Crazy MONKEY

April 20
Sunday

Today was really fun. I would say it was the most fun I had in sometime. I hung out with Boamey. We first off went to eat at morning café, and then drove around town on a quest to find something to burn time. Even though I didn’t have much money, which resulted in no shopping we still found away to occupy our time. After eating we drove down to the river. I saw this kind of food that I have wanted to try for sometime, so today I tried it and it’s nothing to boast about. I should have taken a picture of it to show you. I tried to explain it to Brenda, but she didn’t understand. None the less I will try and describe it; imagine a softball cut in half. The color is green with a stem (about half an inch thick) on the bottom half (rounded part). The flat part is bumpy; the bumpiness is from the seed. The seed is what you eat, you retrieve the seed by ripping the outer layer off, and then you have to rip off the layer on the seed. It takes a lot of effort to eat and not very rewarding. So, needless to say I didn’t like the food, but it was ok. I won’t want another. The bad part about this food is it’s sold in quantities of four. Boamey and I couldn’t even finish one. It was then that we decided to go to Wat Phom to feed the monkeys.

This idea seem fun and exciting from the start, but once the crazy monkeys saw that I had food they kind of attacked me. Here is the story. Boamey was finishing the first one we had when one monkey approached her. She freaked out and grabbed me by the arm, which caused the bag, containing the other three, to show its continence. The crazy monkey’s pretty much attacked me. They came in from all directions, grabbing at me and the bag. Boamey was saying, “Liz give them the food!” I was really trying to but the stupid fruit was hard to break off from the stem. I was almost on the verge of throwing the whole thing, but decided at the last minute to try one more time to rip it from the stem. Thankfully I succeed and the monkeys didn’t bite me. With all the excitement people were looking at Boemey and me and just laughing. I couldn’t help it either so we just laughed at walked away real show from the monkey’s because they ended up fighting.

Also at Wat Phom we saw a elephant. I wanted to know how much it would cost to ride. Boemey asked and its $15 for foreigners and $10 for natives. I really want to ride an elephant so next weekend Boemey and I are going to ride the elephant. I’m pretty excited! We are also going to feed the monkeys again. This time I will not have that stupid fruit that doesn’t rid easily. Instead we are going to have fruit from Boemey’s trees, which consist of bananas and mangos. I will have to let you know how this goes.

After Wat Phom we drove to the Paragon Mall to take pictures. I was thinking of those little picture booths we have in the states, but it turns out not to be that at all. You get to choose your back grounds (12) and stand in a little booth. The pictures turned out really well. It was a lot of fun. If I can I will scan them in to my computer and post them.

I don’t think I told you who Boemey is, have I? Whatever, she is a senior at CAS we met during senior outing and I really enjoy her company. She will give me rides home from school sometimes and we will get sugarcane juice if either of us had a bad day. We hang out during the weekend from time to time and will get lunch together on Friday’s after school/work. Last Friday she took me to this restaurant on the riverside. It was call the Boat house noodles. Its a really cool atmosphere. The tables are propped up with pillows to kneel or sit on. The food is really good too. You can order Khmer, American, Thia, and I think Korean. I just got fried rice with chicken and Som Tom (papaya salad). Papaya salad is my new favorite food. It consists of papaya (obviously), nuts, tomatoes, diced chilies (hot!), crab, and little shrimp (I don’t get these last too, don’t like the taste). Why I love it? Hot, and sour at the same time, to good to pass up.

My last day of vacation was really enjoyable because of Boemey. I’m really going to miss her when I leave. I will have to keep in touch with her. She is a really good person to be with.