Toilet Seats and Aliens

Hi, Y'all: (That's Southern Cambodian)

This past few days we went to Battambang to see our 'original" orphans of two years ago. They are great kids; we had a wonderful visit. Much love, smiles, and hugs were given and received! Though we are not their primary supporters any longer, they will always occupy a special place in our hearts.

This time we stayed in a different hotel than our usual one. It was recommended by a local friend as being newer and nice. So ... we checked in and got to our rooms. We noticed that in each room the bath had a commode sans toilet seat! At the first room, we figured it was an oddity, but upon seeing three the same, we were surprised.

Dave tried to communicate with the young men carrying our bags to the rooms that we needed toilet seats. That was an interesting experience; how do you tell/show someone who doesn't speak your language just what you mean? Finally, they understood what we meant and they said none of their rooms had seats. Between t he three of us we had a reasonable travel experience and none had ever seen such a situation, in Asia or otherwise. Anyway, these two guys when they understood, looked at us like we were aliens; who on earth would want or care about a toilet seat?

Having made the point that we'd be moving on to another hotel, they said "wait, wait" and one ran off to return carrying three toilet seats. We knew that they existed in Cambodia! We stood and watch as they affixed the alien devices to the commode with plastic ties. And at that, they were only secured on ONE side. Those boys were proud of their work, flashing big smiles while pointing to their work.

I advised Dave that with the single-sided attachment, we had better be careful so as to not misplace our hind surface in a lop-sided fashion or we would end up wedged between the tile wall and commode. (Bring on the crane, again!)

I must be gaining weight while here, for after all their work the first time I sat down, the newly affixed seat shattered under my weight! So much for quality; probably "Made in Hong Kong". I hope the installers didn't have to see my destruction the next day.

For many reasons, we decided to change hotels the nnxt day and learned from our friend that we had chosed the wrong hotel of two next to each other! He laughed at our ignorance. So much for change and progress!

Well, off to a well deserved shower and bed. Talk to you later.