Author: payel@Turtlegotwings

Otres was that one place I was highly looking forward to for my trip to Cambodia. Known for it’s stunning and beautiful beaches, I was so excited for my stay in this village in Sihanoukville. Like few more times in the past, I got a bit of luck working, to book a small blue house for myself and guess what! The owners were two ladies! Now call it a coincidence or just a matter of luck, I was satisfied that the retrieval processor of my implicit memory is overworking at times.

‘Ticket please?’

‘My seat no. is also B15!’

‘No, their seat no. has been changed, yours is B15. Here is your bag to keep your shoes. You have given your suitcase at the luggage?’

I took off my shoes, put them in the bag and got inside the bus bare foot carrying the shoe bag in my hand. Some night bus eh! This was not the very first experience at a night bus, but in a way this was my very first in such a night bus. My first experience for a night bus was few years ago from Manali to Chandigarh, though that wasn’t anything special a night bus than what we usually see in any regular ‘luxury bus’ in India.

Munroe Island was a great find for me during my trip to Kerala but the overwhelming circumstances being the feviquick on my gauzy wings, I had to shuffle my plan just a little, calling my stay off in this island after a night. Even in the best of the places planning does go woefully wrong at times, but at those what-now moments I met some great hearts and saw #mytravelstory.

By the time I was going for my Cambodia trip, I had graduated on my solo trip experiences. By now I had already learnt a few little no-need-to-jump-inside-the-cocoon-immediately facts, for example: If a stranger smiles at you, there’s no need to think that you are on demand, it’s just a polite gesture that many countries follow, even though it’s a completely different interpretation in India; you can speak to strangers sporadically, not every chat ends up to a date; you may meet people more than once in same trip but that doesn’t mean they are following you..

I was golloping my rice and mushroom as I still had to go back to my room, use the washroom for one last time, change into sneakers, get my kept-ready backpack and put a light quote of lipstick before the guide would come for the pick-up. The restaurant was across the street of the hotel; hence I could easily keep an eye on the passerby and that’s the reason I chose this place for lunch but the chef took all the time to prepare my food. However, this was one of those few times when I managed to finish my food way faster than my usual keep-chewing-till-you-can-gulp nature.