There are times on the World Race where God just gives you an extra special treat to lift your spirits. And I’m not reffering to munchin’ on Cambodian Fried Tarantulas or barbequed snake. Sometimes it goes above and beyond having a delicious iced coffee with sweet milk for 75cents in an air conditioned cafe sitting in a big cushioned wicker chair (which has been rather common place here in the city). Sometimes God pulls out the big guns. Something so special and tailor fit to you that one encounter can keep your spirits up for months to come. Last night, March 19th of 2009, the good Lord gave me such a treat. This is my story….
Thursday night Teri and I decided to go hang out, get some iced coffee with sweet milk, and just chat. So we took a tuktuk (moto-drawn-carriage) down to Wat Phnom (Temple on the Hill) and look for a cafe along the river front. We looked and walked and walked and looked for probably 20 minutes, trying to navigate our way with a confusingly disproportionate map of the area and found no cafes that were open except for bars. As we were walking along the sidewalk, we caught a glimpse, out of the corner of our eye, one of those swinging ship rides that you see at amusement parks! What the heck?! That was about the last thing I had expected to see walking down the sidewalk in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. So we had to go check this out. We get a little closer and find out it’s a whole Carnival! It had the starship eight-arms things, dart tossing games, bumper cars, and kiddie train rides. The works! I was havin’ a good ol’ time just taking it all in. There was a smile as big as the Grand Canyon on my face. Then I heard a very familiar sound behind me. I turn around slowly, and there before me was a real life Cambodian roller coaster! No way! This was too good to be true! Then I woke up. In bed. It was all a dream! How sad is that?
Ha ha ha ha ha! Fooled ya’, didn’t I? It was real. So naturally, Teri and I went over to the ticket booth and bought 2 tickets to the roller coaster. It was only $1.25 a piece. A steal. So anyway we went up and got on (because there was no line) and it was one of those old ones that just had a bar in front of you to hang on to. But it was okay because it never got more than 15 ft high and didn’t exceed 20 mph. It was a rather short roller coaster but when we got to the station, we just flew right through at full speed and started all over again. We went around 4 times before it stopped! It was totally incredible. I was on cloud nine. So we floated on over to the dart tossing paid 5000 reil (4000 to 1 exchange rate) and got 5 darts. So I threw all five and popped only 1 balloon. So we asked the lady what we could get, if anything. She said just that, anything. I popped only one balloon and I get to pick out anything?! I love this place! So we look at the selection and started to laugh. They had everything from stuffed animals to silverware. They had pop, glasses, dishes, dish SOAP, soy sauce, chop sticks, and household cleaners! What in the world?! So we got soy sauce for Sammie because she loves it and has been borrowing Nick’s bottle at dinner the last several nights.
So there you have it, folks. A true Cambodian carnival complete with a true Cambodian coaster. I’m good till Africa! Maybe then I’ll go bungee jumping. Who knows. God is quite good.
