i don't know if this is useful or interesting to anyone but i'm sick. we're all pretty sick to our stomachs--emerson, etta and i. we all got sick from the journey from the thai border to phnom penh-- i threw up the evening we got there and it felt and tasted like the dirt from the road. etta got headaches from the dust and exhaust that lingered for three days, and emerson got a wicked sinus infection. then our road-sickness kind of morphed into prolongued stomach problems. it may have been from the ice, it may have been related to the unnerving absence of soap in many restaurant bathrooms... who knows, the point is there's a marked decrease in the concern for sanitation when compared to thailand. it's really sad--all of the restaurant rest-stops that we made on all of our cambodia travels so far have had garbage all over the floor of the out-door seating area. when they clear the tables they just wipe everything on the floor. random mangey looking dogs forage between chairs and under tables for the scraps of edibles and the balled up tissues that they give you for napkins just lie there. then out back there will inevitably be a cess pool of an irrigation ditch with god knows what in it... chicken bones? soda cans? tissues? dead animals? human waste? i don't think there's anything like a sanitation system in place that picks up garbage in any of the smaller provinces. it's sad and a little scary. i've pretty much lost my appetite. i miss thai curries and pad see yu.
this is probably a similair situation to what we will be experiencing in some parts of india.
i suppose i'll lose some weight and then be able to live off of cheese and bread when we get to france, no worries.