First Impressions

I'm working with a terrible keyboard and paying by the minute, so if this blog is riddled with typos, it's staying that way.

Cambodia was overwhelming at first, but I'm calibrating and warming up to it (easy to do when it's 80 degrees--I love summer nights!). It looks just like the Vietnam movies, and is truly a different world, full of skinny animals, naked children, people with stunning deformities, and Toyotas. I'd estimate 95% of the cars on the road are Toyotas. The rest are Lexuses, which my dinner companions and I were trying (unsuccessfully) to explain.

Speaking of the streets, they are totally insane. Korea is easy by comparison. They flow like arteries, with things moving fluidly through in no particular arrangement. Roads are shared by cars, tuk tuks, mopeds, bikes, carts, and people. Crossing is a duck and run kind of proposition. A handful of intersections do have lights, which come with a digital countdown for both red & green, and an animated walk sign (a green guy running). They say you can't walk in this town, but once I started doing it, I liked the place a lot better.

This afternoon, I was coopted by a hard-selling tuk tuk driver, who took me to the killing fields, where I wasn't necessarily intending to go. It was pretty horrific, but hard to grasp what really happened, especially in my already agitated state of mind. There were bones everywhere, teeth in a glass, and one section of path roped off because bones were surfacing through the dirt. I find it even harder to fathom than the Holocaust. I bought "First They Killed My Father", which was a bestseller in the US. It came in a plastic bag, which I've become used to in Korea, but in this case, it was so that I didn't notice the whole thing is photocopied. At least it's all there, it only cost $6 (the seller probably thinks he got a great deal, but so do I), and it's a very authentic souvenir.

My tuk tuk driver left me at the river promenade, which is when I started having fun. I ate al fresco at an Indian restaurant--a tourist splurge at $6/plate, but it was yummy, and I was joined by an older Australian couple who've been touring SE Asia for 10 weeks now. They were ready to leave Phnom Penh the first day (they stay a week in each place), but got used to it and quite like it. And they can't understand why Americans don't provide health care for everyone. I was SO happy to talk to someone...think it's been about 2 weeks since I really did. They almost convinced me to change my mind back about leaving for Siem Reap in the morning (I was originally going to stay in PP for another day). I found some nice things on my walk back to the guesthouse (soft beds! I'm lovin' it!)--the best was a park with a fountain that had some kind of laser/music show going on, and all kinds of Khmers hanging out. More promising parts of town, too.

BTW, I loved Hong Kong. The whole waking hour I was there. I slept in a windowless concrete cell in a tenement, but it was a NICE windowless concrete cell in a tenement. I loved the mountains, the ships, the British touches, and the fact that it actually looked like somewhere different (as opposed to Seoul, which is just America sans aesthetics). Gotta go back. Their money is cool, too. Ended up with a $20 bill left over as a souvenir.

Probably can't post pics til I get back. Haven't been able to photograph the most interesting stuff, anyway (although I did get a shot of the elephant walking down the street at dinner). Here's hoping the 6-hour bus ride tomorrow isn't a little slice of hell.