Snakes on a bus

When I left Phnom Penh this morning on a bus to Cambodia’s southern beaches, I was looking forward to a quiet, relaxing ride through the Cambodian countryside.

I’d neglected to take the on-board entertainment on such buses into consideration.

For reasons that are beyond me, the bus company chose to treat its guests to “Snakes on a Plane“.

I had failed to catch the beginning of the movie, so I didn’t figure out which one it was until we were quite a bit into the story.

As the story developed, I just thought: how tacky.

Just like those “Airplane” and “Airport” movies of the early 1970′s where you already saw the drama unfolding as the individual characters checked in for their doomed flight.

But this film was clearly not from the 70′s. It seemed pretty new.

After a while, it suddenly dawned on me that this must be the movie that didn’t earn its reputation at the box office, but as an internet phenomenon: “Snakes on a Plane“

What can I say? The movie sucked. It was probably the worst film I’ve seen in years.

The problem was that the bus company had me and everyone else on this bus as a captive audience. There was no way to escape this flick.

I tried looking out the window, but somehow my eyes kept returning to the TV-screen in the front of the bus.

It was like a roadside accident: horrible to see, but you just can’t help looking.

Anyway, I was glad when the DVD player on our bus broke about two thirds into the movie. No way do I want to see the rest of it!

The funny thing was that when I checked into my new hotel here at the beach, there was an interesting piece of art on the wall of my room.

How appropriate.

And sweet dreams tonight.