osmoala

For some reason it was easier to write about the girls than the guys. It should say ”women” and ”men”, but here most people look like girls or guys, because traveling often makes people look younger than their age. You can see the energy in their eyes. And the girls had the most interesting stories to tell.

   So I was mostly thinking of girls. Perhaps I was only trying to understand the human nature, and even though I hated the idea of leaving all the untold stories behind it was better to focus on some other things for a while.

   I was only kidding myself. When the last weeks materialized I realized there were very few options. So be it.

     Lorelyn

 Lorelyn smiled.

   She was already locked with her eyes to mine while crossing the somewhat dangerous intersection between The Temple and The King Kong Bar. I had seen accidents happen there but now there was little traffic so I smiled too.

   She was a blessing for sore eyes. A light yellow skirt showing the well crafted knee caps, the contagious smile, happy gray eyes with a dash of green. The kind of green that makes you jump off a boat if you stare at the water long enough. She would use curse words like a lumberjack but she surely looked like a woman. A sudden gush of wind caught her hair and we moved inside The King Kong.

   Well, there is really no inside, only a tinroof, but to the right there is a bar with a few rooms when you have made your choice amongst the girls sitting on the red couches. Couches that remind you of the 70s German porn movies, but these girls never seemed to crack a smile. I had only seen locals there, in small groups celebrating something. To the left of the smallest bar in the world there was an open all night shop.

   ”Rain, tequila, please”.

   Lorelyn said, ”Good to see you too”, without the usual 'motherfucker'. Maybe she was holding it back because we hadn't seen each other in eleven months.

   She was so easy to be with and it was a happy street now; people around you smiling, tuk tuks honking in a friendly way, people passing by with a hand in the air to a greeting, a white cat stroking at your leg.

   Rain fixed the drinks in no time and we would have a couple more. Rain pulled out snacks with bugs and worms and scorpions. Last time we were here she had whispered to me, ”She is so beautiful”. Now we had a plate of fried scorpions in front of us, but the scorpions had nothing to do with anything.

     Carolyn

Carolyn said to herself, ”Curry on your feet”. She made a slow move and produced an ashtray. She had broken her both feet. It happened a week ago when she fell down the 17 steps from the third floor.

   ”It gives you time to think.”

   ”What do you mean?”

   Her boobs were visible there for a while when she was reaching for a cigarette, voluptious with the rounded curve of a skilled surgeon, the nipples pink. She was a natural blonde and there was an empty bottle of Russian vodka on her night table.

   All of a sudden I grew a little nervous. Was I supposed to do something with these tits pointing at you, like the forever tempting fruits from the Garden of Eden? The pleasures of the Assasins's dreams? I could easily reach over there we were sitting on her double bed and put one of her nipples in my mouth.

   ”Give me an example.” I had forgotten she was an English teacher.

   ”Like... is it all over? Am I going to die now? Did I pay my bills?”

   She wrapped the robe around her like a fortress and then she let it slide open again, and I was trying not to look. I was sucking on to my cigarette and the sun was coming in thru the open door. The air con was on. Victor was by the poolside with his legs in the water. His girlfriend came back carrying bags with vegetables. I realized this would not be my place. I decided to go to the Mekong River to see Christian.

There were other people going too. Moori, Loch and Lee. Lee, the former skateboard pro from London had been bitten by a dog and he was taking rabies shots. I would tell him that a dog that bit him and then survived for three days wouldn't be a risk to anyone.

     Phuc

I took off with my best friend's wife.

   We went to Viva! for the frozen margaritas. Ross was back in the UK and she was here. He wouldn't mind us having a drink together now that she was in Siem Reap on a short holiday, all by herself, and I was the only one she knew here.

   She checked the back of my neck. ”Look, what happened to you?”

   ”Mosquito bites.” I could feel them but not see them. Somewhere ten to fifteen bites. She looked worried there for a little while, but I was sure it wouldn't last long.

   ”I just came back from the Mekong. It was only a hundred meters across the river to Laos. It was hot during the day and cold at night. There were mosquitos around and they come at sunset. But we had no electricity so we couldn't see them anyway. I slept in a tent for the first time in a hundred years and I hated it.”

   She gave me a serious look, like, why do you do things like that? – took another look at the red puncture marks, gave away an easy laughter, shaking her head. She had a sip of her drink. I had a sip of mine. They were good margaritas.

     Sheela

We were burning ice for two days. There was no sleep but we seemed to spend all the time in her bed. There was no other furniture anyway. It was in the outskirts, near the big local market, a three minute tuk tuk drive from Sok San Road. It was close to where Arthur had proudly shown me a place that was only a dollar fifty a night so I walked in there and walked out again.

   Arthur waiting in the tuk tuk – ”What do you think?”

   ”It's a dormitory. I spent ten months in the army. I'm done with dormitories.”

   ”Oh, a fucking dormitory.” We said nothing. He had never bothered to look inside.

Sheela was a beautiful girl. And like any beautiful girl she had a thing working against her, it could be about anything, and Sheela was grinding her teeth. She would easily grind her teeth the beat of maracas when she got in the mood. It was sort of okay too once you got used to it.

   On the second day I developed a fever. Probably a reaction to the mosquitos. I gave her ten dollars to go and buy Aspirin and Aquarious, the best isotonic drink ever, and she came back with a bag of ice. Maybe she thought ice was the cure for everything.