Lunch at The Hotel Royal

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I met Fred and Kitty Lipp before arriving in Cambodia. We sat with tea and scones at their farmhouse in Whitefield, ME. They own a foundation that gives scholarships for girls to go to school in Cambodia (www.cambodiascholarship.org). They travel from village to village to meet with the girls that they sponsor and visit the schools that they help to build. Fred has also written children's books based around Cambodian culture (my favorite is "The Caged Birds of Phnom Penh").
Today I had lunch with them at The Hotel Royal--the same hotel depicted in the film "The Killing Fields"--a respuit for journalists and wealthy tourists alike. Kitty and Fred get a discounted NGO rate for a lovely room. We all sat at poolside and I scarfed down a Club Sandwich and a Papaya shake. Being in the protected gates of Hotel Royal made it feel like the slums of Tonle Bassac were on another planet. Cambodia is full of these contradictions in class: Look up and you see the tops of beautiful French colonial style buildings, look down and you see piles of trash in the gutter and begging amputees. I wonder how many of the poolside baskers never leave hotel...
Talking with Fred and Kitty took some getting used to as they were the only fluent English speakers (other then Muoy) that I had talked to since my arrival. I needed to remind myself not to annunciate as much.

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Comments

[jessica]

hey
I miss you!