Odd Occurrences

This past Friday marked a string of bizarre incidents which I feel are worthy of sharing. First, on Friday morning I got sick. It doesn't sound that odd, I know, but, as many of you know, I pride myself on having a god-like immune system. A cough and stuffy nose were soon accompanied by a fever, headache, body aches, and nausea. I managed to last through the entire work day, but spent the entire weekend in bed with all of the above symptoms, each staying with me through Monday morning despite medication.

Now I don't mean to imply that when I get sick, things get wacky, but weird things were definitely happening on Friday afternoon. At around 3:30 as the monsoon rain clouds formed in the sky, I looked out my office window - with a pretty good view of downtown Phnom Penh I might add - and noticed a small funnel dropping partly from the clouds toward the ground. Although the funnel remained at least 100 feet off the ground while it lasted, it was quite surreal. From what I know and have heard, Phnom Penh does not experience regular tornadoes. The funnel floated in the sky for about half an hour and then disappeared. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me at work to capture it.

Shortly after the funnel incident and with my ailments seemingly getting worse, I headed home. As usual, I unlocked my bicycle in the parking lot and started riding out of the main entrance to the Phnom Penh Center office building complex. I have a pretty good relationship with all of the security guards that man the small motorbike parking lot as well as the ticket booth for cars - they usually smile at me, ask me how I'm doing, and poke fun at the fact that I ride around on a bicycle. As I biked by on Friday, however, the three guards by the ticket booth jumped back from their chairs in three different directions. I stopped and couldn't help but giggle at how ridiculous - and well-coordinated - their leaps had been. It was not until I stopped that I noticed a long and slender neon green snake slithering up one of the guard's motos. Luckily no one was bitten.