I see Stars =)

The past two days have been crazy!!

On Monday morning Jonah called me out of my nursery class at around 10:30 and told me I had to go to Phnom Penh that afternoon and pick up my Visa. The bus would leave at noon.

“Okaaaayyy“. I thought.

So I got ready and was on the bus. It felt like no time before I was in the capitol city. The quickest 4 ½ hours of my life! Anyways, I got off the bus and some tuk tuk drivers and motto drivers haggled me to go with them for outrageous prices. Finally a motto driver said he would take me to the Long Beach Plaza Hotel for only $1.

I am getting much better at bartering. =)

The travel agency that had my Visa was in this hotel, and then after that I would go to Rachel’s for the night. As it turns out the travel agency was about a 5 minute walk from Rachel‘s house! It was great!

It was a great evening of fellowship, girl talk and just being able to be myself.

Now, I should mention that I had specific instructions from Jonah. If my Visa was good for at least 1 week or more, I was to come home the next day. But if I only had a few days I was going to get on a bus/taxi/van thinger and go to Ko Kong where I would travel to the Thai boarder. Jonah said he’d meet me in Ko Kong.

My Visa was only good until December 19th, and it was already the 17th.

Looked like I was going to Thailand.

I told Rachel and her house mates about my plans and they all strongly advised me not to do it. That Van thing wasn’t the safest (or most comfortable - think 25 people crammed into a regular sized van, People spilling out the windows and sitting on the roof for 5-6 hours) way of travel. Plus the boarder is sketchy. There’s a lot of drug and human trafficking going on there. They told me I should think about flying into Bangkok. It was safe and cheap. Turns out that a round trip was only $69. So I decided to do that. But unfortunately you can’t book flights online within 23 hours and 59 minutes of a flight (apparently). So I woke up at 5am and made my way to the airport (and more good bartering was done for the ride there!). There was a flight to Bangkok in less than 2 hours, and they had room!!

The kicker: it would cost me $79. One way.

Have I mentioned that it’s exam week and I was supposed to be at SLM doing a review with my students?

Well, in light of the situation I just took it. I had to be back in Sihanoukville as soon as possible.

I had a delicious sandwich for breakfast. And a latte.

God bless airports…

Before I knew it I was sitting alone on an airplane heading for Thailand.

Say what?!

Me. Little Brianna going to Thailand all alone, no agenda, no one to help me. Well, that’s a lie. God was there. Like, completely!! At every terminal and passport control counter and security search I went through I prayed for God’s blessing and favour on me wherever I went, and boy did He put His favour on me! It was great!

Anyways, back to Thailand…

They have STARBUCKS!!!!!!!!

God bless Thailand…

There was no eggnog , so I had a peppermint mocha instead. I don’t even like Starbucks mocha, but this was delicious!

Anyways, I hired a taxi to take me into the city. All he did was take me to the enormous mall. I bought all my Christmas presents there, so that was good. I made it back to the airport in time for my flight home (did I mention that once in Thailand I bought a ticket home? For too much money again, ugh.) and even had time to eat Burger King before flying out!!!

I’ve never enjoyed Burger King so much…

I was in Thailand for about a total of 5 hours. I met an Australian guy named Michal at my gate. He was 24 and really nice. We ended up sitting together on the flight home (rush seating). Once in the city my problems/adventure was not over….

The guy wouldn’t give me a 1 year multiple entry Visa on the spot. I have to go back tomorrow and get it at 3pm.

Ugh.

BUT!!! My sweet bartering skills were put to the test even more once out of the airport!! I needed to either hire a taxi to drive me home, or I could crash at Rachel’s again. If it wasn’t exam week, I would have crashed, but I can’t do that to my students. I love them too much. Normally you can hire a taxi to take you to Sihanoukville for $30. But gas has gone up so they were asking $80! I said “NO WAY!” I told them that just because I am white that does not mean I have lots of money. That was just too much. So then I had all these men surrounding me trying to get me to go with them in their tuk tuk, motto or taxi to the city center. One guy spoke really good English and we were chatting up a storm. He wanted me to pay $7 for his taxi, and from there he was going to take me to his brother, who was driving a taxi to Sihanoukville that night. I had to clarify with him a few times, but it was a lot of fun talking to him. He was a funny guy, and I’m a funny girl. We had all those men around us cracking up with laughter! I think they were impressed with the little white girl that was so firm.

=)

Anyways, I went with this guy and his brother took me home to Sihanoukville for $25. There were others in the taxi, but I was more than ok with that. I was soooo exhausted!! I just wanted to go home.

And home I went!!!

But now I’ve been stupid busy all day and I still have to teach for a few hours tonight. Then first thing in the morning I’ll be on a bus again heading back to Phnom Penh. I’m probably going to stay with Rachel Thursday night, and then she’s coming back with me to Sihanoukville on Friday morning.

Alright, here we go!!