Laptop Stolen

My training course in Cambodia is over, even though I'm still here. I had planned a trip to Sihanoukville, which is on the coast of Cambodia, this week before I had to leave for China. I bought a room at a guest house, which are cheap motels here, and on the day I meant to depart I left for lunch, locked my door and when I came back my laptop and camera were gone. I left them both just laying out, a stupid mistake, but at least nothing else had been taken. Just the electronics both left in plain sight. I'd been at the motel for three nights so I figure whoever stole them had been keeping tabs on me for a couple of days. Or more likely they saw a white person and assumed I had some money, so they decided to go exploring in my room. I'm not too upset about the camera. I spent $70 on it in a Fred Meyer's in Washington and took about 3000 pictures with it on my bicycle trip. I'd taken about 500 more since coming to Cambodia. I feel I got my money's worth out of that piece of equipment. The computer, however, I am less than ecstatic about losing. At only two and a half months old I hardly had gotten use out of it and had looked forward to using it while teaching in China. A lot of potential there for how it can be used in a classroom. I have an external harddrive so everything on the computer (and from the laptop I had before this) is backed up. Thusly, I didn't lose any information (except for my sterling record playng backgammon against the computer) I'm out of the money and functionality of the device. It's disheartening, but I don't hold it against the country or the hotel or anyone else. I did, for the record, tell the front desk but they might as well have laughed at me. With signs everywhere stating "We are not responsible for lost items of any kind at any time" I didn't have high hopes. Nothing to do about it really. I have no idea who did it, the front desk didn't care and the police, whom I did not contact, would have done absolutely nothing. I say that assuredly. The police function here as bribe takers, not law enforcers. Plus, they would have had no leads and very little information.

That's the update. I'll be in China next week as I have two days of training July 9th and 10th in Jinan and then the week after that I start actually teaching in Weifang. Even with the recent theft I find myself excted as ever and ready to continue my travels.