Although we usually preferred to be homebodies on the weekend, so we could rest and catch up on our work, sometimes the school would undertake trips for teachers and staff, and we would participate, sometimes with some urging from the school administration, who seemed to feel that we should get out more. Sometimes these outings were fun and memorable — actually, they were always memorable. But sometimes for not the most favorable of reasons.

One of the most — shall we say — challenging excursions took place on March 9 when we went to Kirirom National Park. It was supposed to be a “team building” adventure, because we participated in a few games and activities.

It was a 4-hour drive each way, and in extremely packed vehicles. Southeast Asians really know how to cram the bodies into a limited space — or at least they do it, whether they really know how or not. Cambodians load into their cars for a trip as if they had collapsible rib cages, and a tacit agreement that everyone takes turns exhaling. For this ride, we both were in the back seat of a small car (three packed school vans also made the trek) with another adult and two kids. Comfort? That’s a foreign word, mister.

When we finally arrived, it turned out that the park was… well really nothing special. At least not in the parts of it we went to. (There are supposed to be waterfalls at some times of the year, if you want to hike all the way to them.) The picturesque spot that the school had chosen for a picnic turned out to be prohibitively expensive to use — in the neighborhood of a hundred bucks for our group. So we ended up in a little place in the weeds, nowhere near a bathroom. Except for the weeds.

Still, we managed to have some fun with the team-building activities, which included a contest to balance an egg on a spoon held in the mouth. There was another little competition for runway strut, and one that entailed holding out the longest with a serious face as others tried to make you laugh. At the insistence of a couple of people, Dennis was thrust into this latter contest — which he won quite handily. Who says that years of theatrical experience won’t have any practical real-world application?

And we later went by a mountain lookout that was established as a retreat for the king back in 1944. Then it was back into the vehicles for another long, claustrophobic ride.

We arrived home late and exhausted, and feeling that we weren’t terribly eager to participate in any more staff trips anytime soon. But fortunately the next one — which as it happened was only one weekend later — turned out to be much, much better. And we’ll tell you about that in the next post.

3/9/2024