I'm reminiscing already

Cambodian village kids

this is one great article
As Paul Theroux said, travel of the non-Waikiki sort is a shocking enrichment; its unpredictability and inconvenience provide an essential lesson in humility.

Paul Theroux... I should really get myself down to finish Dark Star Safari that's written by Theroux. Still sitting there.

It is precisely that lesson and many more which I craved for that spurred me into Cambodia. I promise I'll get down to reflecting on Cambodia soon, or maybe I'm doing that now already.
My parents did ask me if I would ever want to return there and I said yes I want. Guess they could tell that I'm reminiscing Cambodia because I kept mentioning life there, which probably may not be what they expected? (they probably expected me to come home saying I will never return and complain about the discomforts there. not that many discomforts imo, I was ready and expecting worse probably)

How can I not reminisce that place? I can still picture the green padi fields in my mind and the sun at the horizon right now. The blood moon in the sky that I first mistook for a neon board sign...Don't ask me why I would think there's a red neon board sign in a rural province. The stars. The stars are so so awesome. In Singapore, you can actually count stars but you can't do the same there. Proud to say I've saw Virgo, Scorpio, The Great Dipper, Libra and The Crux. The thunderstorms, which are a fiery display of lightning flickering here and there through the clouds and lighting up the dark, grayish sky. A few of us stood there marveling at nature's fierceness. Going through a meander and witnessing the works of erosion and deposition yourself. The smiles of the children. The hammock I slept on in the village we helped to build well in. Glorious wonderful hammock and the view of the treetops I had when I look up lying there, like Tarzen-mode (:

So what if I wake up to dead insects lying around the house and having to sweep them away. So what if I lived with squatting toilets that requires you to scoop water in to flush. So what if there can really be a lot of my worst nightmare there: lizards and geckos. So what if food aren't as clean, water aren't fresh, market is muddy there and they have no proper pathways to walk on on the 'street'. So what if there's no streetlight at night and 7.30pm is pitch black. So what if there's slums, rags, beggers, desperate street peddlers, poverty... All these are experiences which made me love so much more and so easily right now to the many things I have here- like washing machine and flushing toilet bowls. (still can't get over it)

I can't believe this myself. I miss that place.
So I now officially am missing two countries: Italy and Cambodia. What's next on the list?

Dear God, please let me live long enough to see, feel, smell, hear, walk on, touch, all that I wanna live in, on, beside, with. Please don't give me a boring meaningless life that's self-centered, too afraid and not having enough faith in you. Even when I marry, have kids, have to settle down, I pray that I don't really have to settle settle down such that I never pick myself up again and take the road not taken, the beaten path.