Siem Reap Revisited.

Ha Ha Ha Ha, I have not been keeping anybody in the loop recently have I? To be fair, it's because I really haven't been kept in the loop either.

So I got another job, in Isan... a wonderful place and I was so excited to start doing what I want to do and getting paid... as I am broke! So I said goodbye to Nen, got on a train from Bangkok to a small town near Si Sa Ket, 13 hours North-East. It was quite a journey, I was lower class so didn't get much sleep... but it was ok, I had a job, things would work out... right?
Wrong on one fundamental level, let me explain. Upon my arrival at the train station I was picked up by the school (good sign), taken to a huge school of 3500 students one of Thailand sleepy, highway-side towns. I had my interview and was welcomed to start teaching on Monday. I was thrilled, and why wouldn't I be.. the answer to my unemployment/tourist visa problem were over. They told me that they would take me to the house (house!!!) that I would be renting for 4,000bht a month (about £80)... they told me it had two bedrooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms and a living room. I was excited, I have never had a house before...

We rolled up outside a wonderful looking house, with a garden covered in mangrove and pine trees leading to an old wooden door. I met the owner outside the house, a large woman who couldn't speak due to the copious amounts of tobacco in her brown-stained mouth, but a large and soiled toothy-smile settled my nerves that this was my new land lady. She opened the door into the reception of the house, it was bare but I thought that was normal as it was the reception... she opened the door into the living room and kitchen... Oh dear. The house was a house, a big house at that... but there was nothing in it, no beds, no fridge, no stove, not even a bloody chair. The lady from the school looked at me expectantly, "ok?" she says. I look at her and couldn't not laugh! No, not really... where shall I sleep, where shall I cook or where can I sit and stare absently into space as this was clearly the only thing I could do in this house! She told me that I can bring the furniture from my home... "I'm sorry, my home?" I still don't really know what was going on in her head, I probably seemed mad, it was a really nice house... but how on earth could I live here. I had no money and definitely no furniture and I wouldn't be paid until the end of the month or be entitled to an advance for 2 weeks! So after I explained this to her, and the fact that I couldn't stay here I would need to find another, furnished, apartment she did the standard Asia thing and left me to my troubles but with a smile of course.

Hmmm, I must have sat on that floor for a good half an hour thinking what the hell was I supposed to do? I gave my buddy, Kamel, a call. He was teaching in Chaing Mai and I met him in the agency's office... he assured me that he had a bed, and a television for that matter. I mean the TV I couldn't care less about but the rest... how could I be a respectable teacher when after school I return home to sleep, eat and work on the floor with only a few ragged pictures of local monks to keep me company, I'd become ferrel. I decided to take matters into my own hands and went to the school again, I couldn't find the lady, but I found the principle... I explained to him my situation with him nodding intently throughout, after i had finished he said 'ok, she will show you' and ushered me out of his office and into the company of another lady working there... she then proceeded to show me the classrooms again, and do the whole bit... the principle clearly couldn't speak English. I went on this tour again, partly because I was so tired and was working on auto-pilot and partly because I had nothing better to do other than sit and stare, cross-legged at home. I then was introduced to an English teacher... perfect, I could explain my situation to her... I introduced myself and within a minute realised that this English teacher also could not speak English. It's a show of my immunity to all things Asia that I was neither surprised or frustrated by this! I asked her to introduce me to the other TEFL teacher there, his name was Peter and he was a 30 something year old man from South Africa. He was sympathetic, apparently this happens a lot... someone comes down, they show them a house or apartment with nothing in it and then the teacher leaves. But surely, I asked, I could just find a furbished apartment? He shook his head, unless I was willing to live 2 or 3 hours away from the school this was the best I could get, at least I had air-conditioning he joked and then realising my terrible predicament, apologized.

So that was that, I had no money to buy furniture and no way to find an apartment with those basic necessities needed to live not even comfortably. I left, and no one stopped me... they must get this a lot. So I had problems, a bigger problem than money right now was my visa, without the work permit they would have given me had I started I had 4 days left on my tourist visa and then I would be an illegal immigrant or 'alien' if your American. I gave my mother a call, she has always been the best at putting things into perspective. It was lovely to actually speak to her for one thing, I hadn't in ages... after the phone call, I picked up my bag and left the country.

And now I'm here, in Siem Reap, staying at the same hotel that Harry, Princess and I stayed in last year... 'the shadow of Ankor', mwa ha ha ha ha! A $5 room thank the lord, as I need to find a job pronto... the infamously corrupt Cambodian boarder control officers also did not help my poverty-ridden situation! So my plan is to find work, and tonight when the bars open that is what I'll do. I'll continue to look for teaching work of course but right now all I care about is getting some loot so I can leave the credit card alone... I hate being in debt to people, it makes me tense and for good reason. But I am in a wonderful place at least... since I got into this country I have felt it was the right thing to do, everyone is smiling, there is money in the air... and being back in the developing world is as refreshing as coming back to the developed world from Nepal, cheapness, standard filth. I think I may get bored of places too quickly, I may need to work on that :) But I have to tell you all, after my 3 hour journey to the city to rural Cambodia, it is a fantastically beautiful country... very flat, but with the most amazing assortment of arid plains, dense jungles and distant mountains, very very different from Thailand topographically. I've always been amazed how when crossing a land boarder into any country, be it in Europe or Asia, how different the scenery is... I know it's only a romantic thought that the boarders are drawn up because of distinct changes of landscape... it's definitely not the reason but how now brown cow?