Day 65: Lost my photos yet again.

Wake up at 7am to watch the A&M/KU game on my iPhone (read that to mean if the the wifi cooperates, I get a play by play update from ESPN every 30 seconds). We were up at half, up by 9 in the second, things are looking good. Out of nowhere, Aggies get in a fight with the basket, decide it's not our friend, 8 minutes later and a 21-2 run by Kansas, we're down by 15 and lose, Gig'em Ags. Needless to say, no Big 12 Tourney championship this year, but here's to hoping we get a solid seed in the big tourney. 

Head off to breakfast, and as any world explorer does when wanting to experience the culture, order a bacon cheeseburger, a rather disappointing one at that. It's Cambodia, what was I expecting? 

I've been in need of a thumb drive toffee up some space on my camera, find a corner technology store that looks legit enough. For 4GB I can either pick a familiar brand, SanDisk, for $18 or a Chinese brand called Transcenda for $15, I regretfully chose the cheaper brand. Return to the hostel and start the transfer of many priceless pics from my card onto the drive. Everything is going smashingly, delete the pics as I do the transfer, so as not to waste space. I remove the drive properly via the annoying windows protocol. Place the thumb drive back into the computer to check my pics. Window pops up, "Please format drive". What?! That's weird. Wonder what drive it's referring to? I remove it, reinsert, same message. Sweat starts to trickle down my brow, blood pressure spiking. I calmly walk over to the computer closet, try one of their computers, same message. Worry and anger percolate. What are my options?  

Spend the next 6 hours running a recovery program on my camera card recovering pieces of photos and elements of what once was my pictures. I reformat, reload pictures on the same drive, take it out, reinsert, same message. Oh crap, I think I might have been duped into buying a fake drive.  

Take the faulty junk drive back to the shop to raise cain, the doors are closed, angled iron grating stretching the span, secured by an over sized padlock. Light peaking out from back room, reach through the grating, bang on the glass, no answer. Inquire at the neighboring store, looks like the two might be connected via the back room,  Hello - are they in? I see a light on? They sold me a bad drive. "No, they leave. You buy drive here." Of course they did, and no way. Tomorrow I leave at 6am on a bus to Phnom Pehn, kicking myself I did not try and return it earlier. It's really not even the $15 as much as the principle, and I'm ticked if they sold me a fake drive ... and there's a rare chance they are unaware and need to know ... Ok and $15 goes a long way in Cambodia, so it is a bit about the $15. 

My only consolation, when I return from the store-lockout, the hostel has arranged a pub crawl in my honor. Ok, maybe it's not in my honor, but it coincides with a day I definitely need a distraction, so yeah, it's for me. About 15 to 20 of us made the rounds, end up hitting about 4 bars, most having special deals, most of which I avoided. Last stop, run into two different sets of Koh Phi Phi friends, one set in good condition, the other in "a condition". On my way out, the latter hands me two different love notes for two different girls in Vang Vieng, Laos ... which if you think about it, makes perfect sense. Why wouldn't those particular girls from Canada and Sweden not still be there in 3 weeks when I arrive?  

Return to the hostel by 2am with a few of my fellow hostelites. My bus pick up is 6am ... there is a fair chance I'm missing it, just saying. 

Nite nite Bloggerville from your friendly iPhone Blogger.