My brother Songbae’s last missive from Cambodia:
“not necessarily in that order:
dinner – phnom penh has a lot of koreans and korean resturaunts. went to one last night called pyong yang. all the waitresses are from north korea. they sang some karaoke while we ate.
dreams – not about cambodia but a newspaper article i read while having breakfast in cambodia. when a school girl was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up she said a government official. when asked what kind she said a corrupt one because they have lots of nice things.
decadence – there’s a fancy new hotel that i stopped by to check out today. at the spa i asked if there were separate steam rooms for men and woman. they said no, everyone gets their own individual jacuzzi, steam room and sauna.
massage therapist – how old are you?
me – 40 massage therapist – how come your face doesn’t look that old?
me – shrug
massage therapist – but your hair looks that old
massage therapist – are you married?
me – no massage therapist – oh, that’s so sad, sorry
massage therapist – what do you do?
me – i’m not working. i’m looking for a job?
massage therapist – they’re looking for a spa manager”