Guns and Heartbreaks

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I awake in the early morning to the rustle of moto's, tuk tuks and the street noise of a city rising. The early morning light gives a glow to the dusty streets below. The moto's carry families, sugar cane, wood, little restaurant kiosks and whatever else is needed for the day. I now feel a million miles from home. This is Phnom Penh , a city in a country I never knew existed until I read the works of Anthony Bourdain, which has tatooed this city, this country on my brain. It is to be a place for the senses. This is a new land to me. This is what I have been looking for.

Landed in the quiet Phnom Penh airport at around 8 am. In no time I was the holder to a 30 day visitor visa to the Kingdom Of Cambodia and being surrounded by a group of pushy tuk tuk drivers. I met a Chinese girl who was looking to share a tuk tuk into the city. After bargaining with a Cambodian guy we were off into the chaos of the streets. A few lanes, filled with moto's, tuk tuks and a few cars. I was amazed to see one moto with 3 little girls on it. The driver was about 8 or 9 years of age and her little passengers about 3. They smiled and waved, in a way only children can do, as they passed. I knew that this place was like nowhere I had ever been before.

On the advice of an elderly American guy I met in Malaysia, Mandy (the Chinese girl I met at the airport) and I checked into the Darra Reang Sey Hotel. We had air conditioning, a balcony and it was a good location. So now we had a home base and it was just past 9am.

So Mandy was a great chance meeting. She is a big foodie, has a great sense of humour and is just easy to get along with. We hit the streets in Phnom Penh, exploring the markets, the shops and meeting many of the locals. Everytime you walk past a street corner somebody will shout “Tuk Tuk” and come over for a chat. Most people are nice, their fluency in English varies, just give them a smile, shake their hand if they chat awhile.

This city is a shock to the senses. The streets are used for vehicles, bicycles and walking due to the fact the sidewalks are home to little restaurants, parked cars and children playing. The market is dirty and crowded with little room to walk with the moto's driving through. We went for a few drinks on our first night in the city. We hired a tuk tuk to take us to a bar that we read about in our guidebooks ( hey it was called Zeppelin Cafe and played 60's and 70's vinyl). Now the streets in this city are orderly numbered, but the house numbers don't follow the same pattern. For example there could be 2 of 145 118 Street. Our tuk tuk driver couldn't find the place (even though he said he knew it). We got dropped on a street lined with bars and restaurants. We ended up finding a nice open air bar surrounded by some plants, quiet music. It seemed the kind of place to have a quiet beer. After getting our first drinks we noticed the bar had about 9 female staff and only about 5 customers, Mandy being the only female and the only non-westerner customer. I neglected to read the sign on the way in, but when I did it all made sense. The 50 year old American with the 20 something Cambodian girl at the bar, the European guy at the table with the really young Cambodian girl. The sign above the bar read “The Black Cat”, it was a girlie bar. Mandy stopped one of the girls who worked to ask how much for one of the girls and told her that I was looking for some company that night. The woman never gave us a price, she just smiled and walked away. With akward humour like that I knew Mandy and I were going to be friends.

There was one thing I wanted to accomplish in this city. In the Anthony Bourdain book “A Cooks Tour” he visits a shooting range. Not just any shooting range, one where you can buy rounds for everything from a Tommy Gun or Pistol to a Rocket Launcher or one of those army guns you lay down to shoot. Now I have little gun experience, in fact my good friend Eric took me shooting hand guns a few years ago in Canada and when he handed me the gun I started shaking. He was close to taking the gun from me for our safety. So I'm not a manly gun kind of guy. But after a dusty tuk tuk ride out of Phnom Pehn I was leafing through a book of prices and guns. The vision in my head was to shoot a Tommy Gun like in the old gangster films or even the scene from the film “Home Alone” where Macaulay Caulken uses the gangster movie to get free pizza. “I believe you, but my Tommy Gun doesn't” followed by a bunch of rounds. The Tommy Gun didn't look the same as the movies, so I choose the AK 47 option. Next thing I am seated at a table inside a gunsmoke filled bunker with an AK 47 at my shoulder firing shots at a coconut. I was shooting high from the kick of the gun but did get it in a few shots. Then the target, then they put the gun on automatic for me. The kick of firing three consecutive shots was a rush as the gun fought to rise with each shot. I got my target to find I did have a few decent shots on the target. Mission accomplished. Now that the guns were done we headed out to see the Killing Fields, where the Khmer Rouge killed nearly 2 million people during the late 70's and 80's. The place is eerie, the ground is sunk in places from the mass graves, the skulls and other bones that were exhumed are on display in the monument. The skulls are all broken and fractured as the killing method used was always to beat people to death with axes, crowbars or anything blunt. The Killing Tree, which was used to kill children by beating them against the tree, is another hard sight to see. As you walk the place you can't help to feel a heaviness come over you. This was the location of the end of so many lives and to think I was playing with guns 30 minutes ago.

Mandy is a foodie and has been quite keen on getting me to try as many new things as possible. We can't walk through a market without her picking up something for me to try or making plans for me to try it later. Amok is a Khmer cuisine staple and proves to be very a tasty dish of a curry, spice, potatoes, and fish. It seems to vary from place to place. As it was Chinese New Year many restaurants were closed and we walked aimlessly with hungry bellies. We found one shop and upon entering we realized it was a family home/restaurant. They were getting ready for the Chinese New Year, their offerings on display beside the television that was playing a festive Cambodian show complete with performers. There was an elderly woman laying in a little cot in the corner. When we ordered we needed to speak to their teenage soon who spoke English. The food was great, the family stopped to try to communicate with us and the father taught us to say thank you in Cambodian. It was a good feeling to see a family, peek through a little window and into their festive season. We stumbled upon a night market that was in celebration of the new year. Clothes, crafts, wine and more importantly food was on offer. All the food stalls offered the same so we choose the busiest one. We sat on the mats with the young families and enjoyed our spring rolls made with rice paper, a whole roasted baby chicken, fish stuffed peppers and some other bits plus fresh sugar cane juice. There was a large stage with Cambodian performers singing all sorts of songs in their native language. It was a nice celebration to stumble upon.

Cambodia is a country that stole my heart from the get go. The vendors on the street are always willing to chat, people make eye contact and smile, children stop to wave. A man invited us to join him and his two daughters on a bench to enjoy some of the local speciality duck embryo. It is boiled and put into a little cup to stand then you break the top of the shell and scoop out the semi formed duck, complete with a little beak and feathers. I was amazed to watch his little daughter go through the routine of breaking the egg, using the garnishes and then enjoying it. She was about the age of 3 and her eyes were as fascinated by me as I was fascinated by watching her enjoy her food. There are beggars and over persistent sales children in the streets. I met a kid, about the age of 7, wearing a pair of shorts and a blanket, walking towards me with an outstretched hand. I politely told him that I couldn't help him and he began poking me in the stomach, then more aggressive poking. I tried to walk past him only for him to get in my way. I was being bullied by a 7 year old kid. What was I to do? I crossed the busy street feeling a bit odd by the whole thing. Mandy keeps a bag of candy in her bag and while at the Killing Fields, just past the gate at the back of the grounds stood two little huts, there were two little kids walking with us on the other side of the fence. Mandy gave both kids some candies and they hysterically thanked us in Cambodian and started to run home, then turned and shouted “Thank you”. The moment was so sweet and lasted no more then a moment as two older kids came running and followed us the rest of the fence shouting for dollars. It has been an emotional roller coaster viewing poverty, seeing the hardships on their faces and seeing the joys of their smiles. The legless, armless and blind are all here to look into their eyes and realize they are just like me and you. Cambodia is making me feel and I haven't been here long. The country amazes me, I could just sit and watch life happen here for days. It also has been breaking my heart. The children begging for money, the young girls for sale, the people affected by land mines, limbless with no option but to beg. I think I may finally learn to appreciate everything I have ever had and appreciate the importance of wearing a smile.

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Comments

[dad n mom]

u r an awesome kid
glad u got the gun thing out of ur way seems like u enjoyed it,i hated to see u go these places but u seem to totaly enjoying it so we r proud of u . miss u lots counting the days til u get to scotland,england ect the normal places. it really does all look very interesting and exciting ur blog is very intriging i wait with baited breath for the next one love ya babe mom n dad this blog is really awesome i feel like im there