Sleep – Traveling Mark

Irritating Buzz at Two Dragons Guesthouse

My first day in Siem Reap has been eventful and fulfilling day. I did not get much sleep the previous night, but I didn’t feel that tired. I was really happy things were working out for me and I got to teach Cambodians English on my first day in Cambodia. My supper at Home Cocktail Restaurant was delicious and since I was already far away from night life in Siem Reap and close to Two Dragons guesthouse where I was staying, I headed straight to my room to perhaps catch up with some sleep.

I felt rather disgusting as it’s really hot and humid in Cambodia so I was sweating whole day nonstop. I stank and my feet were dirty from walking in the dust wearing sandals whole day. Shower would feel like a life saver and so it did, but I was so tired I just fell in the bed and lay there motionless for a few hours, contemplating the need to take shower, but struggling to find strength to lift up and walk to the washroom. The room was hot but provided air-conditioning fixed it all up within minutes. General lack of sleep from previous night and long day travelling prior started to show eventually and I felt really tired, ready to crash.

It got dark fast and everything in Two Dragons fell quiet. It was night hour. I went to take my shower at last and feeling clean, I lay in my bed ready to get some sleep. To my most unpleasant surprise, there was this extremely loud, irritating buzz shaking my room. It was brutal. I’d be sitting on my bed and all I hear is this horrible buzz. It felt as if I was sleeping inside a giant power station where buzz from ultra high voltage is deafening. The buzz of Two Dragons was no less of an ear tearing experience.

I switched off the air-conditioning, switched off all the lights, made sure no water tap is open but the buzz was persistent and appeared not related to anything in the room. Headache from the noise was getting more severe and I have quickly come to realize that I won’t be able to fall asleep in such painful conditions.

I was surprised I did not hear any commotion outside. I’d think someone would already complain or the management would notice and try to resolve it. But everything was quiet and everyone seemingly asleep already. I opened the door and walked out on the hallway to learn that the buzz is present there as well. There was no particular place it was coming from, it was just there. Extremely loud and omnipresent.

I walked up and down the hallway and noticed the buzz was much stronger at the southern end of the building, where my and most other rooms were located. Northern end where balcony and coffee table were was still getting the buzz, but the intensity was a bit lower. It’s hot outside even at night in Cambodia and if it wasn’t for mosquitoes who love my blood, I would crash on the balcony floor to avoid getting my head burst from that horrible buzzing.

Since there were no signs of life anywhere in the building, I opened my suitcase and dug out the earplugs. I could not believe I was sleeping in a $12 a night establishment and was forced to use earplugs to sleep. Everything about Two Dragons seemed to go downhill and I started to regret my decision to book stay here for a week. Wearing earplugs all night long provides breading grounds for bacteria in your ears and feels uncomfortable. I hated having to do that and could not wait for the morning.

My First Night in Cambodia

I was dead tired after a long flight and when I eventually made it to my terminal destination and put all of my luggage down at Two Dragons guesthouse, but instead going straight to sleep, I sat on the bed reading the brochure about the guesthouse and life in Siem Reap and elsewhere in Cambodia. Part of the reason was that I felt so tired, all I could summon was to sit on the bed and grab at something to read that was close by. I needed to gather enough strength to actually get up, take my clothes off, brush my teeth and get some sleep. It seemed like too much hassle and my body was refusing to go through it just yet. I was rather excited at the same time. I was in Cambodia. This was my first night in the country so far away. My sub consciousness was dictating me that I should find something better than sleep. Sleep is for home.

As the minutes were passing by, the rain was relentlessly pounding the world outside and I have gone through everything in the brochure and had nothing more to read. I gathered all the strength I had left and started to go through steps needed to get ready for sleep. Bottle of water was provided, which I used to brush my teeth with. I knew Cambodian tap water was not safe for drinking, but what’s worse, it was not even safe to brush ones teeth with. Having to rinse your freshly brushed teeth with bottled water and use it to wash excess toothpaste from your brush made brushing a major pain. But it is what it is. I was in Cambodia where tap water is not safe. That’s the end of it.

I hit the sack as soon as I was done with necessary cleaning and undressing. It took me a while to fall asleep and I had no idea what time it was. The cell phone I brought with me was dead so I couldn’t use it to check time and the only other option was to start up the laptop and change timezone settings to Cambodia to get a sense of current hour, but I couldn’t be bothered. It was pitch dark outside, the sound of heavy rain was overbearing, temperature outside was high despite it being night so I lay on the bed naked and covered with light blanket that was provided.

Once I have fallen asleep, I started having very vivid dreams. I no longer remember what I was dreaming about, but I do remember it felt as though I slept forever. So many dreams. I realized in my sleep that I had no watch to refer to in order to check what time it was so I stirred suddenly believing it’s probably late evening the following day. I knew I was tired when I went to bed and after so many dreams I felt like I slept too long. I got up to find out that it was still pitch dark outside. I walked downstairs to the restaurant area, looked at the watch there and found out it was only 6am the same morning. I have only slept for a few hours. I don’t know why I had such hard time sleeping, but each night thereafter I would get up early in the morning regardless of when I would go to bed. I did not get a single night of continuous, long sleep. Don’t know what the deal was.

This first night in Cambodia set a standard of nights with not very good sleep for me. I had hoped that once I’ve moved to a different guesthouse, sleep pattern would improve. From the beginning I thought it may have had something to do with time shift my body went through, but it hasn’t changed after 6 nights after which time I would expect the body to get adopted. Maybe my room was above some geo pathogenic zone that kept me from getting decent sleep. I’m only staying at Two Dragons for a week. We’ll see what happens after I’ve moved.

A Night Before Departure

So finally it’s here. I’m done all the prep work and I’m only one night away from departing on my dream trip. As little kid would say – only one more sleep before vacation. I felt really excited. I’ve been waiting for this moment and now it’s here. I called Lisa to make sure I could still catch a ride with her to the airport. In order to have plan B in case Lisa doesn’t work out, I’ve looked up the schedule of Sky Shuttle service to Edmonton International Airport. The closest stop one of the shuttles has to my place was at Ramada Hotel on Kingsway Avenue in Edmonton. It’s the beginning of their University Route – one of three different routes Sky Shuttle covers in Edmonton. The cost was only $20 and they run once every 45 minutes starting in very early hours (only once per hour on Saturdays). This was a solid back up as taking a taxi cab from where I live in NW Edmonton all the way down to YEG (Edmonton International Airport) would be way too costly. It’s about an hour long drive.

After a few phone calls (Lisa is ridiculously difficult to get a hold of – she doesn’t have a cell phone, just a home line), Lisa picked up and assured me she’d be at my place at 7.30am (I beat her to ensuring she’s here). It was her day off so it worked out perfect. She also said on the phone that a friend of her would come along, but her friend was 17!

I went for a walk to Westmount Mall to get myself a couple of organic peaches (I only buy organic) and a chocolate bar as that would be the last food I’d eat in Edmonton. I got back and went on a computer to do one of the most important pre-departure steps – send email to my supervisor at work. Despite countless connection problems with my wireless internet, I got that email sent eventually and made an attempt to sleep. It was already after midnight but my body felt wide awake.

I lay in bed for about an hour and seeing that sleep is nowhere near, I turned the laptop back on. After spending another hour messing around on the internet, I made one more desperate attempt at sleeping which failed again so I got back on the computer for the third time. It was already after 4am when I eventually felt a bit of tiredness and crashed.

I don’t think it was the excitement of upcoming travel that kept me awake. I don’t know what exactly it was. I have never been big sleeper and I think it was the fear of not getting enough sleep prior to departure that made my mind believe it was going to happen so it did happen.

When my phone rang at 7am, I could not get myself to get up. I assumed that Lisa would not show up exactly at 7.30 anyway, so I spent another 15 minutes in bed trying to struggle through my losing battle of getting up. I eventually did, but was too slow getting going and then bang – Lisa knocked on my window. She in fact did make it to my place precisely at 7.30. Damn.