CHAPTER EIGHT
It takes Lee and Sothea almost 14 hours in order to get to Suvanna Phumi Airport in Bangkok from Hawaii, with one transit in Taipei, Capital City of Taiwan. Everyone in the plane looks exhausted. They are tired not because of laboring, but of sitting and sleeping for the whole journey. However, Lee does not show the sign of tiresome. She looks fresh and cheerful. She thinks only about planning her trip back home to Cambodia. Every passenger hurries to claim their luggage.
As soon as they get their luggage, Lee goes straight to an airline company counter to find out flight schedule from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, the Capital of Cambodia. Once learning about the timetable and price, Lee and Sothea head the exist and look for a cap to the city centre where dorm rooms for international students have been prepared inside Chulalongkorn University's campus.
"So what is your plan?" Sothea asks as soon as they settle inside the cap.
"About what?" Lee inquires. Lee turns to the cap window and look at the view along the road.------------------
After discussion with the host faculty about Sothea's research plan, Sothea and Lee say goodbye to the professor and leave the room and go for a sightseeing tour around the school compound. It is a very huge school and peaceful. There are a lot of trees around. Following the guided tour around the campus, both of them take the school's shuttle bus to Siam Paragon, a popular shopping centre in Bangkok. Once they come across a Kinokuniya bookstore, Lee excuses herself to spend some times in the store and tell Sothea to go by himself.
"Are you sure, you can find the way back?" Sothea asks, afraid Lee might get lost.
"Don't worry," Lee assures, raising Bangkok's Map to Sothea. "I'm not a ten-year-old girl. I can find way by myself. Plus I've got your number. I'll call if I am get lost."
"How about dinner?" Sothea asks, out of curiosity.
"I'll have something at this mall," Lee responds. "I'm sure they have a vast choices."
"I bet they do," unable to convince her, Sothea gives up. "Fine. I have to see some friends anyway."
"Have fun," Sothea waves as he's walking towards the gate.
"You too."
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The sky is getting, the mall is filled with more and more people, particularly students from nearby school, judging by different uniform they are wearing. Having viewed almost all bookshelves, Lee leaves the store with a few novels and descend the stairs to ground floor, looking for something to fill her half empty stomach. She doesn't feel very hungry; however, she has to have some.
It is dark now when Lee leaves the mall. She has been captured by the book they bought earlier that she forgets about the flow of the time. She then walks to the bus stop in front of the mall, waiting for a lift to her place. While waiting for the bus, Lee sees a gay couple also there waiting for the bus. Lee has no idea if they were. But their action tells her so. They look young and are in school uniform. Surrounding by other passengers, one is trying to console the other by touching the other’s hand. They look very sweet, Lee could feel the ways they act towards one another. Maybe they just have had minor quarrel over something, or maybe the other one has made his partner upset. Lee starts to feel jealous to witness a sweet couple like that. They do not care about other people’s eyes looking at them. It seems this whole world consists of only the two of them.
"Are you sure, you can find the way back?" Sothea asks, afraid Lee might get lost.
"Don't worry," Lee assures, raising Bangkok's Map to Sothea. "I'm not a ten-year-old girl. I can find way by myself. Plus I've got your number. I'll call if I am get lost."
"How about dinner?" Sothea asks, out of curiosity.
"I'll have something at this mall," Lee responds. "I'm sure they have a vast choices."
"I bet they do," unable to convince her, Sothea gives up. "Fine. I have to see some friends anyway."
"Have fun," Sothea waves as he's walking towards the gate.
"You too."
--------------------
The sky is getting, the mall is filled with more and more people, particularly students from nearby school, judging by different uniform they are wearing. Having viewed almost all bookshelves, Lee leaves the store with a few novels and descend the stairs to ground floor, looking for something to fill her half empty stomach. She doesn't feel very hungry; however, she has to have some.
It is dark now when Lee leaves the mall. She has been captured by the book they bought earlier that she forgets about the flow of the time. She then walks to the bus stop in front of the mall, waiting for a lift to her place. While waiting for the bus, Lee sees a gay couple also there waiting for the bus. Lee has no idea if they were. But their action tells her so. They look young and are in school uniform. Surrounding by other passengers, one is trying to console the other by touching the other’s hand. They look very sweet, Lee could feel the ways they act towards one another. Maybe they just have had minor quarrel over something, or maybe the other one has made his partner upset. Lee starts to feel jealous to witness a sweet couple like that. They do not care about other people’s eyes looking at them. It seems this whole world consists of only the two of them.
Seeing the couple holding each other's hands reminds Lee the day Yong held her hand at Ala Moana Center, a shopper's paradise and the world's largest open-air shopping center in Hawaii, after their trip to Haleakala National Park. There were over 290 stores and restaurants in Ala Moana. Ala Moana in Hawaiian means path to the sea. They went from store to store to check for this and that.
The bus has arrived. Lee asks the bus attendant if it goes to Chula; nodded the bus attendant. Lee get in the bus, leaving the cute gay couple behind at the bus stop.
To be continued...
