turned out to be a good decision for extraculinary reasons as the descent to Seattle was quite turbulent and my experience of throwing up in a bag was much better without seafood.

In Seattle, though still queasy, I stopped at Ivar's for fried scallops and The Body Shop for a tub of tea tree facial mask. The flight home from Seattle was fine and it was exquisite to shower with hot water.

Throughout the trip, we were relentlessly pounded by Christmas music. I don't mind sacred music at all, or even interesting renditions of secular songs (as, "Jingle Bells" played on a traditional Cambodian stringed instrument outside Ta Prohm), but the muzak in Cambodia had an ample dose of the "Jingle Bell Rock" variety of jocular/forced hearty Santa-based music at our first hotel, and exclusively this at our second. I don't know how their muzak is fed, but it was exactly the same sequence over and over every day. I kept waking up in the night thinking, "Giddy-up, Jingle Horse," which is not a restful mantra. I am happy to be home for many reasons, not the least of which is that if I stay in the house or outside for two days, Christmas will be over and I won't need to hear "Jingle Bell Rock" again for 10 months.

Here are some photos from the trip. I may post a gear review at some point.

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