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August 16, 2008
10:00 PM ICT
Room 228, Salina Hotel
Siem Reap, Siem Reap Province, Cambodia

I just realized it’s been over a week since my last blog post. I knew this would happen, that I would stop posting. This is partially because I’m lazy and don’t follow through on things, and partially because I’ve been pretty consistently busy with research (though that part of my trip is almost ended). But mainly, I think, I haven’t been posting because it never really seems like I do anything bloggable. I get up, do research, and go to sleep. But I recently realized that’s bullshit.

I made this realization while I was riding on the back of a motorcycle – one of the primary cheap ways of getting around – that was being driven by a guy who spoke almost no English and who I wasn’t entirely sure knew where we were going. I was clinging on for dear life, not having a lot of motorcycle experience, and not having a lot of experience with the particular lawlessness of Cambodian roads; we were on the left side of the road for a good part of the time, swerving in and out between other equally lawless motorcycles most of the time, and flying over the exceptionally bumpy roads of Siem Reap the whole time (more on Siem Reap traffic in another post).

The situation was worsened by the fact that I had a fever and felt like absolute shit. Indeed, the reason I was on a motorcycle was that I’ve been feeling somewhat ill (to be expected), and I had to leave early from the bar where we were doing research in order to get back to the hotel and a toilet fit for a human.

Now, the bar toilets weren’t as bad as they could have been. There was a porcelain bowl, but no seat to sit on, and next to no water in the bowl. There was, however, a large trough next to the toilet and a bucket to use to dump water into the toilet to ‘flush’ it. There was also a hose to wash your bum. People in this country use a jet of water and not toilet paper, and it still grosses me out – especially since it meant that the entire washroom stall was wet, and I knew for a fact the water had been splashing off areas that were not clean. (I was, however, lucky enough to find a roll of toilet paper next to the bathroom sink, substituting for paper towels.)

And the reason we were at such a seedy bar? We were – for the fourth night in a row – interviewing the beer girls and hostesses (more on them in another post) about their job, how much money they were making, how much beer they were selling, and how much they were drinking. We even have a breathalyzer machine on loan from an Australian company to test blood alcohol.

But I was feeling sick.
And had to use the washroom.
And then had to find transportation to the hotel – fast.
And so got on the nearest motorcycle.
And thought I might die.
And realized, “You know what? Even just spending all my time researching, I think what I’m doing is actually kind of interesting.” So I’m blogging. Quick warning: as I haven’t been doing much (as in tourist things), there will be more posts about the situation in Cambodia, and fewer posts about things I’ve done.