a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose

We weren't really ready to come to Phnom Penh, but somehow we're here and it isn't bad at all. Leslie and Noel and I are walking down the street and it's hot and dusty and there are no sidewalks. Every few steps, a moto nearly knocks one of us over, but somehow we're having a good time. We go to the largest market I've ever been to, but it's too hot and I can't breathe through my nose there, so we leave. Men on their motor bikes follow us to see if we want a ride, and we don't but they keep asking and following. Tuk tuks inch up to us and stop in front of our path because how could we possibly want to walk in a city with no sidewalks? We don't want a ride, we can find our way. Except somehow we can't, and we end up outside of central Phnom Penh. We have to step over piles of garbage as we make our way back to the main city and to the restaurant we've picked from our Lonely Planet. Our water is gone and our shirts are wet with sweat, but we're still having fun. We walk all the way to the restaurant and a sign says it's closed for a few days. So we find a restaurant next door and all is well. We eat and we're too full to walk back, so we find a tuk tuk and when I point on the map where we want to go, the driver doesn't know and says 'do you know' and I do know but don't know if I can instruct him over both of our shoulders, so finally I point some more and he nods that he knows where to go. So we drive but he doesn't know, we end up at a restaurant and he hops out and the three of us smile at each other because it's pretty funny. The driver disappears and then comes back and takes my Lonely Planet and brings it to a big group of Khmers at a table. They all look at the book, eight or nine of them, and Leslie and Noel and I are laughing, and finally they realize where to go and the driver is yelled at by the group of people. He gets back in, and the three of us don't care if the ride takes an hour, but it doesn't and we're back at our hotel in ten minutes and we spend a few hours in the room, but it's not at all boring and somehow we've had a very excellent day.