The Singapore Times Exclusive: THE ABDUCTION OF RORY DYLAN STEPHEN: UP ON THE WALL WITH ANGELA JOLIE AND MANNY PACQUIAO
The reception in my honour was at 19:00 at the “Explorer’s Tales” champagne bar at our hotel Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra Golf and Spa Resort.
While Bobby Jr. was in our suite conducting some business on his phone Amira and I went to explore the surrounding area. Legions of Tuk Tuk drivers were patiently waiting at the gates of the hotel to pick up some fares. They gently encouraged us to ride with them but we decided to walk in the blistering heat and humidity. Bobby Jr. had looked me straight in the eyes saying any attempt at escape would expose me a rough street life I would not survive in for long.
Crossing the main street was an act of courage with no pedestrian crosswalks and fleets of motorbikes paying scant attention to the passage of pedestrians. You might fairly say this part of town is very Third Worldish. Ramshackle buildings interspersed with a few high-end tourist shops selling “crocodile” fashion items and plenty of very expensive silk carpets of spectacular design.
Amira took us to a pharmacy where she purchased some band aids. A poster of a vicious slobbering German Sheppard with its jaws open like a Great White Shark advised readers rabies shots were available here. So many pharmacies in Siem Reap where most drugs were available without any prescription. Amira said beware of counterfeit medications!
There was a huge restaurant for the common folk where you could eat lunch and dinner buffets for $3. For tourists with a dainty stomach not advisable.
Just off the main road were a variety of shops purveying cheap goods, a few garages, some basic snack bars, grannies squatting on the pavement cooking food more or less on the street. Children without shoes. A general sense of poverty I have never seen before but “before” has some short currency as I have only been on this earth for 10 months now! It all reminded me of the scenes of Saigon street life in the movie, “Good Morning Vietnam”.
We did stop in the most impressive building “Le Plantation” selling artisanal foods including the famous Cambodian Kampot pepper and of course Bobby Jr.’s favourite tea “Twelve Monkies”.
We passed by the hospital on the way back to the hotel. Rather basic indeed. Amira joked that if were hard up for cash we could sell some of our blood there!
Back to the hotel for a quick swim. The “Viking people” were there in abundance bobbing in the water “like old geezer prunes” Bobby Jr. quipped. Amira and Bobby Jr. caused heads to turn wearing bright Keith Haring T Shirts. By the chattering gossip it was very clear these sophisticated “Viking People” were perhaps not sophisticated but being from Idaho who can blame them!
We were in the Explorer’s Tales champagne bar at 19:00 and given a warm welcome by the hotel manager. Twenty or so of the hotel staff were delighted to see me up on my hind legs and bowing and a photographer snapped a few pictures one of which was going up on the wall with photos of Angelina Jolie who had stayed at the hotel during the filming of “Tomb Raider” and of Manny Pacquiao who had also stayed there. There were kings and queens on the wall as well.
As the commemorative plaque under my photo would bear my alias “Cuddlecakes” I promised myself I would have to return one day and replace that plaque with RORY DYLAN STEPHEN!
Amira was “boldy dressed” where few women would go. Bobby was in a snazzy sports jacket he had made for him at the tailors in Bangkok. And yes the sophisticated “Viking People” were there, men with enormous guts augmenting them further by drinking beer and wolving down nuts. And they had their baseball hats on in Cambodia’s only champagne bar! Oh what a sophisticated lot these “Viking people” were!
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