Cambodia and Singapore - 17 April - 2 May 2024

An incredible cloud

The adventure began with Irene  collecting me for the airport at 5am in her brand new car. I wasn’t quite ready. That meant she had time for a beautiful coffee made in my aeropress. 

At check in my bag, which has a bit of spare room, weighed in at 14.7kg. Great! My hand bag, however, was stuffed to the brim mainly because at the last second I thought to carry the fabulous headset Victoria had given me last year. At that time I carried it to no avail, as my airlines to Norway and France didn’t support it.  Singapore Airlines, on the other hand…. 

Victoria’s fab gift

It is incredible how noise cancelling they are.  I was able to really enjoy the four part BBC series Fight the Power - How Hip Hop Changed the World. It was a great documentary giving details on what was happening in the Bronx in the 1960’s why hip hop started and how it evolved east and west coasts USA.  The police racist brutality, policies designed to harm for political gain and the green light given to murder by kneeling on a neck. Hip hop tells us about it all. With the exception of the artists or particular songs that are riddled with misogyny, the music is inspirational, emotional and optimistic. 

Scenes from the documentary took me back to my trip to New York with Mary Morrissy in 1996 when she won the Lannan Award for writing. We met Karen on the Staten Island Ferry and later ended up at a night club down town. It was gob smacking to witness people in circles like in this picture here, teaching each other a break dance move. I’ll never forget it.  The club was just fabulous - three genres of music in different rooms there.  Giant place. No idea what the club was called. 

The other memory this documentary evoked was of signing the telegraph pole at the site of Tupac’s murder when nephew James and I were in that terrible place Las Vegas, a few years ago. 

With only an hour or so flying to go, I followed it with an audio series of interviews with Beyonce. I don’t know enough about her, so enjoyed the interview snippets.

Plane food was good! I loved the meal (fish with noodles and veg) the mini magnum and snack (tandoori chicken roti) - all delicious. 

I got my step count up at Singapore airport when I was misdirected to the connecting flight to Phnom Penh.  Will that misdirection also be the starting point of a new addiction - I requested black coffee from a corridor coffee cart and receive a coffee made with condensed milk and carnation milk.  A lightning bolt of pure mouth pleasure! 

In Phnom Penh, the visa payment process was haphazard and funny. It wasn’t funny though to have two of my US$20 bills rejected and one for good reason. 

Brian and Hengh met me at the airport and we were taken to their apartment along Russian Federation Boulevard in a motorised vehicle called a ramok. Crazy traffic, noisy and exciting!

View of Russian Federation Boulevard from our ramok

Hengh

Brian

 

Brian and Hengh have a great two bedroom apartment with two bathroom and thankfully with airconditioning. We walked to a hot pot place for a really lovely dinner.

The large bowl of broth is divided in  half - one side really hot and the other, mild. Hengh mixed a  dipping sauce from sesame, chili, onion and ginger which was really delicious with the meat, mushrooms and greens.  

Back home, tragedy struck.  My bed had no top sheet.

I slept like a log in my dark chilly top sheetless room on a bed that was perfectly firm.