The sunlight coming in through the window wakes me. The rocking reminds me that I’m on a boat. Cambodia. Right. I’ve got reading to do.
I notice a different feel in the gentle motion of the boat on the river this morning, and the normal hum of the electric motors is missing. My cloud spreads out and I feel the city of Phnom Penh where we must have docked while I was sleeping.
“Hey, Evan,” I say, looking over at my sleeping brother.
He mumbles something and puts his pillow over his head.
“Hey, Evan,” I say again.
“Yeah?” he groans, pulling the pillow down and giving me a groggy stare.
“We’re meeting a king today,” I remind him. “That’s kind of cool. I never met a king before.”
“Sure,” he says, rolling over and pulling the pillow back over his head.
Whatever. He doesn’t have to be excited about it. I hit the head and get ready for the day. Andrea must not be running exercises this morning, or I’d have heard the beat already. I almost grab breakfast from the fridge by reflex, but stop myself. I’ll see if anyone wants to get something at a restaurant on shore before I eat.
Email, then.
Alan is using the list I sent him and also working on figuring out who all else might be at General Liu’s tech conference. The names he’s got so far ding around my index and seem to be a who’s who of everyone doing serious nanotech research. Tech entrepreneurs, big industry people, and academics are all included on the list. The only one of them I’ve met is Antonio Campos, but I’m pretty sure he would have said something to us if he had been invited. I scrape the preliminary info from the profiles Alan attached to the email into my index. It’s not comprehensive at all, but I should be able to greet them all by name now and have enough facts handy to flatter any of them with how I’ve been following their work.
Sheryl’s message has the final itinerary and agenda for our press event today. We’ll have some time for sightseeing this morning before it starts. We’ve got the show and tell with the press in the afternoon, then a formal dinner with the dignitaries. She has rooms booked for us at the hotel that’s hosting the event, so we can just head to our rooms when it’s done.
Grammy and Gramps are fine and want me to tell them more about the trip, so I do, though there’s not a lot to tell lately.
Lin’s got a couple of messages waiting for me. Standard stuff, updates and affection. I fire back, tell her about my day yesterday, and ask if she can video chat tomorrow morning. I should have time, privacy, and a good internet connection around the time that Yang Song goes on her morning run. I hope she can work it on her side. I miss talking to her.
Evan is out and showered by the time I’m done working on the tablet. Marc is just getting up.
“You guys want breakfast in town or on the boat?” I ask.
“In town,” Evan says and Marc mumbles something affirmative as he heads to the bathroom.
I step out onto the deck. Akara is out on her deck right alongside ours.
“Hey, Akara,” I greet her. “What time did we get in?”
“Good morning, Noah. About three hour ago. You want to eat on boat or go eat out? I know very good place in town.”
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“Eating in town sounds great. All three of us are up for going out for breakfast, let me check with the others.”
With a bot-assisted jump I hop over to Louise’s boat in the next berth. The cabin door is open and I poke my head in.
“Breakfast outing in a few?” I call out.
“Yeah, sure,” comes Louise’s sleepy voice from one of the bedrooms.
I reach out and check that the other half of our fleet, Chad’s and the boys’ boats, are also docked here. I find them moored not far from us. Feels like everyone is still asleep on both cats. I make the rounds and rouse everyone to see if they want in on breakfast. No one turns me down.
A little while later, Akara leads the way to a small cafe within walking distance of the marina. It doesn’t look like much on the outside, but the smells coming from it are great. The breakfast choices include a few Western options, but Akara recommends a couple of the local dishes. I get the fried rice with pork and eggs. It’s great, but after smelling Evan’s savory rice porridge I think I might have ordered wrong. He lets me snag a bite. Yeah, he definitely won breakfast today.
Everyone is getting along as we catch up and eat. Chad and the boys got all their filters installed without any issues and some power poles as well. Stan is acting less awkward around Keeya and Lucie. Maybe he actually talked to them and realized they were people. They all seem comfortable sticking together as a big group for the morning, so when we head out Akara offers to lead us all on a sightseeing tour.
A small fleet of motorcycle-pulled carts are waiting for us outside. I don’t know when Akara arranged them but she tells us to get in, so we do. They have roofs, but no doors or windows. They seat two of us each, and I end up getting in one with Marc somehow. He talks non-stop as we zoom through the streets, but I can’t hear a word of what he’s saying over the sounds of the motorcycle engine and the wind rushing by. If it were anyone else, I’d form a mic so I could hear him, but it’s just Marc so I don’t bother.
Our first stop is an old buddhist pagoda where Akara ignores the monks in their orange robes and leads us in. One of them greets her by name, which makes me think she’s taken groups on this tour before. She’s definitely in her element here, telling us the history of each of the statues and relics, which ones were damaged by the Khmer Rouge and how they were restored. The views from the top floor are beautiful. The river looks much better from up here than it did from the boats.
Back on the motorcycle carts, which I hear someone call tuk-tuks, I manage to switch partners and ride with Akara to our next stop. She points out the colonial French architecture on buildings we pass, the bits of Russian influence from when they occupied the city, and the various monuments and what they were built to memorialize. Most of those center around their civil war and the conflicts Cambodia had with the neighboring countries.
As we get off, she tells me that this stop is the city’s namesake. It’s a small shrine on the top of a hill where, according to legend, an old widow named Penh put four Buddha statues that she found in some boat on the river. The shrine isn’t much to see, but the park around it is nice. Akara talks to one of the vendors with a bicycle cart and gets us a bunch of coconuts to drink from and we stroll the grounds sipping the refreshing juice. The enormous working clock built into the ground is really cool. I can almost see the inspiration just soaking into Andrea. I’m sure some of this is going to come out in her artwork later.
Another tuk-tuk ride later, and we’re at the central market. The rest of our guides are already there, which is good, because the group splits up naturally and spreads out to check out the booths. It’s a lot like the Vietnamese market in its endless variety of fruits, clothes, jewelry, and everything else you could think of. Sensory overload again, so I turn down the input from the cloud. I find a nice necklace for Lin, a carved bit of jade in a gold setting on a gold chain. The stone isn’t particularly valuable, but it’s carved well in a dragon that reminds me a little of Andrea’s dragon statue, and my bots tell me the gold is pretty good quality. Akara handles the haggling, of course. I see Thao down the way, already laden with bags, trying to keep up with Lisa, Jen, and Becky.
We still have time before the press event, so we decide to get lunch. I get a small bowl of fried noodles which I don’t regret at all. Erik and Stan are daring each other to try the sun-dried snails, but Phil one-ups them both by getting a mixed order of worms and crickets and taking a big bite. He smiles as he chews then throws the rest away and goes to the stand where I got my noodles and repeats my order. Stan and Erik follow. I chase down my noodles with some grilled slices of sausage that I share with the guys. The meat is sweeter than I expected, but good. We finish lunch with some small fried cakes made from rice flour and chives that Akara recommends. They’re crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside and really good with their sweet and spicy dipping sauce.
The group reassembles in time for everyone to eat before we have to head to the hotel. Another quick ride on the tuk-tuks and we’re approaching the large colonial building with the decorative modernized pagoda out front. Looks like a nice place.
Time to meet royalty and reporters.