Let The Games Begin!

Now this is where things got interesting in the middle of my pool game at our mini reunion I get a call from the embassy here in Cambodia telling me they’re waiting at the airport for me to which I told them that my flight itinerary doesn’t show me leaving until the following morning and that I would be in Cambodia in 2 days time. So the next morning as I am setting there with my mom all ready to go to the airport I check my tickets and orders and nearly crap myself because my itinerary was printed wrong(thank you Africa!) and both my orders and itinerary say I was supposed to leave 2 days earlier and should already be in Cambodia. Now for those of you not familiar with the military missing a flight, with no good reason other than some papers being wrong, is a huge problem and ultimately results in me being listed as UA(an offence punishable under the UCMJ by restriction, loss of rank and/or being sent back to DC and a whole bunch of other bad things I don’t really want to happen). And regardless of your military knowledge you can imagine my dismay at realizing I had missed my flight to Cambodia and now needed to get there as soon as possible. The bad luck pretty much ended there though because when I called the embassy here they gave me 5 days to get here, and then when I went to the airlines thinking I was about to have to drop 3000 dollars of my own money on new tickets it turned out that since I had the luck of coming from Africa where E-tickets don’t exist that I could use my paper tickets to fly standby the whole way there without having to pay anything more(I am always using paper tickets from here on out lol). So the next morning I showed up bright and early at 6:30 am to wait for a flight, I got the first flight to Denver then the next flight to LA without any problems actually making it there 8 hours quicker than I would have otherwise. Which turned out to be a great thing because the other nice thing about standby is that you pick up and recheck your bags at every stop, so when they didn’t come in on my flight to LA, I was able to just wait until the next flight when they came in. That night I caught the overnighter to Hong Kong where I hit my first and only real snag in the trip when it turned out there just aren’t that many flights going to Cambodia and I would have to wait a day, which is where that whole “check your bags at every airport” thing came in handy again. You see it is in my outdoorsy nature to always be ready to go in case I should have the chance to do any hiking or camping therefore I packed my sleeping bag and pad along with all my other camping gear rather than ship it in case I get the chance before my shipments make it here to Cambodia. So I had probably one of the most comfortable nights ever in an airport with my sleeping pad and bag all rolled out next to a little waterfall display they have there in the airport(I kept having to go pee for some reason that night lol). I got some funny looks from a few people but it was comfy as hell and a lot less then the 200 bucks a night for a hotel (Hong Kong’s expensive!). The next morning I lucked out once again and met a Chinese/Canadian guy from Ottawa who lives in Hong Kong but works for Canadian Airways and after chatting a bit he offered to show me around town for about 4 hours until my flight left that afternoon. So we stashed my bags in Canadian Airways office hopped a taxi and saw a bit of Hong Kong and had something other than airport food for once in 3 days lol.I got off the flight to Phnom Penh at 5:45pm and showed up at the embassy at the tail end of our semi annual inspection here. I had been in the house about 10 minutes (just long enough to change out my polo and slacks that I have to show up to the embassy in) and then they called a response drill where essentially we have someone pretend to be an intruder and then we proceed to go through and clear the building room by room much like a civilian SWAT team would. The difference is though we work and sometimes live in these buildings so normally you know them inside out even by the time you do your first drill. But since I had only even been in the country about 10 minutes it was just crazy being thrown into all of this with guys and tactics and scenarios I’m not familiar with at all and it really gave me a whole new level of respect for our civilian counterparts, not knowing what’s around that corner when you’re tracking down and armed assailant in an unfamiliar building. But after the drill everything settled down and with the exception of one or two trips to the store I’ve barely left the compound yet.From what I have seen of it I really think I will enjoy my time here in Cambodia, the locals are nice and personable with much the same outlook on things as the Africans back in Botswana (although I must say they definitely have a more stringent work ethic lol). The city itself is pretty crazy compared with quite little Gabs, or anywhere else for that matter. Our vehicle (a full size suburban) is nearly useless here making a bicycle by far the most efficient means of transportation. The marine I’m working with are ok guys they are definitely much more in love with being a marine than I have ever been but they’re good guys none the less and they all really like to mountain bike so I’m set for recreation. The one thing I’m not so sure about is the expats here. In Botswana the expat community was a great community, it was almost entirely composed of NGO and foreign aid workers because, well… there’s just not really anything else to do in Botswana which led to a community comprised of people with big hearts and open minds. That and there was a large but tight nit Indian community there which I really liked and got along with many of them very well(and now hope to one day spend some time in India because of). Whereas here in Cambodia most of the expats appear to be here solely because they don’t want to actually have to work at anything in life and can take advantage of the social and economic situation here to do just that. And of course you have the low life middle age men (and of course the other marines all fall into this category) who are here because their economic position makes it unbelievably easy to date a girl(usually girls though they hardly ever stick to just one) they wouldn’t stand a chance with if it wasn’t for the fact that she make’s as much in a year as he does a pay check. But all in all I know eventually I will find my kind of people here and settle into a life that I will probably regret leaving once my time here ends in November.