Wow, look pavement

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I can’t believe I am in Cambodia. Sometimes on the trip I felt like I was riding the dirt bike through Apocalypse Now and it is hard to believe its real. This is my first real experience in a third world country and it really hits hard. You always hear things about most of the world living on less than a dollar a day but somehow it doesn’t hit home until you are here, and I know I am still on the outside of it. I was talking with a local who kindly offered my some of his deep fried frogs. He is a civil engineer working for the government, which is a pretty good job. He said his salary is $25. I clarified, “per day. Right?” ”No, Per month.” he replied. Ouch, I felt like such a horses ass.

Prostitution is another one of those things you hear about being common place because of the destitution of the economy, but it doesn’t hit you until you are being propositioned in country after country and you see 70 year old American men with 14 year old Asian girls. It turns your stomach.

I have been to several street markets, but this one in Phnom Penh was different. I was the only westerner there and mainly selling meats and fish. I was seeing things that made me want to jump out of my skin. Bowls of fish parts thrust in your face, fried spiders, you look down by your feet and it is a wicker basket filled with some sort of slimy snakes all alive and writhing around. You look away and right at a pile 20 of the biggest pig snouts you have ever seen. Ok, to be fair it is the only pile of giant pig snout I have ever seen and combined with the smell of the open air market on this hot sunny day I can’t say I made me all that hungry.

I am seeing some sights today, tomorrow fly to Singapore just spend the night and fly to Bali the next morning to relax for a week.

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