Why Laurel is Bored

I'm really sick. I've kind of been sick since I got here, but I thought it was jet lag at first. Now my glands are swollen, my nose is blocked and my body is all achy. I've been sleeping about 16 hours a day. I spent my second day in Hoi An in bed, but Laurel got to live groundhog day with the rest of the Luce's on the beach. However, the next day, the Luces headed off to Cambodia and Laurel was left alone with me at our cheap yet refined resort near the city of Danang. (During the war, Danang was "an American city" with everything from bowling alleys to movie theaters.) We've been here three days and I have spent most of those days on the white sheets in our air-conditioned room. I get about 5-6 hours of energy a day, but then I crash and can barely make it back upstairs to the room. Laurel has had to eat a lot of her meals with a comatose companion, and the majority of her beach time has been alone. Today, I purchased a Vietnamese version of IB Profun because I finished my whole DuaneReade bottle.

I couldn't really ask for better circumstances to be sick in, though, because we only intended to relax on the beach these days, and the Sandy Beach Hotel where we are staying is really comfortable. They even serve cesar salad in a parmesan cheese bowl. How can you not feel better after eating a Parmesan Cheese Bowl?! Plus we get HBO Asia and ESPN. The five-hour Nadal/Federer Wimbledon championship game was ridiculously amazing. It's a good thing I'm not a bigger sports fan, or I would have known that the game I was watching had actually happened a week ago. Also, I recommend the film "'The Remains of the Day." Beautiful and heart-wrenching.

Tomorrow morning we're flying to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and I'm optimistic that I'll be feeling better and ready to re-enter the world of southeastern asia.