It was starting to cloud over and I figured with my luck today the clouds would open up on me and then we could all be wet to the skin (not just me who was already wet to the skin, only with sweat). We rode our bikes to one of the few sky scrapers in Phnom Penh and parked our bikes in the garage...this is just like parking a car...you get a ticket and everything...this building had about 22 stories and a rooftop bar. We were planning on getting drinks there and seeing the city spreadout below us lit up in the night, but right then, it started to thunderstorm. When I say it was a rooftop bar, that's what I mean. Bar. On the roof. Not available during thunderstorms. I never heard the thunder but I saw lots of lightning, wind, and rain. Luckily, we were inside. Luckier still, they had a coffee shop downstairs. I got a cranberry juice and RM got an Americano (which is actually an Espresso...funny, no?) and we went ahead and booked our guesthouse (which turned out to be a hotel) for the coast and waited out the storm.
Our timing couldn't be better. Pretty much as soon as it stopped raining RM's friend Chantha, another poet, met us and we all walked together to a restaurant run by an NGO (nonprofit) dedicated to something good (art? children? not sure at the moment) to meet the fourth member of our party...Sokatia. Sokatia informed us that we shouldn't wait for a table here because they had said it'd be at least a half an hour and they couldn't even guarantee that. So our two plans for the evening were both a bust. Par for the course on the roughest day of this trip so far.
But then everything changed.
RM and Sokatia conferred and swiftly decided on a Vietnamese restaurant a few blocks away. Sokatia had her moto and so it was decided that I would ride to the restaurant on the back of her bike and the men would walk.
And that, my friends, is when Suzanne Walker had her first motorcycle ride of her entire life.
Sokatia was a very safe driver, and I happened to have my bike helmet with me, so that made it even better. I held onto her backpack and we drove the few blocks to the restaurant without incident. We got there only a few moments in front of the men because some of the roads were one way and we had to loop around. How thrilling!
We arrived at the restaurant and had a very nice time conversing about writing and family and travel. It was decided that Sokatia and I needed to take a road trip in America. I'm sure that will never happen, but I never thought that my first motocycle ride of my life would be hanging onto the back of a strange woman in Cambodia, so you never know. Dinner for me consisted of a 7UP (SO GOOD PEOPLE) and some pho without meat (pho is a Vietnamese dish consisting of noodles, broth, and whatever else you want to put in it...it is generally very tasty, but I was treading quite carefully so I didn't even make a dent in mine or put anything exciting in it). We also got bowls of a sweet tapioca pudding type of dessert with yellow mounds of pumpkin in it (la pov pa em). I quipped that this was perfect for Thanksgiving eve. RM had a mixed fruit shake. I was jealous since I'm staying away from fruit shakes for the moment, until I found out that his had a lot of durian in it which is a fruit that tastes like old socks dipped in moldy cheese. Dinner for four with all the fixings including dessert ended up being only 18 dollars. Can you believe it? So cheap.
Near the end of the evening Chantha's eyes got large and he started starring out the door of the restaurant. We pressed at what was caputuring is attention so completely and he informed us that the brother of the King of Cambodia had just left our restaurant. I don't know if he was serious (a lot of laughter followed) but let's pretend that it was true, okay?
All in all, the day wasn't so bad. I did have a horrendous bike ride and, of course, the fact that I really couldn't eat anything was a negative, but I managed to get some rest, get the bus tickets, see the Palace and Silver Pagoda, have a delightful dinner with new friends and maybe be near the brother of the King of Cambodia, so really, things worked out fine. We biked home (going by way of Tuol Sleng) and were packed and ready for the coast by about 11:15. I took a NyQuil and slept great and woke up with a less runny nose than last night so that's good.
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