Cambodian weekend...
Cambodia Day 6-8
My first weekend in Cambodia-- what a trip!
THURSDAY NIGHT// for dinner, SL took the entire LSS team (asia and us) to a restaurant called Kobe. Inside, they got us a private room with 2 hibachi (sp?) grills and 2 chefs. While the chefs didn't do the crazy meat cutting and throwing tricks and what not, the steak and fish they made were awesome. I don't like the beef from this region of the world-- its a little chewy. But hey, losers can't be choosers, and I'll get what I can get. Anyway-- it was nice to hang out with the whole team and chat. Even the owner of SL came and toasted with us.
FRIDAY// we sent off Peter, Dave and Jean-- they were so relieved to be heading home. I'm pretty homesick for Ben, Muddy and my bed. Only a few more days!... nonetheless, I can't remember where we had lunch... maybe Malis? Nothing too remarkable, i guess. After work we headed just retired to our hotel rooms. The traffic in Phnom Penh is so thick on the weekends-- we were both just exhausted after the commute alone.
SATURDAY// Corinne and I got up and headed to the factory again-- but only reviewed a few items and left after an a couple hours.Corinne and I had a nice lunch together with some of our team from Asia, and Alok-- the Sales Manager here at SL, at a restaurant called the Foreigner Correspondence Club-- or FCC for short. It's VERY western, which was a nice surprise, and the food was pretty tasty (pictures in the link below). What's most interesting about it is that its an open air space with lots of fans and a great big railing overlooking the riverfront. I had tandoori pizza-- but could only get through 3 slices. Afterwards, our driver took us back to the hotel and waited (this is what makes me feel weird about service here in PP) while I took a nap and cooled off, and Corinne did her laps at the pool. Around 6, Francis came to the hotel with his driver and took us to get foot massages! His favorite spot in town is called Lucky Foot Massage, the front entry is covered with Egyptian art/iconography-- and one red light tree, and one blue light tree. Its a bizarre facade. Anyways, you go inside and the first floor is all large armchairs-- and its kind of like the general public get their massages there. Upstairs (where Francis took us) there's private rooms, with a couple chairs and flat screen tv in each. Francis has his "regular" girl-- who at first I thought meant "happy ending" but actually, she's really his favorite masseuse-- and she just rubs his feet and legs and nothing else. Corinne and I got two ladies, #206 and #263. Francis had already arranged for us to get the 2 hour foot massage, and 1/2 hour full body massage. So we all sat in the same room, in pure bliss, watching Animal Planet specials on birds. The masseuses (Sp?) watched TV with us, and despite the obvious language barrier-- we laughed pretty hard at dumb bird mating dances. Might I note that for the first time in all the massages I've ever had (literally, 5) I finally got a masseuse that was not-so-nice. She was downright sassy. And ROUGH! she literally shook my legs from my tiptoes-- and did lots of pounding with her fists all over (Cambodian massage involves fists, weirdly)-- but I liked it, she did a lot of deep tissue stuff the masseuse I went to back in Minneapolis did.. and she did acupressure on my face. Pretty awesome! Afterwards, Francis took us home-- I had to go to sleep extra early to wake up at 5am for Angkor.
SUNDAY// Woke up around 5am, raced to the breakfast buffet as it opened, then one of the SL drivers were arranged to pick me up and take me to the airport. Got to the domestic airport, checked in, pay my $6 tax-- and as I was waiting to board-- there was another Angkor Airlines flight boarding 5 minutes before my flight-- and when I looked outside I saw one jet aircraft and one turbo prop plane. I went into a PANIC because I HATE turboprops! But luckily... My flight was scheduled for the jet. Yay! And I had 2 seats to myself and a window. Too bad it was so hazy out I couldn't see the ground below :[
Anyways-- got to Siem Reap domestic airport...which pales in comparison to PP's airport...but so it goes. Call my tour guide and we meet up and drive off to the temples. My guide, Keah-- took me to Angkor Thom (by the by, Angkor means "capital city")-- and we wandered around that for an hour or two. Known for it's "faces" 4 of them, on each "tower" or peak. Apparently Thom is not made from very good stone-- so hence why it looks more worn down than the other ruins...defiantly magnificent-- and the bridge that leads you to Angkor Thom & Banyon Temple is lined with good and evil-- in statue form of course... and as you look over the edge, one side of the moat is still in tact. Very striking. Very beautiful.
We then moved on to Ta Prohm, which is known from Tomb Raider-- and is packed with tourists. However, I couldn't resist taking photos with the trees that grew through the stones. It was VERY impressive! Its interesting, only because of the parts of the ruins overflowing with trees and roots, with fall apart once the tree dies. The trees are basically keeping the ruins together. Might I also note, there is a room in Ta Prohm that when you stand within it, and against the wall-- you pound your fist into your chest and the whole room vibrates! Me and a Japanese tourist did it for 5 minutes in amazement. My tour guide was not impressed. hahaha... By the by, as we walked through and past Ta Prohm, I had to take a picture of the cows in the forest-- my guide scoffed at me and said "they're not wild you know" and I retorted with "They're cows. I HAD to take a picture".
We took a break and headed into downtown Siem Reap, which is actually more like a boulevard full of hotels. Its kind of sad, the only business there is tourism. My guide took me to this massive buffet with Chinese, Khmer (Cambodian), and Thai food. You know me, I loaded up on pineapple and dragonfruit.. ate some rice and veggie pad thai and I was good to go. I didn't want to get too full since it was over 100 degrees there. I drank over 2 liters of water at lunch!... I sweated it all out for sure.
My guide then took me to the local market, and I tried to Bargain again-- and this time I got 2 metal bells, some exotic wood utensils, and a woven bucket bag for $50 total. Not bad for my first barter session. I have to have a better poker face if I want to get some deals! After that, my guide wanted to take me to a souvenir shop and I laughed out loud. He took me to Angkor Wat instead. Smart guy.
As we walked towards Angkor Wat-- I thought we had entered through the main gates-- when in reality I had just made it across the bridge to the city wall! Once we got inside, it was effing amazing. The bas relief along the 4 sides of the temple walls were extraordinary-- and the dimensions of the place were extreme-- and very very very symmetrical. I passed this very old, bald woman-- who beckons tourists into her room with a shrine. She teaches you how to pray to Buddha correctly-- and shows off how beautiful her shrine is. Its the most decorated shrine to Buddha in all of Angkor. I didn't get pulled in, her room was already full-- and she was praying with that group already-- but I took a photo of the room she calls her own to share. (Apparently National Geographic has done a couple specials on her.) My tour guide took me to the center temple area-- and showed me the severity of the steps to the top. I hadn't planned on climbing, but then Keah told me about how he had an elderly German lady on his tour one time in 2003, and when he showed her the steps, he said there was no need to climb and basically shrugged it off to not make her feel bad. She refused to listen, and climbed the steep staircase on the West side of the temple, WITH HER WALKING CANE! On her way back down, Keah yelled to her to use the handrail and the larger steps-- she again refused and walked down without holding on to anything but her walking stick. CRAZY! He said he almost had a heart attack, but she made it down fine, and then later told him that she used to be a mountain climber, and she didn't fear falling. Hahahaaha.. well after that story, I HAD to climb to the top. And when I did, it was beautiful. I took a photo from the top of the stairs-- its so steep, you can't even see the rest of the stairs! There were a couple more Buddha shrines, and I walked around for about 10-15 minutes, then braved the climb down. I held onto the WIRE of a handrail and prayed to god to make it down. It was so steep, and the permanent steps they installed actually are more scary than helpful. When I got to the bottom I laughed pretty hard because I must of been quite a sight to see holding on for dear life like that. A western tourist who saw me climb down was sitting next to my tour guide-- and said "Hey Miss-- could you do that again please?". Har Har.
Keah and I walked back the way we came... but took me to a strange spot where there weren't any other tourists-- he pointed up, and low and behold-- a original piece of wood from the original temple ceiling. WOOD! it was basically petrified-- FROM THE 12TH CENTURY! Crazy. He knew I was interested in the original build of the temples... so he took me there. He was really attentive. We walked out-- and we walked to this little pricey cafe on the premises... I think called Bangkok Cafe-- and he had a coke and I had watermelon juice while we discussed land mines. He literally told me everything-- as best as he could in his English-- all that I ever needed to know about land mines. He wouldn't talk about the civil war, though. No one here in Cambodia will. (Alok told me yesterday how it kinda got started-- and how it got out of control)
Anyway-- at this point in the cafe, I'm pretty certain I have Heat Exhaustion. I cannot cool down, I can't stop sweating, I'm short of breath and I have a headache. He asked if I wanted to go back to Siem Reap to shop some more, but I really didn't have the money to, so he took me to the airport a couple hours early, by my request. I get there and there is NO A/C. Luckily I had a fan, and my ipod-- because I didn't get a standby flight.
I got home, went straight to my room-- ordered room service, talked to Corinne for an hour and fell asleep. I was exhausted!
MONDAY// Got up, went to SL-- and worked some-- and then went to Lunch, just Corinne, Alok and I. We just happened to come across a Khmer restaurant-- that was all open air, so we chose to sit upstairs, traditional style on the pillows and all. We just got appetizers-- but it was so filling! The smoothies they had were bangin, and since Alok was still fasting, he got coconut juice-- OUT OF A GIANT COCONUT! (pictures coming soon!) There were also a couple cats roaming the floors-- and made me super homesick for my pet. It was quite a good find, that restaurant. They had the biggest menu of Thai, Khmer, and Vietnamese food I've ever seen.
After work, Francis took us to Lucky Foot Massage again! And thank god he did-- Angkor did a number on my thighs. I didn't expect to be climbing so much-- and in flip flops for that matter. Francis arranged for us to get the same masseuses as last time (Saturday) and sassy #263 was actually even better-- and nicer than the first time! I think Francis had told her I went to Angkor Wat, so she focused a lot on my heels, calves and thighs. She was great.
TUESDAY// Factory again... but things are winding down-- hence why I can write this lengthy update!-- so our lunch was the biggest news of the day. Alok was still fasting, but he was SO excited to take us out for Indian Food again, but Southern Indian Vegetarian style this time. Alok basically runs the show the minute he gets to the restaurant-- he knows the owners, but acts like HE owns the place-- he makes our drinks to his liking, orders items not on the menu, and goes into the kitchen to make sure its getting prepared properly. The US team keeps joking that Alok needs to get out of the garment business, and get a restaurant of his own in the US-- so everyone can see how good Indian Food can be. I've had Indian 3 times this trip, and everytime was great. Alok is making me a personal menu for Northern and Southern style food with all the names for dishes I liked this trip. Alok has really changed my mind about this type of food.
After lunch, Corinne and I wanted to go to Preah Vihear Preah Keo Morokat aka The Silver Pagoda @ the Royal Palace, so Alok had his driver take us there, and he even came along to feed the monkeys and pray! (Drivers are weirdly not apart of any of our activities here. We never really get to chat with them either, even though they speak some English) We walked up to the surrounding grounds-- and fed the tour elephant bananas (actually i was too scared...fear of big things i guess, how ironic) and as we were petting and feeding the elephant-- the most persistent beggars appeared. And not just any beggars, but seriously deformed beggars. One had facial tumors, and when he confronted me for money, I had to hold back and not react-- I just looked him in the eye (literally, one eye) and told him no money... easier said, since Corinne had bought the bananas. It hurt pretty bad to turn him away, but we were warned to not give money right away, because we would have been swarmed and when that happens-- you usually get pick pocketed too. It was weird. Corinne bought some lotus seed pods, and we fed the already bloated monkeys. One monkey was so aggressive he almost climbed up Corinne's pant leg! If you hiss at them they stop though. There were a couple baby monkeys there that we effing ADORABLE! We made our way to the temple, paid our Foreigner $1 admission-- and donated some more money for prayers. I had a dollar changed into Reils ($1=4,000) so I could place them amongst the Buddhas. (just FYI, the floor is of silver, and the center Buddhas is 100% gold too! and they have MANY many many Buddha's of different styles throughout the very small, ornate temple.) They say, every thing you pray for come true in that Temple. I hope my 4 wishes do to. If they do-- I have to go back and put garland/rosaries of flowers to keep up the tradition. We left there, and went to the Russian Market-- where I got some Bangin' deals on some silver jewelry (thanks to my Asia Team partner, Jenny)... 3 pairs of earrings (heavy ones!) and a cuff for $23. I also went back to the scarf vendor my team loves, and I talked her down from $27 to $23 for 7.8 meters of dupioni silk in cobalt blue. Yes, new duvet cover!! Jenny and I checked out multiple silk vendors-- and hers actually was the best for quality and weight within my price bracket... so I'm pretty pleased. Now we're back here at SL... and about to head back to the hotel. I need to pack and get more of my stuff together before Thursday.
Sorry for no pictures today. It was busier than expected, and I have literally hundreds of photos from this weekend-- I need to cherry pick them before I upload them.
Hopefully if i have some downtime tomorrow-- I can update photo wise... but it might have to wait until Monday :[
Love!!!
-M
My first weekend in Cambodia-- what a trip!
THURSDAY NIGHT// for dinner, SL took the entire LSS team (asia and us) to a restaurant called Kobe. Inside, they got us a private room with 2 hibachi (sp?) grills and 2 chefs. While the chefs didn't do the crazy meat cutting and throwing tricks and what not, the steak and fish they made were awesome. I don't like the beef from this region of the world-- its a little chewy. But hey, losers can't be choosers, and I'll get what I can get. Anyway-- it was nice to hang out with the whole team and chat. Even the owner of SL came and toasted with us.
FRIDAY// we sent off Peter, Dave and Jean-- they were so relieved to be heading home. I'm pretty homesick for Ben, Muddy and my bed. Only a few more days!... nonetheless, I can't remember where we had lunch... maybe Malis? Nothing too remarkable, i guess. After work we headed just retired to our hotel rooms. The traffic in Phnom Penh is so thick on the weekends-- we were both just exhausted after the commute alone.
SATURDAY// Corinne and I got up and headed to the factory again-- but only reviewed a few items and left after an a couple hours.Corinne and I had a nice lunch together with some of our team from Asia, and Alok-- the Sales Manager here at SL, at a restaurant called the Foreigner Correspondence Club-- or FCC for short. It's VERY western, which was a nice surprise, and the food was pretty tasty (pictures in the link below). What's most interesting about it is that its an open air space with lots of fans and a great big railing overlooking the riverfront. I had tandoori pizza-- but could only get through 3 slices. Afterwards, our driver took us back to the hotel and waited (this is what makes me feel weird about service here in PP) while I took a nap and cooled off, and Corinne did her laps at the pool. Around 6, Francis came to the hotel with his driver and took us to get foot massages! His favorite spot in town is called Lucky Foot Massage, the front entry is covered with Egyptian art/iconography-- and one red light tree, and one blue light tree. Its a bizarre facade. Anyways, you go inside and the first floor is all large armchairs-- and its kind of like the general public get their massages there. Upstairs (where Francis took us) there's private rooms, with a couple chairs and flat screen tv in each. Francis has his "regular" girl-- who at first I thought meant "happy ending" but actually, she's really his favorite masseuse-- and she just rubs his feet and legs and nothing else. Corinne and I got two ladies, #206 and #263. Francis had already arranged for us to get the 2 hour foot massage, and 1/2 hour full body massage. So we all sat in the same room, in pure bliss, watching Animal Planet specials on birds. The masseuses (Sp?) watched TV with us, and despite the obvious language barrier-- we laughed pretty hard at dumb bird mating dances. Might I note that for the first time in all the massages I've ever had (literally, 5) I finally got a masseuse that was not-so-nice. She was downright sassy. And ROUGH! she literally shook my legs from my tiptoes-- and did lots of pounding with her fists all over (Cambodian massage involves fists, weirdly)-- but I liked it, she did a lot of deep tissue stuff the masseuse I went to back in Minneapolis did.. and she did acupressure on my face. Pretty awesome! Afterwards, Francis took us home-- I had to go to sleep extra early to wake up at 5am for Angkor.
SUNDAY// Woke up around 5am, raced to the breakfast buffet as it opened, then one of the SL drivers were arranged to pick me up and take me to the airport. Got to the domestic airport, checked in, pay my $6 tax-- and as I was waiting to board-- there was another Angkor Airlines flight boarding 5 minutes before my flight-- and when I looked outside I saw one jet aircraft and one turbo prop plane. I went into a PANIC because I HATE turboprops! But luckily... My flight was scheduled for the jet. Yay! And I had 2 seats to myself and a window. Too bad it was so hazy out I couldn't see the ground below :[
Anyways-- got to Siem Reap domestic airport...which pales in comparison to PP's airport...but so it goes. Call my tour guide and we meet up and drive off to the temples. My guide, Keah-- took me to Angkor Thom (by the by, Angkor means "capital city")-- and we wandered around that for an hour or two. Known for it's "faces" 4 of them, on each "tower" or peak. Apparently Thom is not made from very good stone-- so hence why it looks more worn down than the other ruins...defiantly magnificent-- and the bridge that leads you to Angkor Thom & Banyon Temple is lined with good and evil-- in statue form of course... and as you look over the edge, one side of the moat is still in tact. Very striking. Very beautiful.
We then moved on to Ta Prohm, which is known from Tomb Raider-- and is packed with tourists. However, I couldn't resist taking photos with the trees that grew through the stones. It was VERY impressive! Its interesting, only because of the parts of the ruins overflowing with trees and roots, with fall apart once the tree dies. The trees are basically keeping the ruins together. Might I also note, there is a room in Ta Prohm that when you stand within it, and against the wall-- you pound your fist into your chest and the whole room vibrates! Me and a Japanese tourist did it for 5 minutes in amazement. My tour guide was not impressed. hahaha... By the by, as we walked through and past Ta Prohm, I had to take a picture of the cows in the forest-- my guide scoffed at me and said "they're not wild you know" and I retorted with "They're cows. I HAD to take a picture".
We took a break and headed into downtown Siem Reap, which is actually more like a boulevard full of hotels. Its kind of sad, the only business there is tourism. My guide took me to this massive buffet with Chinese, Khmer (Cambodian), and Thai food. You know me, I loaded up on pineapple and dragonfruit.. ate some rice and veggie pad thai and I was good to go. I didn't want to get too full since it was over 100 degrees there. I drank over 2 liters of water at lunch!... I sweated it all out for sure.
My guide then took me to the local market, and I tried to Bargain again-- and this time I got 2 metal bells, some exotic wood utensils, and a woven bucket bag for $50 total. Not bad for my first barter session. I have to have a better poker face if I want to get some deals! After that, my guide wanted to take me to a souvenir shop and I laughed out loud. He took me to Angkor Wat instead. Smart guy.
As we walked towards Angkor Wat-- I thought we had entered through the main gates-- when in reality I had just made it across the bridge to the city wall! Once we got inside, it was effing amazing. The bas relief along the 4 sides of the temple walls were extraordinary-- and the dimensions of the place were extreme-- and very very very symmetrical. I passed this very old, bald woman-- who beckons tourists into her room with a shrine. She teaches you how to pray to Buddha correctly-- and shows off how beautiful her shrine is. Its the most decorated shrine to Buddha in all of Angkor. I didn't get pulled in, her room was already full-- and she was praying with that group already-- but I took a photo of the room she calls her own to share. (Apparently National Geographic has done a couple specials on her.) My tour guide took me to the center temple area-- and showed me the severity of the steps to the top. I hadn't planned on climbing, but then Keah told me about how he had an elderly German lady on his tour one time in 2003, and when he showed her the steps, he said there was no need to climb and basically shrugged it off to not make her feel bad. She refused to listen, and climbed the steep staircase on the West side of the temple, WITH HER WALKING CANE! On her way back down, Keah yelled to her to use the handrail and the larger steps-- she again refused and walked down without holding on to anything but her walking stick. CRAZY! He said he almost had a heart attack, but she made it down fine, and then later told him that she used to be a mountain climber, and she didn't fear falling. Hahahaaha.. well after that story, I HAD to climb to the top. And when I did, it was beautiful. I took a photo from the top of the stairs-- its so steep, you can't even see the rest of the stairs! There were a couple more Buddha shrines, and I walked around for about 10-15 minutes, then braved the climb down. I held onto the WIRE of a handrail and prayed to god to make it down. It was so steep, and the permanent steps they installed actually are more scary than helpful. When I got to the bottom I laughed pretty hard because I must of been quite a sight to see holding on for dear life like that. A western tourist who saw me climb down was sitting next to my tour guide-- and said "Hey Miss-- could you do that again please?". Har Har.
Keah and I walked back the way we came... but took me to a strange spot where there weren't any other tourists-- he pointed up, and low and behold-- a original piece of wood from the original temple ceiling. WOOD! it was basically petrified-- FROM THE 12TH CENTURY! Crazy. He knew I was interested in the original build of the temples... so he took me there. He was really attentive. We walked out-- and we walked to this little pricey cafe on the premises... I think called Bangkok Cafe-- and he had a coke and I had watermelon juice while we discussed land mines. He literally told me everything-- as best as he could in his English-- all that I ever needed to know about land mines. He wouldn't talk about the civil war, though. No one here in Cambodia will. (Alok told me yesterday how it kinda got started-- and how it got out of control)
Anyway-- at this point in the cafe, I'm pretty certain I have Heat Exhaustion. I cannot cool down, I can't stop sweating, I'm short of breath and I have a headache. He asked if I wanted to go back to Siem Reap to shop some more, but I really didn't have the money to, so he took me to the airport a couple hours early, by my request. I get there and there is NO A/C. Luckily I had a fan, and my ipod-- because I didn't get a standby flight.
I got home, went straight to my room-- ordered room service, talked to Corinne for an hour and fell asleep. I was exhausted!
MONDAY// Got up, went to SL-- and worked some-- and then went to Lunch, just Corinne, Alok and I. We just happened to come across a Khmer restaurant-- that was all open air, so we chose to sit upstairs, traditional style on the pillows and all. We just got appetizers-- but it was so filling! The smoothies they had were bangin, and since Alok was still fasting, he got coconut juice-- OUT OF A GIANT COCONUT! (pictures coming soon!) There were also a couple cats roaming the floors-- and made me super homesick for my pet. It was quite a good find, that restaurant. They had the biggest menu of Thai, Khmer, and Vietnamese food I've ever seen.
After work, Francis took us to Lucky Foot Massage again! And thank god he did-- Angkor did a number on my thighs. I didn't expect to be climbing so much-- and in flip flops for that matter. Francis arranged for us to get the same masseuses as last time (Saturday) and sassy #263 was actually even better-- and nicer than the first time! I think Francis had told her I went to Angkor Wat, so she focused a lot on my heels, calves and thighs. She was great.
TUESDAY// Factory again... but things are winding down-- hence why I can write this lengthy update!-- so our lunch was the biggest news of the day. Alok was still fasting, but he was SO excited to take us out for Indian Food again, but Southern Indian Vegetarian style this time. Alok basically runs the show the minute he gets to the restaurant-- he knows the owners, but acts like HE owns the place-- he makes our drinks to his liking, orders items not on the menu, and goes into the kitchen to make sure its getting prepared properly. The US team keeps joking that Alok needs to get out of the garment business, and get a restaurant of his own in the US-- so everyone can see how good Indian Food can be. I've had Indian 3 times this trip, and everytime was great. Alok is making me a personal menu for Northern and Southern style food with all the names for dishes I liked this trip. Alok has really changed my mind about this type of food.
After lunch, Corinne and I wanted to go to Preah Vihear Preah Keo Morokat aka The Silver Pagoda @ the Royal Palace, so Alok had his driver take us there, and he even came along to feed the monkeys and pray! (Drivers are weirdly not apart of any of our activities here. We never really get to chat with them either, even though they speak some English) We walked up to the surrounding grounds-- and fed the tour elephant bananas (actually i was too scared...fear of big things i guess, how ironic) and as we were petting and feeding the elephant-- the most persistent beggars appeared. And not just any beggars, but seriously deformed beggars. One had facial tumors, and when he confronted me for money, I had to hold back and not react-- I just looked him in the eye (literally, one eye) and told him no money... easier said, since Corinne had bought the bananas. It hurt pretty bad to turn him away, but we were warned to not give money right away, because we would have been swarmed and when that happens-- you usually get pick pocketed too. It was weird. Corinne bought some lotus seed pods, and we fed the already bloated monkeys. One monkey was so aggressive he almost climbed up Corinne's pant leg! If you hiss at them they stop though. There were a couple baby monkeys there that we effing ADORABLE! We made our way to the temple, paid our Foreigner $1 admission-- and donated some more money for prayers. I had a dollar changed into Reils ($1=4,000) so I could place them amongst the Buddhas. (just FYI, the floor is of silver, and the center Buddhas is 100% gold too! and they have MANY many many Buddha's of different styles throughout the very small, ornate temple.) They say, every thing you pray for come true in that Temple. I hope my 4 wishes do to. If they do-- I have to go back and put garland/rosaries of flowers to keep up the tradition. We left there, and went to the Russian Market-- where I got some Bangin' deals on some silver jewelry (thanks to my Asia Team partner, Jenny)... 3 pairs of earrings (heavy ones!) and a cuff for $23. I also went back to the scarf vendor my team loves, and I talked her down from $27 to $23 for 7.8 meters of dupioni silk in cobalt blue. Yes, new duvet cover!! Jenny and I checked out multiple silk vendors-- and hers actually was the best for quality and weight within my price bracket... so I'm pretty pleased. Now we're back here at SL... and about to head back to the hotel. I need to pack and get more of my stuff together before Thursday.
Sorry for no pictures today. It was busier than expected, and I have literally hundreds of photos from this weekend-- I need to cherry pick them before I upload them.
Hopefully if i have some downtime tomorrow-- I can update photo wise... but it might have to wait until Monday :[
Love!!!
-M