Heat and Sweat, and Laughing Kids.

I must admit, I took a little nap...
After it had rained so hard, the streets where hardly walkable. Rather they were an orange, muddy puddle and since it was still very early in the morning and since I was a little tired, I decided to take a one hour nap. I didnt really sleep but rather rested and when I went back outside the sun was shining and it was warm. I sprayed myself with anti-mosquito stuff and off I went...

Right at the end of our street I quickly ate a few rice noodles with Mangold, Carrots and Cellerie, for breakfast. Ah well...
I walked along the river towards Psar Chas, the old town market hall. I passed a supermarket and stopped to get two big bottles of water. Drinking water is not drinkable here, and as it was getting warmer and warmer I decided I needed to carry some around. I am a very thirsty person, most of you know this ;) and indeed, the first liter was gone within half an hour...
Before I entered the market I walked a little around the little streets with its many new cafés and restaurants, most of which were filled with americans and british people. The "Pub Street" seemed a lot bigger on the map, however, for the muddy streets and little shop houses in this small town, it fits many bars.
Whereever I went, I was, of course, easily identified as tourist with my "light" hair, light eyes and, most obvious, a huge camera dangling around my neck. One girl came and ead of a note what she had to saz to me: "Hello. Lady. Bracelette, you want to buy?.... Bracelette... Come back later, yes? Later, don't forget about me and bracelettes..." I told her I didn't want it, but she walked another 50 meters with me and constantly repeated that I should remember. "TukTuk? Moto? Lady, Lady!" - "No thanks, I like walking... no really. No." Though the Tuk Tuks here arent real Tuk Tuks like I know them from Thailand. They are rather an old Rikscha with plastik top and a Moto tied up in front of it. They look quite comfortable, but I honestly do not need one. And for Angkor Wat and the Temples tomorrow I have already promised the guy who took me from the airport today, that he can drive me and pick me up at 5 am tomorrow morning. This is how it goes: The ride from the airport is reasonably cheap in order to be your guide at Angkor tomorrow. I had first thought about taking a bike, which I might maybe enjoy a little more, but then again, I want to leave in the dark to see the early morning at Tha Prom, before all the coaches ful of tourists arrive. And if it rains again and gets muddy again, a bike is probably less fun than its motorized big brother... but about that I will be able to tell you more tomorrow night, when I come back.

The shadow of the market hall was very inviting after walking in the sun for a while. Behind the first row of mainly caps and flip flops for the tourists on "Pub Street" a big hall opened where the sellers did not have little, tiny shops with three walls but only a big stone table and maybe a sink where they showed off her fresh food in big and colorful plastic bins that looked like the plastic thingy my flatmates and I use in Madrid to move our wet clothes from the laundry to the balcony in order to dry it... Here, I saw everything swimming in these big pots. Alive little crabs, baby squitin ice water, bananas, carrots, guaves, dragon fruits, mangold, and much more. It looked beautiful, really. Especially the fruit and vedgetables... the dead fish (though not at all stinky yet) is probably nothing for vegetarians.
The real vegetarian hell was behind all that though. An area where even I, and I can stand a lot when it comes to food (well, in countries where people simply do not have fridges): The meat area. It reminded me a lot of what I had seen a couple of years ago in the market of Querétaro, Mexico. The raw meat of all possible animals was lying around on the stone tables without any kind of cooling. It didn't smell that bad, but even the light smell of warm raw meat was not flattering to my nose. I know that I will probably eat part of the meat I saw when I go and have some food from the hawker stalls tonight. But then I won't see, nor smell it before, and it will be well done and fried in palm oil as most things are here, so thats okay. Still, I didn't want to stay in that area to long and neither did I want to take a picture of it. Though it looked quite funny with the selling women sitting with crossed legs on the table with the meat while chopping bones in front of them. They must be very experienced in this, cause neither did their feet get close to the food (obviously not, Cambodian people want clean and fresh food, even if it might be warm) and even there was hardly any space between her crossed feet and the meat she still managed to chop the bones in the space between.
I took a left to head back to the touristy shops and passed many stores with nice linen and cloth and very old sewing machines. At the end of the aisle I found a little bookshop with (nearly) new books. Kati had recommended me a book ("The Gate") about the years of the Khmer Rouge. A true story about a french correspondent who got kidnapped by the Khmer Rouge but survived last minute.

I decided to walk back towards the hostel to take a shower. When I walked along the River again, I saw many Cambodians lying in the shadow of the trees taking a nap. I decided that the nice shadow by the river is a wonderful spot and so sat down, took a big gulp of water and watched a woman fishing in the river.
It was so nice there, that I decided to take the newly bought book out and to read a little. While I was doing so, the little daughter of the fishing lady started wandering around where I sat. She was running and playing, yet she would look at me every once in a while and as soon as I looked back she grinned and ran away. "Hello" she said every once in a while and then ran off.
A few minutes later two other little kids joined her game and together they climbed what once held a swing but now was merely an old steel ruin. They dangled from the top like little monkeys, laughed and said "Helloooo, Helloooooooo". They pointed at my camera and told me to take a picture of their play and they ability to climb like little monkeys. I shot a few pictures, they smiled, I smiled, they kept playing, I kept reading. Every once in a while, when I looked up, they were smiling at me and running after each other. They were really cute.
The fishing ladies daughter was called to help. She took her left shoe (pink with sparkles, but there was no right shoe...) and left, the other kids left too. They said "Bye-bye", smiled and ran with their naked feet along the now dried and dusty, reddish road towards one of the closer shop houses where they went inside.

I finished the chapter I was reading and packed my stuff. On the other side of the street I could see the post office and next to it a golden boat with little temples. According to the story, a monk once crossed the river and his boat was bitten apart by sharks (yes, sharks...). It was bitten into two parts, but they were still swimming. The monk was saved and the boat now is a sacred object. The people were still working on a little temple behind it and it was super interesting to watch them carve signs into the stone.

I took a little detour torwards the hostel, and that is where I am now.
I still haven't showered, which was the original plan, but I will do so soon. Then I will get a new breeze of yummy anti mosquito stuff with 25% DEET (the active ingredient). I have it from Kati, as the highest I was able to buy at globetrotter in Germany was 8% I think. 25% is forbidden to be sold in Europe, but hey, it is Malaria Region and rainy weather... so I rather take a big chunk of spray on chemistry than that. Obviously.

Besotes grandes a todos mis amigos que me faltan mucho!
Und einen Kuss an meine Mama und meinen Papa, die sich immer Sorgen. Alles super hier, wie ihr ja lesen koennt!