April 9th (2020)

 

April 9th

“Then I awoke 

Was this some kind of joke 

Much to my surprise 

When I opened my eyes.”

(‘In another Land’...The Rolling Stones, Their Satanic Majesties Request, 1967)

Today, I have been in Siem Reap for 25 days.

This day I awoke at 6am. I showered and did all those mundane things which we all have to do before we let the day attack us. Today’s breakfast is the remainder Cavendish bananas, on soft bread with that Irish butter, plus Red coffee with milk and palm sugar. To be quite honest, I’m going to miss this coffee if, or when, I get back to Malaysia. The Khmer palm sugar is far superior to any that I had in Malaysia, even the famous Gula Malacca.

9.37am and I am tired. I will rest for a while to re-charge my, and this tablet’s, battery.

It’s a KFC sort of day. Yes, I know, a plague on fast food joints and all that, but there simply comes a time when you want to have the familiar, some sort of comfort food to bring home closer. I check out where KFC is, and it’s just straight up the road and turn right. Coincidentally, Burger King is simply straight up the road and within sight of KFC. I walk in, out of the hot sun and then out of Burger King, back into the hot sun. The bacon in the burgers is very tempting as we do not get real pig bacon in the burgers at Burger King in Malaysia. However, here the food is ridiculously priced. 

Having walked across the quiet road, I discover that KFC is a little cheaper than Burger King, but still it costs $6.40 for a Zinger Cheezilla combo with Pepsi and French Fries. Ah, but there again, the taste. That Zinger Cheezilla is amazing with its mozzarella cheese and moist chicken. It’s several steps up, across the roof and down the other side from yesterday’s Lucky Burger. Mission accomplished and then some! Ah, but no wifi, so I cannot share online from here. Is it my imagination, or is there less WiFi in Siem Reap now than there used to be?

Before I came out of Colors of Cambodia this just after noon, I posted an image containing the six-syllabled Sanskrit mantra and Buddhist chant ‘Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum’ (Auṃ maṇi padme hūṃ) on Facebook. I first came across this mantra in Robert A Heinlein’s 1970 book ‘I Will Fear no Evil’, and kind of adopted it as my personal mantra ever since. I also posted a link to Malaysia’s songstress Imee Ooi singing that mantra, on YouTube, in her most beautiful way. I was lucky to see her live, a few years ago (2017), and she and those who perform with her are simply amazing. I confess to being a little starry-eyed over that amazing composer/ performer. I featured her in my magazine, The Blue Lotus (issue 6).

4.45pm

The internet is phasing badly here. It is completely unstable, and I am unable to do anything online quickly. Even Google searching takes minutes for very simple things. This is like the bad old dial-up days, and is very frustrating as I rely on a good internet connection for both research and communication.

Another reason that I walked around, yesterday and today, was to try and find somewhere that had a reload for my Smart SIM. My internet package ran out days ago, and I am still trying to find a way to reload, or buy another SIM card, so that I don’t have to rely on WiFi all the time.

I go downstairs. Kosal, who speaks the best English, helps me to turn the WiFi box off and on, then move the internet router out of the small wooden alcove it is in, and onto a stall. Thus allowing the antenna to spread the signal. Fingers crossed but it seems to have worked, at least for a while.

On today’s little jaunt I had intended to buy a new bedspread. I have been using the current one ever since I got here and I have no other to use in its stead while it is being washed (normal turn around is 2 days) I cannot have it washed. Unfortunately, a replacement is $133 (MYR 532) in Lucky Mall. I simply cannot afford that right now.