So it's Sunday, and I'm thinking, just laze at home, or go try to run some errands? I had been planning to go to the market and buy a camera, but thanks to the fact that opening a bank account is much more complicated than previously anticipated, the needed money was still tied up in check form and totally UN-useful.
I decided, what hey, may as well go. I had two specific things in mind -- a Khmer dictionary, and cheese for a ladies night later on. Easy enough to find, you might think.
It was the bookstores that posed problems. I wanted to find Boston Book Company, but no map existed on the internet and house numbers are totally useless as they don't go in chronological order. The internet also told me that street 240 doesn't extend to the other side of Norodom, which it does.
In other words: I went for a joyride along the wrong side of 240 and in trying to make a U-turn without looking behind me precisely as I was about to do so, almost got broadsided by an upcoming moto. It was my fault and we both knew it, and backed away, him shaken and somewhat frustrated, and me with my tail between my legs. Driving is dangerous here. Maybe I didn't mention that yet.
I did not discover the bookstore, though I did discover A bookstore, called D's Books, a little hole-in-the-wall used book place. I decided to stop anyway and wander around, but there were no dictionaries to be found. Just a bunch of Alice Hoffman books I've been wanting to read, and Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. I didn't end up buying anything, but it was a close thing.
I decided perhaps I hadn't gone far enough on 240, so backtracked all the way, taking a bit of a roundabout way trying to avoid a similar near-accident, but I got all the way to the Riverside and still no Boston Book company in sight. There was, however, a Dairy Queen, and I stopped for a much needed blizzard.
With that out of the way, I decided to stop by Monument Books, which I knew would probably have the dictionary but probably for very expensive, but it was close by and I figured I could just stop by the nearby supermarket, Paragon, and make things simple for myself.
Monument Books did, certainly, have the dictionary I wanted, but for nineteen dollars. I found that a bit ridiculous for a small paperback book -- well, a lot ridiculous -- and decided to try and find what I thought was called "ABC books" that a friend of mine had told me about. She said it was on Monivong and since I remembered seeing something with ABC down by Mao Tse Toung, I went there.
By this time, of course, I was hot and thirsty, this being the middle of a very toasty afternoon with just a brief stop in the air-conditioning to break up the monotony, and while Phnom Penh is small, I was definitely getting around on the bike.
ABC books of course turned out to be a bakery, and at last giving up on the dictionary, I went back up to Sihanouk blvd and went to Lucky supermarket for the cheese.
Later that night, I learned that it was actually "IBC" I should have been looking for, and a check today showed it to be just next door to Lucky. I went and purchased the thing for under two dollars this morning.
Live and learn, right? I also bought a camera, a beauty of a thing by Olympus, and plan to make good use of it. Stand by.
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