Another Great Day

The dinner (buffet) was a little disappointing last night, only in that I was so exhausted, it was tough to enjoy on any level. That, and the buffet food was cold. 'My hotel serves it better.

However, the aspara dancers were really neat! Aspara can be traced back centuries in the Khmer cultuer - they are the women you see who wear the long, pointy helmet. The type of dance is very stylized, much like Balinese dancing - the placement of the hands, arched feet and blank/serene expression are all part of the show.

This morning, I woke up to the sunshine streaming through the window onto my bed - I knew it was going to be a great day. Pool, massage, and a little bit of the town via motorcycle taxi - I was right! It also helped that is was sunny, and no rain, this afternoon. I went to the Old Market and shopped around, ate lunch a fabulous open air restaurant (I had "chicken amok"and it came served right IN the coconut!) I was even able to find eye solution (note to self: 3 0z does NOT get you through five weeks...)

I also stopped by the National Ankor Museum. It looked empty from the outside, but that's because it just opened five days ago. (It shows - some of the exhibits aren't fully up yet. Good thing they offered a 33% discount..) It was still a little expensive at 8$/person - but in my mind worth it for the air conditioning alone.

Pretty slow after yesterday, but am loving it just the same. Tomorrow I move hotels and it's my last day. As a side note, I could make one whole posting about how bad Lonely Planet makes me feel. Mostly, I think "they'd pay less" or I should know be speaking more Khmer than I am" or "they'd eat meat from the open air meat market" or "they wouldn't have changed their money there.." But at the end of the day, I am left with only me and my decisions. And quite honestly, I'm sure they do it better - but I'm not going to let some silly book make me feel bad!

M.