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Oh. Man. Total internet binge. Shiny new computer = no work done at all.
Kit's promised me a vocodor for my robot costume, but I still need a silvery shirt. Wanna help? Because I've got homework to do. A lot of it.
So we need to get to Cambodia and instead we're stuck with this terrible tour group. I mean really terrible. Like tuk-tuks and crocodile farms. They told us it was the only way to get there. Nevertheless, we plan to escape.
The moto drivers pick us up at 6am. The plan is that they will drive us to the border, we will cross through customs, and then the hotel owner's friend will be waiting on the other side with a car to take us to Pnomh Penh.
We cross through customs no problem, except for an unfortunate incident in which Nora sneezes all over her health questionnaire. But customs is such a breeze that we stop for breakfast and bug-infested rambutan midway through. Yum. We cross into Cambodia and there are two cars waiting for us. "Waiting." We make a beeline for one of them. We have no idea if he's the hotel owner's friend but he seems friendly enough. He doesn't speak English but he understands "Pnomh Penh" and $20. It's a five hour drive.
We get in the car and drive away. For about half an hour. Until our driver turns off the main (bumpy) road and onto a smaller, even bumpier one that leads to a town. We start slowing down, partially because of the bumps but mostly because all of a sudden there are people. Everywhere. All around the car. And we can't move.
Our driver rolls down his window. A man emerges from the crowd and hands him a wad of dollars. He pockets the roll, rolls up the window, honks a few times, and as if on cue, the crowd disperses and we're back on our way.
For another half hour.
Again, we pull off the main road and onto a smaller one. Bumpy goes without say. This time we end up at what we think is our driver's house. We don't know. All we know is that this time we're parked in a driveway-ish thing and there are kids jumping all over him. We also know that he's begun to take our bags out of the trunk. We are unhappy about this.
Nora gets out to say something, which works we think, because we see him putting our bags back in the trunk, and on top of them these huge plastic containers of gasoline. Like four or five of them. We feel like we're driving in a death trap, although this isn't the first time. Did I tell you that story already? You can yell at me if I haven't. It's about boats.
Anyway, so we're back in the car, the very flammable car, and back on our way. Another hour passes before we find ourselves at a police checkpoint. The car stops. The driver gets out. He hands the policeman the wad of cash. The driver gets back in the car. And off we go. Amazing! Efficient! Gotta love the Cambodian economy...
This may seem like the logical end of the story, except that we still had several more hours to go before we arrived at Pnomh Penh. And even once we got there, there was sort of an incident with an SUV and a guy with bullet holes in his stomach. Ah, Cambodia! I hear Aileen's mum and dad are planning a trip...
I'm still trying to figure out where I put my brain. In the interim, want to help me think of a halloween costume? Two restrictions: it must be bikerideable and it must involve my silver mini skirt.