Feeling Better

Hello all, I'm feeling better now that I got some rest. I'm still feeling a little weak from not having eaten much in the last few days, but I was able to eat dinner last night and breakfast today.
While I was eating last night, a Dutch guy started talking to me. We were talking about Hinduism and Buddhism and the temples and he was asking me if I believed in reincarnation, bla bla bla, then he asked me if I believe in Jesus. I said no, I'm Jewish. He could not fathom how I couldn't believe in Jesus. He starts telling me what a nice man Jesus was and how he performed miracles and the bible says so, etc. I was taken aback. Then he went into how the Jews killed Jesus and I tried to make it clear through my body language that I wanted him to go away. Moral of the story: anti-semitism is alive and well in the world. Sad, but true.
I decided to take it easy this morning and stay out of the heat. After noon, I'm going to go back to Angkor one last time. Tomorrow, I fly to Kuala Lumpur. I'm really excited to go to Malaysia. There are all kinds of national parks and rainforests to go to. Yay.
Let me share with you something my Zayde (grandpa) wrote to me. I thought it was funny and interesting:
"Your experience with the poopers in Phnom Penh broughtback memories of my Asian experiences-I'll relate. Firstly- when I was in Manila p.i. people relieved themselves wherever & whenever the urge came upon them. One day I was on Rizal ave. (our own downtown nicollet ave.)-and as general McArthur's blue cadillac went by-this guy dropped his pants and pooped
on the side walk. I thought- what a fitting salute to our esteemed general. Second incident I recall was when we disembarked from our ship after landing in Nagoya, Japan. Picture a gorgeous, clear, cloudless day and as we were marching down the street in formation I noticed a stream of water flowing down the gutter. I knew it wasn't raining -so where did the water come from? I suddenly realized that this elderly Japanese lady who was wearing a long kimono had merely spread her legs slightly and the deed was done. I had to stifle a laugh as I thought-what
a wonderful salute to our arrival.
I don't know if they do this any place in Asia any more. One of the oddities in Japan was the gathering of human waste. This was an actual business of scooping poop from their so called toilets. We calle them "honey dippers". They scooped the poop into huge wooden buckets and as they drove down the street with their horse drawn flat bed wagons the stench would knock you out(hence the name honey dippers). This waste was sold by the scoop and used to fertilize the local vegetable gardens. We we warned not to eat the veggies as well as any other food whose origin we weren't sure of. Some who didn't pay attention became very ill-some with bad cases of dysentery."
Hope you are well!
Lauren