THERE IS NOWHERE TO GO BUT EVERYWHERE

Mr. Phuht (who, by the way, ran an excellent restaurant in Mondulkiri, if only I could remember the name of it) drove us back to Phnom Penh, leaving bright and early so we could explore the city to its fullest in the one day we had left in Kampuchea (which is what Cambodians still call their country).  We were able to go see the Royal Palace, wander through the Russian Market, buy some last minute souvenirs, and just soak in the city.

We also got another $7 massage, which was much less sketchy than the last one we got in Mondulkiri!  I had to fly back to Korea in order to take the flight out of Seoul provided by the Korea Society, and Jeff was flying around the world via Germany on Lufthansa.  His flight was hours after mine, so we said goodbye at the hotel and I headed for the airport while Jeff had yet another massage (and a pedicure!) and wandered around the city for the seven hours he had left until his flight took off.  

Jeff took these photos in the market after I left.  

....then he went to the Cambodian National Museum

As Jeff was taking these photos he was imagining me winging it back to Korea via Hong Kong and then beating him home by half a day.  Unfortunately, a giant typhoon had blown through Hong Kong that day, closing the airport and stranding thousands of travelers.  Dragon Air had canceled all flights to Hong Kong, with no guarantees that flights would resume for days and days.  I had the Korean Air flight that was going to leave without me if I didn't make the connection out of Hong Kong, but couldn't contact anyone from Korean Air to ask about getting switched to a later flight - as a matter of fact, my friends at Dragon Air told me that the Korean Air flights were likely to be backlogged also due to Typhoon Vicente, which was equivalent to a category 4 hurricane.  Imagine Jeff's surprise when he showed up at the airport - thinking me well on my way home - and seeing me stranded there.  Remember, we had no cell phones that would work in Asia.  It was lucky I did see him, as I had no money and was able to get a credit card off him before he took off on his flight.  I was seriously beginning to think that I would, like Tom Hanks, be living in the terminal of this airport for perhaps a week before they could get me out of there.  (And may I add that the Phnom Penh airport is definitely NOT the latest in comfort and amenities.  The only good news is that Dragon Air kept giving me restaurant vouchers.

Another blessing was that I had my laptop and there was wifi - so I set to work trying to find anything, any route, airline, boat, elephant, ANYTHING that would get me home and not cost me a jillion bucks.  Luck kicked in again when shifts changed and I found a junior employee of Dragon Air - I wish like anything I could remember that kids' name - who spoke excellent English.  I showed  him the Air Asiana flight that I'd found leaving Phnom Penh and flying straight to Seoul at midnight.  He replied that they didn't have a partnership with Air Asiana but would contact them to see if they would give me a hardship flight due to the typhoon.  Hurrah!  They did!!!  AND since it was direct it would get me to Seoul in time to catch my original flight back to the States!!  (I should mention that, even though I don't remember my  hero's name as I write this, I did get it at the time and wrote him one heck of a customer appreciation letter which I copied to Dragon Air's main office in Hong Kong.)  I had to go backwards through customs and illegally re-enter Cambodia, then go frontwards through customs with my Asiana ticket (had me a rough few moments over this maneuver)... but it worked.  By this time I was in need of another massage.  Airport massages were $10 but the stress had been going on for 13 hours at this point and I needed to defuse. Ten dollars and a few  hours later I was winging my way toward Seoul.  Had no way of letting Jeff know that things had worked out, but amazingly we were scheduled to take the same JetBlue flight from JFK to Orlando the next day.... this after leaving six hours apart, he flying from west Cambodia to Frankfurt to JFK and me going the other way around the globe - first north to Korea and then east to JFK! (the fact that he was flying west is what kept the typhoon from affecting him).  However, he ended up missing that flight!  Needless to say, I was pretty exhausted when I finally reached Orlando and was pretty darn happy to see my wonderful son Garrett there to pick me up.  AND this fabulous boy drove me home because he saw how tired I was and then turned right around and went back to Orlando to get Jeff who arrived a couple hours after me.

And so another trip is over.  The question is - where will I go next?

“There's a race of men that don't fit in, 
A race that can't sit still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin, And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and rove the flood, 
And they climb the mountain's crest; Their's is the curse of the gypsy blood, 
And they don't know how to rest.” 
― Robert W. Service