THE LAPS LAUGH

I don't know the exact temperature out here, I only know this: as soon as you put a shirt on, it sticks to your body. It's gross.

That being said, if you want to be somewhat comfortable out of doors, the only real way to beat the heat is to get up before sunrise. Which is exactly what we did.

Lately we've been on a bit of an exercise kick, which has been a tad uncomfortable in this heat. We had been to the gym more than once in the past week, but, of course, this wasn't good enough. I knew it was coming, and on Monday evening the conversation went something like this:

Julie- "James, what do you think of getting up early tomorrow to run?"
James- "You mean go to the gym?"
Julie- "No, the track, at the Stadium"
James- "How early is "early"?"
Julie- "I don't know, sometime when it's still cool- 5:45, maybe?"
James (not believing his ears)- "Or we could, you know, sleep"
Julie- (excited)- "Come on, it'll be fun"
James (begrudgingly)- "Fine, let's do it- but I'm not setting the alarm, you'll have to wake me."
Julie (doing a victory dance)- "Great! Can't wait!"

So we did it. By 20 to six Tuesday morning we were out the door and on our way to the track. And we were not alone. Much to our surprise, we arrived to see approximately 2000 Cambodians engaged in all sorts of physical activity: a gaggle of 40 year olds playing hackysack, a flock of green belts practicing karate, a herd of soccer players occupying every spare patch of field, and an absolute murder of aerobics junkies doing strange acrobatic and stretching maneuvers all around the stadium's circumference. There were also a few expats like ourselves actually running laps. What a blast. It was crazy, totally unexpected, and so entertaining we might just go again in the near future. Maybe we'll even take some pictures and post 'em. It's quite a sight.

And I just thought Cambodians looked fit because they eat their vegetables.