033. I’m up early enough for the complimentary breakfast – by ten minutes. Because of this I discover dragon fruit, consume every single available piece of dragon fruit, and request, to no avail, more dragon fruit before sulking off to take a quick shower.
I flag down a tuk-tuk to take me to an ATM. Technology has made this trip much more enjoyable.
Five minutes later I’m damning technology for making this trip unbearably annoying while I contemplate the mysterious disappearance of my bank card. I saunter into the bank and find the manager. Thirty minutes later I walk out of the bank with cash and card in hand. I hop in a tuk-tuk.
First stop, coffee.
And then one more cup of coffee.
Second stop, shopping. Three hours languorously pass as I drive around town purchasing curious looking gifts. Bored, I stop for lunch. I choose an unfamiliar dish I can’t pronounce. Minus a dark colored chewy object, it is good.
I order another coffee, relax, and watch the street below me. Tourists take pictures. People sell all sorts of stuff. Amputees move around on modified bicycles. Tourist clandestinely take pictures of these amputees.
My coffee arrives.
First I hear music. Shortly thereafter I see police vehicles pass, followed by a slow procession of all kinds of Cambodian people. At first I don‘t understand, but when I see the casket and a trail of lotus flowers*, I immediately understand the solemnity of the situation. This, however, doesn’t stop many tourists from snapping pictures as if this were a Britney Spears money shot.
I take a sip of coffee. And then I see the money shot.
An old Buddhist monk and an old holy man sit in a slowly moving tuk-tuk surrounded by a mass of slowly moving people. As the tuk-tuk passes, an advertisement on the back of the carriage reads:
Good Time Bar, Where The Party Is!
* I think they were lotus flowers…
No other words can describe that “money shot” for me, other than a simple…
OhMyGawd…. classic!