Hotter than Hell...(posting from the road)

Part of our Cambodian expereince includes spending the night in the home of a loacl family in a villiage. Chambok was our host villiage. This unique village had spent years earing a living by harvesting lumber and animals from the nearby jungle. Cambodia has finally started to enforce the global rules banning this, thus forcing Chambok to search for a new source of income. While rice is still their primary income they have now ventured into the world of ecotourism...slowly. The town is home to 3650 people in the area, 5 speak english. All the ones we met are desperate to learn. When you walk through the town, people come running out of their huts to say "hello" and "where are you from" - they are definately a welcoming villiage.

After a dinner of rice we returned to our host families home via a shuttle van, apparently the snakes are very bad and a few tourists have been bit after dark (this is black cobra country). Hoping the temperature would drop, we decided to play some cards before bed. While I was kicking a little ass in cards (if it were in Olympic sport I would be draped in gold, not to brag or anything), Christopher and Scott were off chatting with the man of the house. I found out later they were teaching him some English...he would point to various things and ask for the english word...tree, cup, nose, arm, penis...after the 4th time he clarified the word penis, they guys decided to return to the card game. According to them, it was just getting a little wierd.

A few hours later we realized that the temperature was not going to drop and just decided to head to bed. Our driver and guide slept outside in hammocks, leaving the 'guests' to the beds in the hut. With no air circulation, mosquito nets in place and stifling heat, sleep was virtually impossible. It took probably 2 hours before my lids started to droop (with the help of a few pills...) when all of a sudden I was jerked awake by some screams for help. More exactly "help me, help me - I don't want to die". It was Scott, 2 beds away. Figuring he was being attacked by a snake we all tried to bolt out of our beds, unfortunately getting caught up in our mosqito nets. By the time we got untangled, Scott had woken up - turns out it wasn't a snake, it was a nightmare - he had dreamt that he was burning in hell.

Poor Scott, his bad night wasn't over. He stumbled out to the washroom and at the door to our hut was met by the man of the house, he wanted to make sure his guests weren't attacked by a snake while walking to the outhouse. Very nice right? Well, still half asleep, Scott hadn't noticed that the man had followed him into the washroom, that is until he heard the man say, "penis" while pointing at poor Scott.

It was a long night. The heat made sleep impossible and if for some reason someone did drift off there were 30 or so dogs that consistently barked outside our hut. The roosters started at 0430. And of course, Scott had to sleep with one eye open....it was unanimously decided the next day by all of us that there would be no future homestays despite the hospitality of the town - at least until central air is installed.

A-gun again!