A haphazard chronicle of my inevitable misadventures during a year in Vietnam and points east.

p.s. I'll be pitifully grateful if you send me email during my exile: TravelerKaty@hotmail.com

October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 February 2006 March 2006 May 2006

 
Heike is a very bad influence! You may have noticed that I've now been in Cambodia for 5 days and yet haven't written one word about it. There are a couple of reasons for that, really. First, all of a sudden I have the opportunity to talk to someone I know, and who knows me. So we can gossip about friends and family and get caught up on everything, and I'm no longer stuck in my own head for many hours a day. It's been fabulous. The second reason I've been such a slacker, apart from it being an intrinsic part of my personality, is that we've been so damned busy visiting the ruins at Angkor Wat, walking around town, eating, and all those other time-fillers.

Even though it's a lot more fun to travel with someone, especially a proven traveling companion like Heike, for the most part I don't mind being in my own head all day. In fact, one of the things that bothers me most when I return from a long trip abroad is that there are suddenly so many distractions from my internal monologue. Instead of spending hours a day thinking and writing in my head, I can suddenly overhear other people's conversations, read signs, etc. Even though it's often loud in terms of noise in many places I visit, there's a real sense of peace and isolation when you're not bombarded by images and sounds 24/7. Well, maybe you are, but if you can't understand them you can tune out a lot easier.

So the bottom line is that I'm behind, OK? But I'll try to put some thought into the writing today, and at least give you all an overview of my week in Cambodia. Or maybe tomorrow, since I have to go back and pack now.

© 2003 Katy Warren
posted by Katy at 7:25 PM