australia

Traveling with a cast on your left hand continues to be a challenge. Spent all day tuesday in the emergency room of St. Vincents hospital trying to get a waterproof cast. It is not possible with my break. according to the Dr. can't take this cast off because the break would move and definitely don't want that to happen. It's a struggle to get dressed. Open bottles! Bathe! Cut your food! Open any sort of packet! etc. Put one of your hands in a bag and see what I mean!
I am a trifle annoyed at Intrepid travel. When they notified me that Thailand was cancelled due to flooding, I sent them an email requesting to cancel Indonesia, because it is a lot of swimming, bike riding etc. My part, I should have called and didn't. While, I was sitting in the hospital I saw an email from them saying if I cancelled now I would loose all that money. Red flags for a girl who has money issues. So now am flying back to Indonesia to do that trip. I am trying to go with the flow.
Today i am going to do my laundry. Since i am staying in a youth hostel in Sydney they have washers & dryers. In Vietnam & Cambodia it was easier and cheaper to send it out!
Arrived in Sydney on Sunday/. Monday, I went to the blue mountains, saw olympic park and took a mini harbor cruise. The find of the day though was this restaurant that had steak, salad & chips for $10. And as the Australians say, the steak was "beautiful!" It arrived pink in the middle, tender and tasty. Before I could eat it though, I had to send it back to the kitchen to get it cut up.
Tuesday, in the ER. there are some hospital workers who like to scare the patient. The physiotherapist that first looked at the vietnam x-rays kept going on and on about surgery. Fortunately, hers wasn't the final word. When the orthopedic Dr. got out of surgery, he said cant disturb the cast! It would cause more problems.
Wednesday, talked to citibank because haven't been able to use the card. It was being denied.I talked to them for more than an hour on several occasions before i left the USA about my trip, where I was going, how long I was going to be and changed the billing address. My daughter in Florida is paying my bills. The reason I haven't been able to charge is because I haven't paid because you guessed it, they didn't change the address. My daughter hasn't gotten a bill since I left. Yes, I was annoyed about that. Yes, I realize I could be getting the bills on line and paying them on line but I don't want to.
Wednesday's tours. Bought a ticket for the hop on hop off bus. The ticket seller gave me the senior rate which was a saving of $10. So I saw all the general sights of Sydney from the top of the bus. While on the bus, I bought a discounted ticket for the aquarium saved another $8. So I saw in depth the fishes of australia without having to get wet. Walked around the Sydney Opera house and went inside. I passed on the tour. I didn't really want to know how much it cost to build it or any of the other details. Then i decided to go to Bondi Beach. So hopped on another bus and went out there. Walked in the sand, walked in the surf and picked up a few shells. The water is a pretty aquamarine color. It was cold. I think it's the pacific ocean. Got back on the bus at 5:15, arrived back at the Sydney central YHA where I am staying at 6:15, just in time for $5 pizza night. So had a pizza for dinner. It's expensive here in comparison to Vietnam & Cambodia. Double what we were paying for food. And you know I don't do well on nothing! They show a movie every night and last night it was Gulliver's travels with Jack Black.
Thursday-so far update the blog, take a shower, get dressed! Now am off to breakfast, do my laundry and talk to the travel experts down stairs!

Cambodia

Have moved on to Cambodia. Yesterday, we arrived in Siem Reap. Yesterday we saw a several hundred year old bridge made out of stone and the floating villages. Took pictures of some pigs in a floating pen. Interesting. Last night we went to a wedding reception for one of Intreped tours guides. It was a lot of fun. We went in a tuk-tuk. That is a cart for 4 people pulled by a motorcycle.

Cambodian tradition for a wedding, the man's family pays for the wedding and reception. They had a seated dinner for more than 500 guests, including tourists. On every table were cans of beer, soft drinks and a fith of Johnny Walker Red. Servers were walking around refilling the drinks. They had a five piece orchestra, an mc and dancers on stage. You walked in through a reception line. All the ladies were wearing pretty pink long skirts and pink silk looking tops. The men had on pink as well.and the parentscwere formally dressed also. There were about 7 courses. Lots of fish. Fish soup, duck, fish salad, steamed rice, grapes. No wedding cake.

Beautiful flowers on the center table as well as piles of fresh fruit. No wedding cake. After everyone had dinner the bride and groom came out together in matching grey silk outfits. The wedfing party also had grey silk dresses and the men wore grey pants and a matching shirt. The bride and groom had a lot of sparkly jewels. I don't know if they were costume or diamonds. The grooms wedfing ring was big, bold and had more than 6 diamonds in it. I don't know about the brides.
We ate, we drank and we danced. No couple dancing. We walked around the fruit table waving our hands. It was tun.

Today, we went temple hopping starting at 5 am. We did indeed see the sun come up around Angkor Wat. It was gorgeous. It has been a long hot day. It must be at least 80 degrees and have humidity of 85%. We are going out tonight so am going to sign off and take a quick nap.