Greetings from Phnom Penh

Hello Everybody.

Here's the deal, I just spent an hour writing every detail of my last four days in an extensive blog post. Just as I was finishing the last paragraph my computer at this internet cafe decided to restart out of the blue. I did not save either. You might say I'm a little ticked and now you're all just going to get the shortened version.

After Siem Reap I bused over to Phnom Phen, the capital of Cambodia. My guesthouse is amazing, large ceilings, hot water, powerful fan, cable tv and all for eight bucks a day (most everything is paid for with US dollars in Cambodia).

My first full day I walked to the National Museum then took a tuk-tuk to S-21, the former school that was used as the Khmer Rouge's torture prison to get "confessions". If you were suspected of being against the revolution and lived in the area, this is where you were sent...with the rest of your family. Thousands came to it yet only eight survived. Prison pictures of victims surround some of the rooms. The picture boards full of scared children were difficult to walk by.

The next day I walked around the Grand Palace grounds, the area where the royal family lives. One building has a floor completely made of silver. After that I got a motor bike driver to take me to the Khmer Rouge killing field for the Phnom Penh area and where all the S-21 victims were sent to die. The first thing you see when you enter the grounds is a skinny building two floors high with glass walls. The inside is filled with thousands of human skulls, all ages. The Khmer Rouge killed with an efficiency and callousness that places them right up with the Nazis. This killing field is one of about a hundred they had around Cambodia.

Yesterday I just wanted to stay in and take a day off from doing stuff but left when the cleaning staff came to pick up my room. From walking around in the morning I heard from a tuk-tuk driver that Muy Thai bouts (for free) would be going on today. Two motorbike taxis later I was at the arena behind a Cambodian TV station. Since I was there twenty minutes before it started I got a front row, ringside seat. This was one of the coolest things I've done so far. At one point I turned on my camera to video mode and began recording. About five seconds into it the fighters somersaulted out of the ring. Its all on tape. The raucous crowd that were constantly betting throughout were almost as fun to watch as the fights.

Today I saw the killing fields again after a miscommunication with a tuk-tuk driver. Working with my guesthouse, I have my Vietnam visa set up and a bus ticket to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) all ready for tomorrow.

And so it goes.

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