LUCY IN THE SKY

Her name was Lucy. We did everything together.

We went to the Killing Fields, where we learned about Pol Pot’s regime in the 1970’s and the horrible Khmer Rouge genocide that took place in Cambodia at that time. We both had tears in our eyes when we met one of only two remaining survivors of the Tuol Sleng prison. We read his book together on the bus.

We bought books, pencil crayons and toys for some children residing in a local orphanage. We played games with them, having fun and laughing with them until dark. We each bought bracelets they made by hand.

Every night we went out dancing and partying until dawn. One night by mistake we went to a gay club, and couldn’t stop laughing as we looked around at all the gay men and their stellar dance moves. We danced until closing time, and went there every night we could thereafter. We bought matching shirts with the club’s name “Heart of Darkness” on them.

We hired motorbikes and drove them around together getting completely lost, even picking up a random stranger at one point. Late at night we drove to a party on the beach, where we danced in the sand all night underneath the fireworks, and got our clothes soaking wet when we jumped into the ocean.

We took a ferry ride off the coast, to an island called Koh Rong. We lay all day out on the beach in our bikinis. We ate cheeseburgers and fruitshakes on the sand, and learned how to paddleboard. We paddled so far out into the water that the island became a small dot of sand, and we lay down on our boards. The waves rocked us to sleep, and we floated thousands of miles away. It was just us, the ocean and the sunset.

Both of us were travelling alone, and on our first day in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, we met staying in the same room at the 11 Happy Backpackers Hostel. After that we were completely inseparable. We bought matching Happy Backpacker T-shirts.

We laughed until we cried. Ate until we burst. Danced until the sun came up. Lived every moment to the fullest, together, with adventure around every corner.

Lucy Poole, my best friend, I’ve known you a short time, I will remember you forever.