A moment of doubt.

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It hit hard and for an instant I felt very alone.

This only happens when I'm by myself (now for example) and brought suddenly back to the present, realize I'm not at my desk in school still wondering what to do when I grow up, and that many years have passed.

It's a fleeting shock, replaced by a sense of awe that I actually lived as I had dreamed to .......and now look where that got me! I'm alone in the middle of the least populated region of Cambodia. What the hell was I thinking!

Having washed my camo cut offs, and asked the girls if they can wash my jeans while the sun is out, I'm wrapped in a towel from the waist down and am told I will have a male visitor arriving any minute.

And here his is as if on cue.

Savet is a gentleman, a friend of Doug's and an experienced guide in this province. When the 'Lonely Planet Boys' asked if I could find guides, Sophat recruited Savet and one other motorbike driver for me. Together we all too closely experienced the thick red mud of Ratanakiri in the wet season. Not the best time to udate the famous guide book perhaps.

Anyway, where was I going with this?

My "I've landed on an alien planet" feeling has left, the meeting with the Policeman was postponed until tomorrow (this could go on for days), the email attachments from the US cannot be downloaded for printing on this fickle dial-up 64kbs here and will have to wait for the Post Office to open on Monday (it opens at 7am, but no one shows until after 8am). Have wriitten the farm tennant agreement, first in English, now translated, typed and laminated and will take it out there for thumb prints ...oh, sometime next week, and have it approved (or not) by the Community office (more "tea money". Running out of the stuff)!

Time to eat. Sophat has just delivered a baguette filled with unidentified objects. I close my eyes and ............mmm, not bad, not bad at all. But even with the num bao for 'dessert', I doubt I'll be gaining any wieght soon.

Looks as if I'll be needing a few Baskin-Robbins EXTRA large heathbar shakes when I get home!

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