Surgery in Cambodia!!!

Yes, I did indeed get surgery in Cambodia, but it was very minor surgery so there really isn't any cause for alarm; the only cause for alarm was that after he was finished I say a grasshopper on the wheel of the operation bed I had been lying on.

My toenail had been kind of destroyed on the booze cruise in Sihanoukville, and it had gotten infected somewhere along the way even though I thought I was taking good care of it. I was going to try and fix it myself, but then one of my veins in my toes started turning white and I had a vague recollection this is a sign that the infection is going into your bloodstream, resulting in gangrene, which was not high on my to-do list so I figured I had better find a doctor.

I went to the hospital, which was very new, clean, and expensive, and the doctor took one look and said he had to remove it, so he shot me up with Novocain and that was that.  The only hitch to the procedure was that they didn't give me enough Novocain so I could feel the nail being cut out.   I now have a much deeper sympathy for torture victims who have their nails pulled out, it its not fun, and I can't think of too many things that could be worse.

Toenail post-surgery, yum yum

I got back to the hotel and couldn't walk which presented a slight problem since our room was on the 4th floor with no elevator.  I ended up sitting on my butt and moving backwards up the stairs, step by step, all four flights of them. The workers in the lobby thought it was quite something.

Anyway, that is basically my surgery story, so moving on...

Because of the nail I ended up staying in Siem Reap with the rest of the family for a really long time, about 6 days, and had to cut Laos out of my trip which was really disappointing to me, because I had high expectations for tubing in Vang Vieng.

Siem Reap was a pretty decent place to get stuck however, and I managed to entertain myself, mostly by making close friends with the lady who ran the internet and paying her long visits everyday. Some highlights:

Angkor What? Bar = mostly this place was awesome because of the name... I am a nerd, I love puns.

Khemer Kitchen = Best Cambodian food EVER. I am slightly obsessed with Cambodian food, which is mostly curries and stews you can pour over rice. I bought all of the spices necessary and I am planning on mastering the art when I get home.

Awesome day at the river where we played with two little boys for at least 5 hours =

Dave and Josie and I were just chilling on the river since we had been too cheap to pay the $5 to go to the pool, when we saw two little boys on the other bank. Dave started wondering if people actually swam in the river, which looked a bit suspect, so as a joke he motioned them to come over, thinking that they never would. we were wrong, they both immediately stripped off their shirts, dove in, and swam across. They ended up hanging out with us for most of the day. We bought them ice cream, which they didn't like, apples, which they also didn't like and then finally some fried noodles, which were a hit. They both spoke no English, and so we played charades all day to talk. Dave pulled out some card tricks, and soon we had a huge crowd. It was pretty fun times.

After swimming across the river

Revolted by the ice cream

The noodles are a hit

The card tricks are also a hit, not just with the kids but with the tuk tuk drivers too

I wanted to adopt this one

Basically I love Cambodia. A lot. Much better than Thailand. Go there. Now!  (pic below is just a random picture of the river in Siem Reap that I thought was pretty.