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We're in Phnom Penn looking for a hotel...zillions of tuk tuk and moto drivers follow us down the street...I would too after 3　ｍｏｎｅｙ　ｂｅａｒｉｎｇ foreigners with huge packs on..."Tuk tuk lady? Where you go? You want hotel? Boom Boom? Opium? Marijuana?" (They are multi taskers - drug dealers and pimps on the side...)

We finally find a lovely 3 bed hotel room for Molly, Josh and I and head out after a shower to meet Arie and Jen at the "Foreigners Correspondence Club". En route, we meet a dozen children selling flower wreaths and photo copies of books, women with naked infants in their laps and ｔｏｄｄｌｅｒｓ　sleeping beside them begging on the street, wafts of good and absolutely horrible smells, and more eager tuk tuk drivers...

"Hello lady, you want to buy a book?" He's adorable and has spiky hair and big dark eyes..."Where you from, what are you looking for? Where are you going?"　His English is so great I have to stop to take peek at his books...is name is 'Ghet' and he's 10 but is the size of a 7 year old and his conversational English is remarkable...he claims that yes, he attends school both English and Khmer　ｄｕｒｉｎｇ　ｔｈｅ　ｄａｙ, and sells for his mother in the evenings and sometimes at lunch...I ask to hold his basket, which hangs around his neck and is filled with books...I put it on and am surprised by its weight as I march up and down the street offering books to foreigners and tuk tuk drivers alike..."how much you wan'? I give you discoun' you wan' book? Hey pretty come look at book．．．" Ghet howls and blushes as he fixes my strap and gives me the best books to hold up and ｔｅａｃｈｅｓ　ｍｅ　his best lines...

We finally find our destination and I buy 2 books from Ghet...I was craving 'First they killed my father'　which is ａ　ｍｅｍｏｉｒ　ａｂｏｕｔ　ａ　ｇｉｒｌ　ｗｈｏ　ｓｕｒｖｉｖｅｓ　the Khmer Rouge Regime in Cambodia and which I"ve read before but wanted a second go, and the Cambodia Lonely Planet...$8 US for 2 －　I couldn't resist...he placed his hands together and bowed to me ｏｖｅｒ　ａｎｄ　ｏｖｅｒ．．．'Thank you 'eín', thank you, AW Koon, aw koon...''

The next day we spent investigating the history of the city...we awoke for a stroll in the market to more slabs of meat and foul smells and had a wonderful coffee (cafe au lait) and eggs and baguette...

We headed out in a tuk tuk to The Killing Fields and S-21...after reading the memoir of ｔｈｅ　girl who lost most of her family during the regime, and the emotional run in with Ghet, I was feeling the sadness of the country...Cambodia is the 2nd most corrupt country in the world, largely due to having been taken back to the stone age by the Khmer regime where all but 3 of the countries teachers were killed, and everyone else of any intellectual position in society were also killed off...

There was not much at the killing fields...literally fields with craters full of weeds and plants laced with scraps of old clothes, the occasional bone, and a stupa full of about 500 skulls which were dug up post-1979...it was here that around 2000 people were murdered...blind folded and forced to kneel at the edge of mass graves before being bludgeoned with hammers, gun barrels, and other blunt objects to save on bullets...

There was this stray dog hanging about when we entered and as we read each other information from the pamphlet and our guide books he listened in...as we toured the stupa and surrounding literature, he trodded along in front and beside us, and as we walked the path surrounding the graves he never left us, his tail wagging as he went...I walked over to a glass case full of bones and took a minute to reflect on the sadness of the past...the fields are so beautiful it is hard to imagine the horror that they experienced just a few decades ago...our dog curled up under the display to rest...I'm not sure if it was the stray dog or the obvious sadness of the place but I took a picture before sitting down beside him and breaking down...

I know, so lame, but so true...maybe Leann's prone to crying traits have rubbed off on me...thankfully they were the only tears of the day.

Our driver took us next to the prison of s-21, an equally depressing place which is where Khmers were tortured and caged, mutilated and bound before being murdered or taken to the killing fields to die...it was an awful place and I didn't really enjoy being there...the prison is in the center of town and is actually an old high school with classrooms turned into makeshift cells...there are rooms full of black and white mug shots of everyone who was admitted to the prison...the Khmers were efficient at documentation and organization...walking past the haunting photos was deafening...I tried to look at every single face and only saw 2 in tears...the children even looked brave and determined...

In the eerie halls looking at pictures of skulls, I heard my name and was surprised to see Phil, a Brit who I met on a sailing boat while touring the Whitsundays in Australia...we had been chatting and knew we were each in Asia but our initial itineraries didn't work out so we gave up...small world! We shared a lovely meal at a restaurant staffed by former street youth and I introduced him to the crew...

That night as we were on the riverside in Phomn Penn once again, I ran into Ghet for the second time...this time it was Phil who wanted to try on the book basket, and he did so well 'selling books' he got himself a seat at a table with 2 Aussie girls...I continued to chat with Ghet and met about 4 other street kids also selling books...I was asking them about school when I realized I had no plans the next day and should just check it out myself, so we made arrangements and Molly and I headed out the next day to English school with Ghet and Lynn...

At 7:30 am after a Cambodian breakfast of iced coffee with sweet milk and noodle soup, we met Ghet on his bike and hopped in a tuk tuk to ride to school in high class...students here pay to go to English school, and from month to month it alternates time slots between Khmer school...this month Ghet attends English school from 8-10:30...he goes home to do his homework and heads to Khmer school from 12-5...then he hits the streets again to sell books...some life!

We arrived to be huge tall ghastly creatures in a sea of navy blue trousers and skirts and white (ish) button up tops...we sat at the back of Ghet's class and listened in as they chanted to their teacher the alphabet, numbers, days of the week, and a few songs and poems before doing some copying work from the board...
the kids in Ghet's class are from age 3 - 11 and are moved up when they can complete a certain test...
We went to Lynn's class next and she was well happy that we were there...both these kids have amazing conversational English due to their time working with foreigners, so the information Lynn was learning was way too easy for her...Molly and I walked around and helped out the poor teacher...what a noisy room!

We left Ghet to hit the market as I moved hotels to a cheaper option and Molly headed down south...I spent that afternoon hoping to tour the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda - 2 of Phnom Penn's main sights...I stumbled into the bookstore of a monastery and met the most amazing little Cambodia dude who decided to take it upon himself to show me the ways...we chatted for an hour before he took me to the stupa behind the monastery and showed me how to properly light incense and pray to Buddha, and then we got on his moto and he was my personal tour guide all afternoon to the history of the Palace...he then took me back to my old hotel and moved me and my junk to a new one...what a sweetheart!!

I boarded the bus the next morning to Siam Riep where I have fallen even more in love with this country...

More to come!

Erin

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