Seoul Snow Balls

I landed in Seoul and made my way to my gate for the final excursion of my trip to Phnom Penh. I was finally in a place that had free wifi so I logged on. One of my emails was from Frank Gardner with a display of snow ice balls from Finland. As I was viewing the Power Point presentation I noticed a man kept looking at my screen. I invited him over for a closer look. He was from Phnom Penh and worked for the government in the Ministry of Finance. His English was not very good so an in-depth conversation was out of the question. I did figure out that he did not like his job working for the Minister of Finance he really wanted to work for the Ministry of Foreign Relations. I wondered how he would be able to do that without a better grasp of English. He was intrigued with the snow tires and ice balls created by the surf and weather. I sent him a copy for his computer. That was the best I could do to share the love of God.

Soon we boarded the plane and the couple next to did not speak any English only Khmer. Sleep came upon all of us after the evening meal for the six hour flight to Phnom Penh. We landed over an hour late and deplaning was easy. I made my way through customs and prepared to be reunited with my much too big and heavy carry on. It was tagged special handling and came out very quickly I thought this will be a breeze to gather all my luggage and head to the hotel. No such luck.

I collected one of my two checked bags and then I waited as suitcase, boxes, bags, golf clubs passed bye. My second bag was no where in sight. Then as the luggage passed by a large yellow sign indicated the last bag stating that there were no more bags after it. I have had this happen before where a suitcase is having more fun touring the airports between Cambodia and Columbus, Ohio. I sighed and thought about the not having all of my clothes for a few days. Just as I was getting ready to turn and head to the Luggage Claim Office I noticed a black bag lifting the black plastic strips, that conceals the baggage handers from the tacks carrying luggage, it had my distinctive green covering over its handle. What do you know? My suitcase, affectionally named "Fat Albert by Judy, emerged as the very last bag.

Now I headed to exit through Immigration and out into the hot humid night of Phnom Penh. The scene is amazing as you exit the terminal. People shouting, shoving, screaming and begging for attention. Taxi drivers are yelling for you to select them for the trip to where ever you are going. I felt like a dignitary when I spotted the taxi driver sent from the hotel holding up a sign looking for Mr. McDonald. Smiling we made contact and loaded everything in his taxi for the ride through the empty streets of Phnom Penh. He warned me about robbers who work the night shift relieving tourist of their money. He spotted a police car and stayed close to them as we passed through this rough part of the city.

Soon I was at the hotel and a good hot shower and finally able to lay out on a real full length bed. After being on a plane and in airports for over 24 hours it was like heaven. In the morning I would contact Chantha and Sharon. Now wonderful stretched out sleep is everything.