Sunday 12th December 2004
I feel really lazy today. I'm not going to do anything. The NGO station, which provides internet access, is closed all weekend, so no checking emails today. The only thing to do, except sitting in the guesthouse restaurant or in my room, is to go for a walk.
I walked around the town and the market and was really feeling the humidity. It was more humid than normal today and started to get rather uncomfortable, also I'm getting extremely fed up with all this red dust everywhere. I just want to be able to have a wash and not feel like I need another one 5 minutes later. There's no escaping it. It's in the air. Every time a motorbike or a truck goes past, a cloud of dust follows all the way down the street. It's in my room, in the restaurant, all over my clothes, my backpack and me! I'll be picking red dust out of every orifice for months I'm sure.
My flight back to Phnom Penh is tomorrow at 11am. I am all packed ready and I have all my main items laundered and free of red dust! I feel so well organized. One thing nice happened today. There is a girl who works here and it seems that she does all the back-breaking, hard work around the guesthouse, like the laundry, cooking, cleaning the rooms. I have not seen her smile once the whole time I have been here. She looked sad, tired and bored. Well apparently she has taken a shine to me and thinks I am handsome (she must be crazy!) according to Anan, who runs the guesthouse and apparently since I told Anan to tell her that I thought she was very pretty she has been walking around with the biggest, beaming smile on her face. The whole place has lit up because of it and she is a different person although still incredibly shy. My stay in Ban Lung has had a happy ending!
