Road to No Where

Everytime we get on another bus or into the back of a tuk tuk for a journey over 20 minutes I find myself humming the Talking Heads song, Road to No Where. No matter what is blaring on the bus speakers or what I have thoughtfully selected to play on my iPod, Road to No Where is what I hear. Although today's 6 hour journey from Siem Reap to Phnom Phen might have been better as the Road Through No Where!

I am starting to enjoy the bus rides. It is the little glimpses of life through the bus windows that take the sting out of spending most of the day on the bus. Watching as children play together in their front yards or in the middle of the street, seeing dogs running across the fields and cows grazing in the midst of thatched roof huts and road side vendors. As the sun set on todays drive I was disappointed  to think that I would no longer be able to catch these glimpses. However, to my delight most of the huts were flickering an iridescent blue putting the evening routines of Cambodia families on display. It only took a few minutes to realise that my road side attractions were being lit up by televisions. How funny that they still cook there meals over open fires, bath on a concrete pump slab in the yard, farm for sustenance and yet they all have televisions. These are the glimpses that make it difficult for me to stop staring as we breeze by at 15 to 20 miles per hour on the bumpy, partially paved road. I know they see me staring and I know staring is rude but I can't stop so I smile and even wave... maybe that makes it better?

I have realised over the last few days that there are so many things that I want to write about from the last 2 weeks. However, despite my best efforts it is difficult to find the time and even more difficult to single finger peck away at the keyboard of my phone. I have started jotting down notes to help me remember everything when we are back home. The notes look a little something like this: thousands of naked babies, satellite dishes on wooden huts, pigs on a scooter, monks in the rain, Angor Wat kids and candy, school yards, little legs on giant bikes, crickets for dinner, bald Buddhist nuns... I think you get the point. Since touching down in Bangkok my brain has been on overdrive, trying to absorb as much as humanly possible and at the same time trying to put all of it into words that capture the details as precisely as possible. I don't want to forget a single moment on this road to no where via everywhere.