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Published: August 2nd 2006
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now that is service
relaxing in the restaurant We decided to go visit the Central Market in Phno Penh the other day. It is always an experience to walk through an asian market. You never know what the hell you are going to find. There was nothing interesting to buy, but definitely some cool stuff to look at, and as always, something weird to eat. We found snails bigger than a human hand, as well as sharks and stingrays all for sale. Whenever in asian market it is imperative to find some crazy food and eat it, so we of course did not fail. We ate something, what it was I don't know, but at least it was good. That was our adventure for the last day in Phnom Penh.
We have been staying for the last four days in Sihanoukville. For those of you who do not know the geography of Cambodia, i.e. everbody reading this, it is a penninsular on the coast. We stayed the first few days on Victory Beach. We stayed in some crappy bungalow and there was not really much going on there. The only reason we stayed there so long is because it did not stop raining and we did not feel
Breaks your heart
seeing things like this can be really heartwrenching like moving to another beach in the rain. We have since moved down to Serendipity Beach. The accomodation here is much nicer and does not cost anymore. We are actually staying in a real room with screens over the window. It is always nice not sleeping under a mosquito net. It is funny how your standards change the longer you are here. When we first arrived in S.E. Asia we always wanted a place with hot water and a/c. Now when I find out a room has two fans I think it is like a castle. A cold shower and a fan and I am good to go.
Serendipity Beach is a bit nicer than Victory Beach, but it is also pretty nasty. I now know why people don't come to the beaches of Cambodia. It is like swimming in a lake. There is also not much going on down here. We have guesthouses and bars and that is about it. At night there are only two places open. My original plan was to spend my last two weeks in S.E. Asia on the beaches of Cambodia, but after spending a few days here I am no longer happy
damn thats big
mmm that snail looks tasty with that plan. We also expected it to be cheap here and Cambodia is not that much cheaper than Thailand. So the new plan is to head back to Phnom Penh tomorrow, catch a flight to KL in Malaysia the day after and then head back into Thailand by bus. I am going to spend my last week and a half in either Phuket or Koh Phangan. Warner and I will be splitting up tomorrow in Phnom Penh. He will be heading back to Bangkok. It will be a nice change to travel alone for a little bit at the end of my trip. I will get a glimpse of what it would be like to make a trip like this alone.
I have to make a side comment about the Cambodian people here. I must say that I find them to be amazing people. Without even getting into all the crazy stuff that happened here 30 years ago, it is just amazing to see how nice and generous they are. They are also willing to work so hard. We walked to downtown Sihanoukville the other day and happened to stumble across the local redlight district, the one for
locals, not foreigners. We decided to keep walking past that into some little alley with houses. We are probably some of the only foreigners who ever really wandered into that neighborhood. We were walking through dirty little pathways, with garbage everywhere. It has been raining a lot so there is water running through all this garbage and we are walking in it. As we are walking through one of the scummiest places I have ever been we are looking at how some of the Cambodians live. They are living in these tiny hovels with all this garbage all around. Most of these places do not have electric and probably no running water. As poor as these people are, we were offered food from people in three different hovels. These incredible poor people were inviting us into their house's and they were willing to share what little bit they had with us. You do not see generousity like this in the states and it is just a thing that makes you very much respect the Cambodians.
Another thing that makes me respect this culture is the things they are willing to live with and yet can still be happy. For
example, I was talking to a cambodian girl that works at a restaurant near where we are staying. She is 21 years old and lives in the restaurant where she works. She sleeps in the kitchen every night. She gets up at 6:00 to clean the restaurant, takes a shower and then opens the restaurant by 8:00. She works every day from 8:00am to 10:00pm. She usually goes to school to learn english five days a week from 6:30pm to 7:30pm. Amazingly enough, when you talk to here she is a happy girl. We ate dinner at her restaurant tonight and we did not really think about the time. When we were eating our food I looked at my watch and noticed that it was 7:00pm. I asked her why she was not in school and her reply was "I was cooking your food so I could not go to school" We were shocked. We felt so bad. We did not really think about the time and if we had, we would have probably figured that she would go to school and somebody else would cook. Appearantly she cooks all the food at the restaurant, so if there are customers
ordering food she does not go to school. When we found this out we really felt bad. We would have gladly waited until after 7:30 to go to the restaurant and order food. The only reason she did not go to school that night is because the three of us were sitting there eating. Things like that truly make you appreciate where you come from and the luck we really have that we were born where we were.
Well its time to hit the road again so you will all get some new pics of Thailand. I am determined to bring home so pictures from Thailand. My new CD will not get broken. The end is near and so onward we must go.
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MOM
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LUCKY US!
Remember I said how lucky we were to have been born in America? Well, now you know what I was talking about. It is good to have these types of experiences because these experiences make you the man you are and the man you will become. You will appreciate the small , little things in life while still trying to become the best you can be. I am very proud of you. Be safe, and we can't wait to see you. Love Mom I am at a computer in Palm coast. Jon told me you finally wrote so we all ran here. Give Warner a big hug for me.