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Jane, Adam and I left dirty, dusty Siem Riep and headed down to Phnom Pehn, the capital of Cambodia. That busride was not exactly noteworthy except for the fact that the bus BROKE DOWN about half an hour outside the city. All 40 or so of us ended up sitting on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere for close to 45 minutes waiting for a replacement bus, except to the three of us who didn't speak Cambodian, it seemed that we were waiting for NOTHING. We had no clue what was going on and we had no idea where we were. Then, as if they were good luck (ha), a herd of goats pranced across the street and into the brush beside us, with several baby kids hopping about in their wake. And all of a sudden our new bus showed up. Um. Ok. :)
As for the capital itself, it has such a great vibe. Its hard to imagine that such a short time ago, less than forty years in fact, the Pol Pot Regime was executing 40,000+ of the population. We hired a Tuk-tuk guy for the first afternoon and he took us to the Killing Fields outside of town and the S-21 Genocide Museum, probably the most depressing museum I've ever been to. It was just awful. There were mugshots of all the people who went through there, most of them just your sort of Average Ya (common Cambodian name) who did not deserve to be there. All of the faces were just blank. Very few scared, or angry, they were just empty. What a wonderful "Welcome" to the city. Ah well.
When our driver dropped us back off at our guesthouse, he asked us if we were interested in going to see an orphanage the next day. We were very interested and agreed to meet up with him in the morning. He drove us to the outskirts of the city where we found Lighthouse orphanage, a little bit of land with 5 or 6 brick buildings, gardens, chicken and pig coops, a little school and 49 children under the age of 15. They certainly blew apart my stereotypes of depressed, skinny, "Oliver"-like children, the place was clean, the kids were having fun, and learning.... I was just so impressed! The kids kept asking us the three questions or so they knew in English, then wanted to play. We played soccer and basketball, as well as clapping games, arm wrestling and (to my utter astonishment) thumbwars, complete with the counting start. If anyone is interested in contributing to this orphanage in any way, I have information, just let me know. They look like they are doing relatively well, but school supplies are much needed I believe, and there is always room for volunteers.
After the orphanage, Adam and Jane had to take off. They both had prior and separate engagments in Thailand that they had to get back to. For the rest of the day I did my own thing, this being the first time I'd actually been travelling on my own in Asia for real. I checked out the Russian market (so cool!) and went down to hang out by the river to read and write. This is where I found that if I sat in one place long enough, Cambodian people will just come and watch me write from directly over my shoulder. That, I have to say, is quite disconcerting. They don't even want to talk, or maybe they just don't know English, but they just liked to watch.
As I was leaving the river, I saw a game that is called "Saii" being played and it was so cool to watch. It's a Cambodian version of hackey sack. The sack though, is more of a shuttlecock from Badmitton, and they only kick it with the bottom of their feet from behind their back. The part that baffled me was that they wouldn't look at the birdie. They would watch it go over their head, then just lean a bit forward and kick it directly to where they wanted it to go. I was so very impressed. Then the ones who were good would get fancy, making their hands a hoop and kicking the birdie through. I don't know why I was so fascinated by all this, but it was fun to check out for a while.
The next morning I walked (much to the dismay of the hundreds of moto and tuk-tuk drivers) to the Royal Palace. It was nothing fantastic, but the funky part came at the end when I saw a guy in the complex that I was sure I recognized. I asked him if he'd just come from Angkor Wat a couple days ago, which I admit is the most ridiculous question since 75% of the tourists in Phnom Pehn have just come from there. But he had and then he reallized that we had met briefly, when I was hanging with Jane and Adam. We had just said a quick hello really, but we both thought it was kind of funny. Not much of a story. YET. For further reference, he is a Swiss dude called Peter.
I then trekked my way over to the post office, and was curious when about a block away I saw a group of people looking up at the sky. I looked up and saw on the powerlines...drumroll... a monkey! It was Lop Buri all over again! Well, on a much smaller scale. There turned out to be about a dozen monkies randomly running about this one street and power lines! I was so excited! This is in the middle of the capital mind you! Wow.
The next journal entry will be coming from Vietnam! (Well, technically this one already is, but the next one will be ABOUT Vietnam. And as a hint, Vietnam rocks!) Until then....
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