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Published: January 3rd 2008
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Hi All
This one will be short; I'm exhausted. I'm writing you from Pnohm Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Currently in my third day, I feel like I am about to pass out. It is SOO hectic in this city; millions of little Khmer's running around. They look Asian, but are darker with puffier cheeks. It's as if you took a Thai, punched him in the face then let him tan in the sun like beef jerky. That's what a Khmer looks like. I am staying in this place called the Cambodiana. It is awesome; I got a great deal on ratestogo.com for under 90 a night. You could probably go to their website to check it out. At the back of the hotel, three rivers merge. It forms this body of water that looks like an ocean; you can't see the other side. I definitely wouldn't swim in it through.
On a normal day in this city, I can only handle about 90 minutes of walking around before I get a panic attack and need to get back to the hotel. However, yesterday began the 'water festival'; so, I can only handle about 30 minutes. The city itself
The Cambodiana
This is where I stayed. is nice, filled with very elegant oriental type buildings, sort of Chinese with dragons. As do the rest of Asia, they like their gold, jade, and curved spikes. Back to the festival, it is the biggest event I have ever witnessed my entire life. The city is the festival, there isn't a 'festival area'. Phnom Penh, Cambodia is the most modern of the cities I've been so far; however, the infrastructure, such as transportation systems, aren't to the level of Thailand. The food here is better though, with a lot of good bakeries and very good donuts. In the festival, they have these boat races, where about 30 men paddle slim canoes. It is like crew, but the boats are about double the length. These Khmer's love it; I think it's boring. From my room, I have an awesome view of it though. I should bring some of them up; they are standing at least 10 people deep along every public part of the river to catch a view. I don't think the hotel would like that.
Talking about Khmer's in the hotel, there are a number of couples here, here to adopt Cambodian babies. I'd say one out
Start of the day
The Water Festival. Even early in the morning it begins to get crowded. of every five; it must be because of Angelina Jolie. It's so weird; they are all coddling the babies as if they just had them. They are all about two years old. It's as if I walked out of the hotel, picked up one of the many two year olds lying on the street and called him my own. Pretty weird to me. The Khmer people are nice, but not to the level of the Thai's or Laotians; you gotta keep your eye on them. You can do anything you want here for a dollar (they use the US dollar here for bills, and use the Cambodia Riel as cents). You walk out of the hotel and all you hear is "maliyana, yaba, virgens, shooting range"; yesterday, I took them up on the shooting range with another kid I met here at the hotel. It was pretty cool; you had to pay per weapon, shot, and target you used/chose. They had every weapon you could think of. The targets, now that was the part that's the biggest bug out. I stuck with just paper targets, and then I sprang for a flying bird (which I missed but still had to
Relaxing
Every patch of ground is to be used. pay two bucks for). However, you can pay for pigs, cows, BUFFALO! I thought buffalo were endangered. What sicko would want to shoot a cow point blank for 20 bucks US. I guess that we're all guilty of the same thing every time we have a hamburger, but it's still gross. Well, at the range I shot an AK47 for 50 rounds, and threw 3 grenades. The grenades were awesome; I had to throw them then duck behind these barricades they had set up. I heard about these ranges they had here, but they are nothing like what I had imagined. There were at least 100 Westerners there. It reminded me of that movie Hostel, where all these Americans went to Russia to pay to kill people. I'm sure if I had the cash they would've set that up for me as well.
This morning I set up the next four or five days of my trip. Tommorrow, at 6:30 AM I fly to Siem Reap to see Angor Watt. I stay there for only two nights, but it works out to about 3 full days. Then, I fly back here to Phnom Penh where I stay at the
Cambodiana for two more nights before I fly back to Bangkok. From there, I hope to make it to the Thai Islands by perhaps train then overnight boat. OK. I'm going to try to venture back out into the city again. 45 minutes ago, when I was out last, they were all laughing at me for some reason. I think it was how I was eating this fruit. They have this fruit around here, I forget the name of it, but it tastes nearly identical to a grapefruit. However, it's twice the size, and the white stuff beneath the skin surrounding the fruit is thicker. Well, they sell them on the street; but, it's pretty hard to eat while walking around. So, I was just biting into it kind of like an apple, and I was getting really messy. All these Khmer's were laughing at me; these people who sleep in the dirt and eat things I wouldn't even touch with my hands. But whatever.
Talk to you later.
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