Top Banana

I'm housebound this afternoon by inundations of rain and homework, so I thought I would pause from grading write-on submissions long enough to post something to the blog.

Top Banana, the guesthouse where I'm staying, appears to be a popular spot for the NGO/expat crowd: the residents at the moment include three journalists (two Belgian, one American), a UNESCO staffer, a conservationist, a director of nature documentaries reconnoitering for his next film, and no fewer than six American law students.

Us law students are all gathered on the terrace, hard at work on various onerous assignments lingering over from last semester. There's a backpacker picking his guitar in the corner and grinning at us mockingly from time to time. The Khmers who work or hang out here are taking potshots with a pellet gun at a cigarette lighter suspended from the ceiling on a length of string; every once in a while they take potshots at the tuk-tuk (motorcycle rickshaw) drivers who congregate outside. Here's a photo of Mali with his gun:

Here's one of the view from my bedroom window:

You can see the topmost tower of Wat Lanka, the nearby Buddhist monastery, in the upper left corner of the picture. Early this morning the monks were chanting while an extremely melodious bird sang outside my window. I made a not-very-good recording, which you can listen to below (or click here if the embedded player doesn't work).

So far so good. I start work at DC-Cam tomorrow.