Well, I've had a fun-filled 40 hours.

The day before yesterday, at about 3:45 PM, I got a call telling me to get a ticket and get on a plane ASAP...  for Cambodia.

I have been waiting for that call for over 4 months, but was expecting notice.  Well, 14 hours is good enough, I guess.

Problem is, I had to come up with the money NOW, get dressed and go through Bangkok rush-hour traffic (think LA freeway, and you're about half right) to the ticket agent by 5PM to get the ticket.  Thank God for cellphones, or I would have been in deep larp moo...

THEN I had to move from my apartment to a friend's place to stash my stuff in about an hour and a half.  Got 4 hours of sleep, then got up to go to the airport.

Landed at the airport in Phnom Penh, everything went smoothly, and then off I go.  In the past 24 hours, I have met 2 CEOs, a couple of Regional Directors, had a meeting with Some Very Nice People Who Happen To Be Very Powerful, and got to go look at a LOT of Very Pretty Women, and drink a lot of Very Cheap Beer.  I mean I had 5 Beer Lao, a very nice beer, for US$1.75.  That's US$0.35 per beer.

Got a taxi from one side of town to the other for US$1.

Oh, did I mention?  The ATMs here put out United States Currency.  1000 Cambodian Riel=+/- US$0.25, so the dollar is more highly valued.

Take THAT, you nasty (Striker) Canadians!!!

I think I'm going to like it here.

I'm the National Operations Manager for the same security firm for whom I worked in Kosovo.

Karma smiled upon me BIG TIME

You do NOT want to see the pictures I took today.  I went to the Genocide Museum with a mate of mine, and was humbled.  Walking through the cells and torture chambers, seeing piles of skulls, the water torture table and tank, etc., are a grim reminder of why I do this kind of job, and why I support the RKBA.

Most of the "people" conducting the torture and killings were teenage kids, my age, back in 1975-78, who had been indoctrinated by the Khmer Rouge.

When I was at my first Boy Scout Camporee, another guy my age was breaking a baby's skull in with a piece of rebar.  It kind of makes you think.

Now, the female "talent" here is much more buxom than back in Bangkok. I do NOT hang out with bargirls, but I was tempted tonight:  Identical twins with very nice smiles, who offered to "take care" of me.  Please don't take my Man Card, guys, but I do not need any more diseases.  My Little Head was saying YES! YES! YES!, but Mr. Big Head said, "Uh, NO."

Mr. Big Head won, and I had another beer with the nice ladies before I left.  No pix, I'm afraid, but I do have witnesses.

Quoted: Quoted: Let me voice what we're all thinking: How do Cambode women stack up against Thai and Vietnamese? This man speaks for us.

btw, I had the pleasure of sitting next to a couple of cambodian cuties on my last flight back from SE asia.

Quoted: Quoted: Hope your Cambodian trip is better than mine was.  I was there 5 weeks in 197 God Bless and thank you. (tag for pics)

Thank you for your service, and Welcome Home.

My buddy Bob was with the 11th ACR, and got his tank blown up by a mine.  He lost his leg below the knee, and took shrapnel through his arm and in the face.  This was the day he had been scheduled to go home, but they said he was going to go invade Cambodia, instead.  I was thinking about him A LOT yesterday.

I do not have flash on my camera/phone, but will take pix of the twins later.  They are very nice ladies.  I just don't do the bar-girl thing.

Set to go shooting at the place with the AKs and RPGs sometime with a guy from South Africa who would get along just fine with all of us here.

Looking forward to getting some good stuff here, but I'm going to be busier than a cat in a room of rocking chairs for awhile.  More to come.

Quoted: Sounds good! be sure to say hi to the hometown guys BTW I have 3 years mall security exp..................can I have a job ETA- Last I knew, you were jumping out of an aircraft with foreign SF or something like that.

Well, there were SF types on the jump, but I'm not one of them.  Open spiral fracture R Fibula, closed compound fracture R Tibula.  Bone was poking out of my leg.  The GOOD news is that I can walk, and even had to run across the street in Cambodian traffic yesterday  I was presented with Polish, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Slovakian, and Russian parachutist badges, the German Fallschirmjaeger beret badge, and the French Para beret badge while I was in Slovakia.  

I have been advised that I had been put in for the French parachutist badge for those injured while jumping, and it has been approved by the French Marines, and is en route to me here in Cambodia.  I had 2 retired French Marine buddies on the jump, and they put me in for it without me knowing about it.  

There is a chance that I may have a chance to jump next month with the Cambodian Rangers.  My XO is a retired Cambodian Ranger Lieutenant Colonel, and the same guys I jumped with in Slovakia are coming here.  This would be a tandem jump for me, with a square canopy, as I am not yet 100% on the leg.  I would still get the Cambodian wings, though, as I have already qualified and have a current log book.

The bad news is that due to Cambodian labor law, I will not be hiring any expats for quite awhile, if at all.  They want all the boots on the ground to have Khmer feet in them...