oh yeah, i forgot to mention that i picked up my new shirt from the tailor before i left Phnom Penh and even though they were a day late with it, it’s bloody marvelous.

the owner is the only person i know who deserved his Lexus.

finally back in Hong Kong after spending a month in Cambodia. it’s cooler, much cleaner, and now i have a seemingly unlimited supply of good Chinese food. ahhhh.

this is the view i trudged up 509 steps for. sure, my bad hip took a beating but i’m sure when i get my shiny new metal replacement (whenever that happens), i’ll be glad i got my money’s worth.

so this is the view from the hilltop temple at Oudong, the old capital city of Cambodia, about an hour away from the current capital of Phnom Penh. and there at the temple i found myself somewhat bizarrely embroiled in a question and answer session with a Cambodian family via the son, a boy no older than 12, who spoke superb but Khmer-accented Mandarin. the family asked me questions through the son and he dutifully translated my replies back into Khmer. this went on for some time. it was weird.

anyway, off to bed now. flying back to Hong Kong tomorrow.

went to a pradal serey (Cambodian kickboxing) match earlier tonight and the photo above was the best i could do with a wide angle lense from my extraordinarily uncomfortable seat on the front row but i’ll post a video when i can.

by the way, did i mention that you get free beer with “VIP” tickets?

according to the Phnom Penh Post, the Khmer people believe that touching a gecko will cause it to jump on you and attach itself to your neck with the only force capable of removing it being a team of seven virgins. and as if that wasn’t random enough, gecko mating calls can also be used to “predict exam results and quality of a future marriage partner.”

as for myself, i don’t mind having them around the house as long as they keep insect populations in check.

i ate a bunch of fried crickets today. they tasted a bit like Chinese satay sauce with the texture of soft shell crab, not especially delicious but not terrible either. i also tried Cambodian style roasted dog which is a bit like tough, chewy roasted pork.

woof. and yum.

here’s a photo of a platter of roasted dog heads. click at your own risk.

and please don’t send me hate mail.

Esther: khmer music videos!

Esther: amazing!

ivan: actually, they’re decidedly unamazing

ivan: very formulaic

ivan: boy likes girl

ivan: girl likes boy

ivan: boy loves girl, wants to marry her

ivan: girl is happy because she also loves boy

ivan: boy can’t afford the dowry

ivan: boy says to girl to find another boy

ivan: and love him as she loved him

ivan: girl cries

ivan: boy cries and walks away

Esther: what?? they don’t get togehter??

ivan: very rarely!

ivan: it’s weird!

Esther: how sad!!

ivan: khmer guys thrive on rejection, it seems

ivan: all these city-slicking pop stars all become poor country boys in their music videos

ivan: and they all get rejected by the girls’ family because they have no money

Esther: the irony

woke up before dawn today to shoot group calisthenics at the football stadium. how silly of a reason is that? oh well, at least i got to see the sun rise.

in other news, i dropped off my favorite button-down shirt to be copied at a local tailor. part of me is nervous that they’ll get it wrong but the owner drives a Lexus so i guess i shouldn’t be terribly worried.

so i think i directly sponsored Kim Jong-il’s regime today by going to Pyongyang Restaurant–one of a chain of restaurants run by the North Korean government–here in Phnom Penh. it was very clean, very glitzy and all the obviously handpicked North Korean waitresses were worryingly attractive. the food was somewhat mediocre and overpriced but the service was good and the waitresses performed a series of (presumably) patriotic songs and dances partway through dinner.

photography was obviously prohibited but i did manage to sneak some videos of the singing and dancing. unfortunately, you’ll have to wait for me to return to Hong Kong before i can upload anything of substantial length for you to see.

a few days before i left, Beka and i decided to try out a Taiwanese-owned sushi restaurant that had just opened up in my parents’ neighborhood. the quality was alright for the price and the service wasn’t bad so we tagged it as a relatively safe gamble with the possibility of a return visit.

well, now i’m hearing horror stories of rampant food poisoning and the projectile vomit that often accompanies it. it appears that things have taken a bit of a nosedive since the grand opening and we will most definitely not be going back.

what a bunch of corner-cutting separatist monkeys.