The Journey and Day One -- June 30-July 2

"Travel is glamorous."  That's what I tell people who don't get to or don't have to travel as much as I do.  In fact, "getting there" is almost always a beating these days.  There was a 1 hour 45 minute delay for our trip to LAX.  We barely made it to the gate at LAX in time for our Cathay Pacific flight, however, we had been bumped from that flight since American had communicated that we wouldn't make it.  The folks at Cathay Pacific were VERY helpful and accomodating, booking us on the next flight out and giving us the best available seats (still coach, but good).  They gave us passes to the Business Class lounge and kept apologizing for the inconvenience and thanking us for our patience.  If only my usual airline was as customer friendly!  We made it to Hong Kong in plenty of time for our connecting flight on Dragonair to Phnom Penh and the rest of our trip was uneventful.

We arrive in one piece in Phnom Penh.

Our friends from RDI, John and Vicki, Lori, and Da met us at the airport.  It was great to see them again after a year apart and there were lots of hugs to go around.  The key to the first day of arrival is to stay awake as long as possible since Cambodia is 12 hours ahead of Fort Worth and your day/night is totally upside down.  So first we went to the big mall in Phnom Penh for lunch and enjoyed some Cambodian food court cuisine.  We then went to Wat Phnom, a Buddhist temple on the hill where the founder of Phnom Penh had built a small shrine to house some special statues she found in a tree by the river (or so the legend goes).  Da promised us that we would see monkeys, but when we got there we found that the monkeys had been moved to the zoo.  Very disappointing... don't promise monkeys unless you can deliver! (haha)

The evening festivities featured a Khmer housewarming, which is a very large neighborhood party/reception to celebrate moving into a new house.  We paid a $5.00 cover (in lieu of gifts, I think) and were treated to some traditional Khmer dishes and Coca-Cola.  Yes, evidently, Coke is an honored beverage at such parties since Cambodians don't drink soda often.  

The Housewarming Party
(L-R: Chad Brantley, Chanda "Da" Cheng, Luke Mitchell, Mike Lee, Shelley Lee,
A.C. LaFond, Caleb LaFond, Jess from the RDI lab)

By 8:00 we were falling asleep in our chairs so we went back to our "luxury suite" at RDI.  For the second straight year Shelley and I are in Bungalow #1, which features indoor bath and shower.  Poor Chad and Luke have to go outside for the same amenities.  Now for some Ambien and some much needed sleep! 

The Bungalows at RDI.  Ours was on the second level, far left.