development corrupts

Notes written throughout the day, when I remember to do so


My brother accidentally knocked my phone out of my hands, and it fell to the floor *hard*. It has done that before with no damage, but this time, the backlight was broken. At first, it was as if there was no backlight, and then it was as if there was too much backlight, and it was washing the screen out.

 I was just about to give up on it, when my sister jokingly suggested i thwack the back of the phone to fix the backlight. I did, twice, and voila. :D phone all fixed now.  


At the Ho Chi Minh airport (stop over to Siem Reap), someone walked over and asked me whether it was all right to bring knitting on the plane. Hers was all in her luggage, but maybe what i told her will help next time!


Siem Reap airport is gorgeous, looks more like a spa than an airport. :)

It is apparently less hot here than the Philippines. I don't go out in the sun back home so i don't really know though *g*


Passed a tuktuk on the way to the hotel. It is like a tricycle and a jeepney rolled into one. Or maybe a tricycle and calesa and now I think of it as a horseless calesa the way a car used to be a horseless carriage. Also, lots of bicycles here. Dad is amazed there are so many alateris trees. I can say and eat alateris, I just can't spell it!


We are at Raffles. Um wow. This is the most gorgeous hotel i have ever been in, bar none. Usually I don't care as long as the bed is comfortable, but this is just blowing me away. There are a lot of tiny details that they got right, which I only noticed now thay every other hotel has gotten wrong.


Have so far eaten in three restaurants. The first was a snack at a random hole in the wall where they were out of everything, which was a shame because deer barbecue cambodia style from their menu sounded good but their yang chow fried rice was okay and their duck with crispy skin was really really good so that gave us enough energy to keep going through the afternoon.  

We dropped by the national museum but it was late in the afternoon and we decided we didn't have enough time to give it justice so we skipped the paying area. 

Stopped at le grande cafe in the old market area, where we had fantastic ice cream -- profiterole (vanilla ice cream wrapped in a pastry bun topped with whipped cream and chocolate syrup), and a Paradise sundae (banana, lime, strawberry sorbet topped with whipped cream and strawberry syrup) -- a light and refreshing counterpoint to the chocolatey goodness of the profiteroles. 

Shopped a bit after that. Got some earrings and silk scarves :D I love these scarves, just wish  I had more opportunities to wear them. 

And then dinner at Amok: banana heart salad, spring rolls (deliciously vegetabley), tumeric chicken (mild for curry which suited me perfectly), pork kebabs (cute! And delicious!), beef luk lok (small cubes of beef, just that perfect balance between tender and chewy with a slightly sweet pepper sauce), and fish amok (fish in coconut gata, a bit bland beside everything else and the only disappointment of the day) . Each dish had two tiny mounds of fragrant jasmine rice, and this rice was really really good. I could eat it forever. 

It is surprising to be in a place where things are cheaper than back home. I fact, i am sure this is a first. Every other country I have been to was more expensive than the Philippines -- even Thailand! I am not sure how I feel about this. Let's start with "strange"

Finally back at home base. Was all cranky because the free hotel wifi blocks all but the most poplar sites, but have worked around it by using OpenDNS.  mwahaha. :) 

Tomorrow is Angkor Wat, and more food.