Cambodia: The Time Between.

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The bike has not yet appeared. Rather, I have not been called on my cheap Cambodia phone to come pay for the repairs. OOh, spoke too soon. Will continue this when cooling off in aircon later. Now to find Motodop to Lucky One Bikes!

$190 later and I've left the Lucky Boys to continue with playing at ways to fix the brake handle that I broke when I dropped the bike in Kep that fateful day. Rather than wait around in conditions reminding me of my Fathers automobile repair shop in UK (only to the extreme of unbearably hot rather than the not quite finger numbing cold of Four Square Garage), Ihad the Motodop drop me at my other home from home, the Hope and Anchor pub along the now boarded up riverside. A very cold Anchor beer against the background of traffic, blaring horns and persistent hawkers has me in a content frame of mind. Conditions that may be considered somewhat harrowing to many used to the space and order of the USA.

Between arriving at and leaving Banlung much was fitted into the brief trip there. The "Nut Farm" was visited and a new contractor hired in the hope that the "Nut House" house may actually be finished sometime soon. At least I will be returning up there before moving on to Indonesia and can determine the wisdom of this latest decision.

Meanwhile, Sebastien fell in love with friend Sophat's rescued wild Fishing Cat-kitten. This endagered species lost another to the poachers and the kitten is going to have to learn to live on batchelor pad fare. Should the kitten thrive against all odds, it will grow to the size of our dog, at which dimensions it has been know to chow down small children. In preparation for this I've established a pecking order amongst the 'Lost Boys' working for Sophat. Each must be willing to sacrifice his life, or at least a body part (one literally springs to my mind without effort) in order to keep this attraction to their tour company alive. On the other hand, we could feed it from parts of Sophat for years to come and still never lose sight of him!

I digress.

The stay at Terre Rouge was as wonderful as always and after visiting the two pieces of land we ended up checking out the Accardo Family Tours and Internet shack near the Tribal Guesthouse, haven of the backpacker. I have styed there one time in a three dollar room full of mozzies and dark brown dry blood streaks as decoration on the yellow plaster walls. I have nothing to prove these days and prefer the $5 aircon of the local "Hotels" near the market, decorated to look like birthday cakes but comfortable enough and with plenty of opportunity to practice speaking Khmer.

As promised, the rains fell on our first evening, and with it came an enduring thunderstorm of dramatic proportions. The electricity cut out a few times and mosquitos made their mark more so on sweet Sebastien than on my tough skin. Matthew was unscathed as usual. It was the briefest of trips but Sebastien had already made an emotional connection with Sophat, his boys, his Stung Treng family and especially the kitten. We will return, whether I wish to or not, to follow up on the developing projects we have committed ourselves to.

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