Angkor Not

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Everyone who goes to Cambodia is supposed to go to Angkor Wat, right? It's the eighth wonder of the world!! Well, I'm not going--ever.

"Why not?" you ask. "It IS the eighth wonder of the world after all!"

Well, I told you how we're kind of "female light" this session. Susie, the other girl in our class, didn't really have any desire to see it, leaving me alone with the guys. That's all well and good--I like guys better than girls to be perfectly honest. What's NOT well and good were certain remarks that were made to me throughout the day yesterday. I don't need to know what folks were doing with Cambodian whores the night before, nor do I need to know that you find me ugly and undesirable because I'm NOT ASIAN. Nor do I need to be forced to close my eyes so you can show a van full of guys the tattoo you got in a place where the sun don't shine. How humiliating.

I'm not too sensitive to smuttiness (given the family members I have, I really can't be). But I felt like this was turning into a Guy's Weekend Out and that, really, I didn't need to be there. So I told everyone I had diarrhea or something and stayed at the villa.

You heard me correctly: gender dynamics prevented this adventurer from seeing the eighth wonder of the world.

I'm rather marginally pissed off about this because 1.) I've always wanted to visit Angkor Wat, and now I never will; 2.) I already paid for the excursion in my general fee; and 3.) I'm probably getting made fun of behind my back as we speak. They say girls are catty--NOOO...HUMANS are catty.

So what did I do today?

Well, I went to Russian Market to buy delicious Khmer soup. I helped a series of locals practice English. I shook hands with little girls. I went to the pool. I cut my hair. Waaaay better than Angkor, right??

The good news is that I finally managed to unplug my bathroom sink, which has been clogged for seven out of the last eight days. There is a plug that you can press down--but because this is a developing country, they never installed a mechanism to unplug it. It's been filling up with water and detritus since I first asked myself what would happen if I pressed it down. I bailed the water out of it today, and it was growing a film of thick, mucous-like slime that went well beyond any usual definition of "disgusting". I guess this is proof positive that really unwholesome things do in fact live in the tap water.

We'll see where tomorrow finds me.

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Comments

[Alan Warner]

Angkor Wat
You know, being an architect, it would kill me not to go to go there, but I can see why you choose not to. It sounds like these guys mentally never left being sophomores in high school. I have to admit when I travel, I love going to the markets, I'll pass up the architecture to go to those. So I hope you had a good time there. Tell us more about what the TESOL classes are like. And why do you want to go to China? btw, love the pics...

[Global Drifter]

Hi Alan. Thanks for the comment. I would have liked to go to Angkor and do a few sketches myself. Sophmores in high school is the right way to put it--the problem being that most of them are going on 30. Don't worry, I will answer all your questions about my journey here in good time.