Todays Phnom pen

What an incredible day, I am so honored to have such incredible experiences all packed together in this trip. Everything I've encountered has been new and challenging and amazing and I can honestly say I will cherish it forever. Today we had our first experiences of Cambodia. Cambodia. And I love it. Love it forever.

I'll get to that in a moment, first I wanted to jot down a few things that I remembered after having posted my Vietnam segment, so here they are in no particular logical fashion to save time on transitions:

-We had the most hilarious cab driver on our way to a pagoda just outside the city the other day. He spoke english well and was quirky and energetic. He played his favorite cd's for us, Pink Floyd, Santana, and Dire Straights haha. While we were in the cab, he began to set up a joke by saying, "what religion are you?" To which I replied "Christian". This actually derailed him from his joke for a minute, and he said "what's that? you mean no god?". It struck me that someone in a major metropolis could have never heard of Christianity, I tried to say "kind of like Catholic, you know, protestant?" Nothing. Right then it was cool to feel a moment in which a small door in my mind opened to new perspectives. He continued, "well I've been thinking about joining Islam, you know why? 4 wives."

-At a small temple outside the city zoo a woman was guiding us around in an effort to build ethos and sell us some postcards and she pointed at my ever scruffier goatee and said "Ho Chi Minh! Ho Chi Minh chin!" That made me smile. She said I should grow it out long, your wish is my command Vietnam.

-After leaving the War reminants museum we were walking towards the post office through a park. Throughout the streets of the city there are older men and women carrying goods in baskets suspended from the ends of a wooden plank across their shoulder, mostly coconuts and bottled water and the like. At this particularmoment we notices that there were about 15 of them running scattered in every dirrection with their beachball size baskets swinging vigorously with each stride. Moments later, two policemen came screaming in on their moto's and one jumped off the back in persuit. It was just like a lion singling out and picking off a gazelle in the wild. Even as the officer got close, there was no quitting from the vendor, he squeezed between cars and cut left and right. We all know who win's that race though; I don't know the fate of the vendor, as much as I wanted to jump in and tell him to give the guy a break, fucking with the po in a communist country is a bad idea- so I hear.

-I mentioned the whole crossing the street aspect in my last post but there was a quick story I wanted to share. Crossing the street is a serious skill in the big city. It takes some getting used to, but I think in the end I got it figured out. It takes walking right into the middle of traffic with your chest up and chin high with confidence and making eye contact with the moto's about to run you down, and never missing a step. Once you establish that you are moving at a set pace, then you have made the decision, and all the drivers have to do is follow it; speeding in front or slipping behind. Getting used to this was a ball clenching task though. Early on the first day as i took a deep breath and hardened my brow just about to take my first step, I got upstaged by a woman who had to be at least 75 who just strolled on in. I fell into rank just beside and behind her and checked my ego at the curb. An old lady walked me across the street. And I was so thankful.

-At the travel agency when we were booking our bus tickets i was watching a woman at work on a computer putting together a spreadsheet on Excell. It took her about 15 minutes trying to format an equation in one cell before she gave up. We are blessed to have our educations... and if you are in Vietnam, double check the math.

Ok, now that that is out of the way I can get on to the good stuff, Cambodia! What an amazing day (sorry to say it again, but it is true!). We got down to the travel agency this morning at 8:30 to be crammed into a 10 seater van with 11 other people which proceeded to drive us literally a block and a half to the main bus that would take us across the border. Everyone inside was laughing as we had all walked farther to get there than it had drove us. The bus took about 3 hours to get to the border which came and went without incident. I did however get a chance to sharpen my haggling prowess. In line at the border, women were walking around offering their under the table money changing service. I had read in our guide bok that the conversion rate is about 4200 riel to the dollar, but practically it is about 4000. All the suckers in front of me paid about 10-20 percent overfor the charge, and a lot more if they didn't count the money that was handed to them in exchange. I traded 400,000 dong (24 dollars) for 92,000 riel (which I talked up from 88) and counted the money to catch the 10k short change she tried to pass. Small victories i know, but I felt great about it. Once into Cambodia, you immediately can see the difference from one to the other. The roads went from un-cared for asphalt to un-cared for asphalt underneath a layer of dirt and silt. Cambodia seems to be a much more poverty stricken area, yet it feels much more care free. We haven't gotten the feeling almost at all that anyone is trying to take advantage of us which has relieved a psychological burden that we had already become accustomed to. We stopped for lunch in a large garage-like space in which a couple was running a food cart. The wife was hilarious! if you have seen Kung Fu Hustle at all, she was exactly like the land lady in pig sty alley. She was screaming at her husband while dishing out some dope ass beef and vegtables in a red, light on grease, yet savory and satisfying sauce, over rice. 8000 riel (2 bucks). Our bus continued on to a stop where we waited to get onto a ferry. Just outside the bus a happy woman was selling whole unknown birds about the size of a folded out baseball from her grill-top cart. I took one whiff and jumped out of the bus to buy one; yup, amazing. Even with the charred head staring me down, it was finger licking good, and as a bonush, they prepared it with its feet tied to one of it's eggs, ate that; yup, amazing. We crossed the river and hit a solid wall of traffic trying to get on the ferry the other way, so our massive bus took a turn down a dirt road that began an adventure. We rolled past hand made houses on stilts with naked children waving and chasing after us, a crude "water tower" that consisted of big pots up un a platform suspended by trees, a local gathering place where a woman was selling fish from a hand held scale, and after barely squeeking through a 90 degree turn that almost didn't happen we continued on past a beautiful hand built stone monestary with young monks clad in maroon robes. Journey on. We arrived in Phnom Phen hungry and eager to explore. As I mentioned before, walking the streets was much more relaxing. It truly actually reminded me of the laid back feel of SoCal, everyone is outside enjoying the heat, cruising on the endless supply of scooters in this part of the world, with a nice breeze that rustled the leaves on the trees. The only difference is the trash in the street and stray dogs that bark at your heels and run down buildings that should be abandoned, but aren't. We passed so much good food on grill carts and eventually settled on one that was way off the beaten path. We got a lot of looks like "what the hell are you doing here" from the locals sitting and eating, but it was more curious than aggresive. We didn't even know what we had signed up for when the one english speaking host placed us in small plastic stools at a leantoo table in the sketch ass alley adjacent to the cart , but we had a feeling it would be good. Out came some food, marinated grilled chicken wing tips on skewers. Pretty bone heavy, but you guessed it: amazing. We followed the lead of the people around us and threw the available spices and kim chi-like garlic slices into a dish with some lime and dipped our wing tips before devouring them. I thought I had ordered a soda to come with it, but to my trepidation and surprise came the juice from fresh squeezed sugar can in a glass with ice. As a general rule, ice/water/uncooked vegitation is a no no in this region, but after tasting how good it was I downed it all with a smile. I hate to say it again, but it is what it is, amazing. As we got ready to go we were informed the bill was 6000 riel. Anywhere near the main city it would have been three times that, we left 10k overly satisfied. We finished the night off with a nice walk and found a spa in a hotel around the corner which gave 1 hour massage for 6 usd. Though it was in a lazy boy style chair, and the massage was a bit unconventional by standard western/sweedish standards, I can honestly say it was one of the top 5 I've ever gotten. So we returned to the hotel and here I am now in the lobby sending away another incredible chapter. Euphoria. And I've still got another 50+ days to go... hahahahaha, what did I do to deserve this? =)
Much love,
-Jon