What? (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)

I just arrived here in Phnom Pehn, the capital of Cambodia. I took a boat from Siem Reap in order to avoid the bumpy roads. It was like triple the amount of money ($25 USD). We had to leave our guesthouse at 6am and were driven through a really poor neighborhood, where the people live in really small huts along the dirt road. I didn't even see it that bad in India. The boat was packed! The seats in the cabin were all full and so everyone else, which was like 2.5 times the amount of people inside, had to sit on the top of the boat, where there's no seats and the area was a rounded surface. It was an okay ride though. I'd like to say that I was on the Mekong river, but it wasn't, it was just a branch of it.

Current Currencies

I find it kind of expensive here, just because most of the places charge you in US dollars. Their own currency is called ''Riel" and its all in the thousands. On top of their own currency they all accept Thailand's "Baht". Sometimes you'll pay in usd and get a few us dollars back and then some riel as well. Or pay in baht and get only us dollars back. It gets really confusing after a while, trying to make 3 different conversions in your head, ensuring you're getting the correct change back. I think that some places also have a different exchange rate than other businesses and you get ripped off a little.

"Please buy from me?"

There's a lot of little kids that run around and try to sell you things. Lots of them don't go to school because they're too poor and just make a living from tourists'money. Supposedly.

Lots of them are really, really cute. Many Cambodians look a lot like Filippinos, so to me they resemble like little cousins or something. You gotta feel sorry for them, but of course you cannot give everyone money. Generally the way that it works is the second they see a bus or taxi full of tourists arrive, they run up and all start asking your name and your home country. They all know the capitals of different countries, impressive. Then they try and sell you some bracelets, postcards, scarves or books about Cambodia. It doesn't matter how many times you say no, they'll keep hassling you, but they're very nice about it... mostly.

There was this one girl that was trying to sell a book "The Killing Fields" for only 80 baht. Its a really good deal, but I just didn't want it, she even went down to 60 baht. I told her that she should try and ask some of the other people in our bus, but she was reluctant. I told her that I'd try for her, so I went around with the book raised above my head saying "80 baht for the killing fields, its a good deal, only 80 baht!" Surely, this one girl Sunny from Norway was interested and I brought over the little girl and she ended up paying the 80 baht for it. As we were leaving, the girl ran around and knocked on my window. She was so happy and grateful, she was like jumping up and down! It was nice to help her out. Once a bookseller, always a bookseller.... geez, I hope not.

At Angkor Wat, I ended up buying these postcards from these 2 little boys, all the girls ended up saying that I wasn't fair because I should have bought from 1 boy and 1 girl. They all ended up saying that I only like boys... ironic.


Another Wonder

I'm proud to say that I've now seen 2 wonders of the world in the last 3 months, including the Taj Mahal and now Angkor Wat. I'm not going to talk much about it, because its one of those things you should see for yourself.

I went one night to see the sunset and the next morning for the sunrise at 5:30am. Spectacular. I didn't know much about the whole city of old, ruined temples, but we (Ren, Nicklas and I) got a guide to explain some things. A lot of it goes back to the Hindu religion. There were so many little things that had a symbolic meaning, it was good to have "superman" (as the guide so called himself).

By the end of the day, after being in the 30+ heat, I was quite tired! Some people will spend 3 days exploring many of the temples, its possible to spend weeks there and not see them all. I only went to the major ones and felt satisfied, they all start to look the same after a while. All in all, its quite amazing to see these gigantic old Wats, still standing after 900 or so years.

Seeing Hands

Yesterday, I treated myself to a massage, by a blind person! There's actually quite a few different parlors in Siem Reap, all with blind maseusses. It was really relaxing, I'm glad that I went.

In the last few days, I've seen a lot of limbless women, men and children. A lot of them become beggars, but a lot of them learn some kind of trait. There are lots of re-hab centers within the city and many of them have prosthetic limbs. I don't know why there are so many blind people though, the limbless ones are from walking on the many landmines still leftover in the country. I don't understand why its up to the Cambodians to clean up the mess that the Americans left behind so many years ago?

Old Friends

Last night I was quite happy to meet up with my Austrian friend Marlene. If you remember, we traveled together from Singapore all the way up to Ko Phi Phi, Thailand. She's now at the end of her 11month trip and will be home in about 2 weeks. We arranged to meet in Siem Reap, unfortunatley we only got to spend the one night together.

It was nice to see a familiar face, someone who already knew my history and my personality. Often you spend a lot of time with other travellers trying to get to know each other. We were able to tell each other stories of our travels in the last 2 months and reminicse about our own travels together and laugh about some of our mishaps that we had.

Have a safe journey home Marlene! Cheers to ya!