Tonight’s the night

After a 3-week delay (due to things I chronicled in my previous posts), I am finally returning to Cambodia. For the first time, I am taking a Cebu Pacific flight to Saigon that leaves at 11 this evening before traveling to Phnom Penh (by bus) either tomorrow or on Sunday. I have re-booked my flight 3 times (again, because of my post-surgery complications) and the delays caused a bit of frustration.

But now that I have less than 2 hours before we head for the airport (where my family is bringing me to the airport, for the first time since I began traveling), I am feeling a bit sad about leaving. This is probably because this is my longest vacation in 4 years and in this vacation I was at home most of the time.

For the first time since I left for Cambodia, I am thinking of the things that I’m going to miss.

First on my list, my Mother and Tita Emy, who’ve been extraordinarily attentive to me before, during, and after my hospital confinement. They have been pampering me (to the point when I felt it was too much) and taking care of me while I was sick. They stayed with me in the hospital, accompanied me to the seemingly endless consultations and visits to doctors and laboratories, and encouraged me when I was feeling frustrated at my protracted illness. When I was well, they took me for another type of treatment: retail therapy. Also my cousin Mark, who has been very accommodating with regards to running errands for me.

Second, the food. In Cambodia, aside from a twice-weekly trip to coffee shops with friends, I never have snacks. But here in Manila, we seem to have snacks 2-3 times a day. This is aside from the daily serving of taho that I get between 9-10 in the morning, whether I had breakfast or not.And the breakfast! In Phnom Penh, my usual breakfast is a cup of cereal; I rarely eat rice in the morning. But here, fried rice and dried fish is the rule, not the exception.

Third, my pets. Something about my stay in Cambodia prevents me from getting a pet. But here in Manila, I have 3 dogs and 1 cat. When I arrived last month, Tamita–my eldest dog just  gave birth to 3 puppies. 2 females survived. I named the first one Mido. I didn’t name the other because Mother planned to give it to an uncle. And 3 days ago, Nobuko–Tami’s child, herself gave birth to 4 puppies, 1 of which did not survive. I was very happy to witness this birth. I’m still thinking of what names to give these 3.

Fourth, the movies. Because there are no cinemas in Cambodia that show English films, I always try to go to the movies whenever I go to other places. Here in Manila, I was able to see 4 films: the Dark Knight (loved it! loved Heath Ledger!), The Mummy 3 (sucked big time), X-Files 2 (did not suck too much), and Wall-E (great film! made me cry).

I’m sure I have more things to miss, but these are on my mind right now.

(and here they are, written in Phnom Penh on 28 August)

Fifth, my friends. Of all my holidays in Manila, this has been the longest. However, when it came to seeing my friends, this is the holiday when I was able to see the fewest. My college friends (pictured below) visited me on the last day of my first confinement. We made plans to see each other again but this plan did not materialize. Vangie managed to drop by the house on my birthday, along with Glenn, whom I’ve not seen in two years. However, I am most glad about being able to see Liez (pictured below), who was my classmate in elementary. We last saw each other in 1984, can you believe it? We made plans to have a small reunion after meeting for coffee after my surgery but I got sick again so I wasn’t able to make it.

Sixth, DSL. Okay, people might think I’m being shallow but I really enjoyed using the internet connection we have at home. The speed is way faster than my connection here in Phnom Penh, and the use is unlimited, unlike my internet service here. I can only pray that the time when that kind of service will become commonplace, i.e. cheap, here. If it happened in Vietnam, why not Cambodia?

There’s still more to come, I think…