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Published: March 7th 2011
I'm here! The capital of this great nation!
I met a guy called Yuki on the bus - a seasoned traveller, out doing it for 2 years. He knows his stuff, getting humungous discouts on tuk-tuks and how do deal with everyone - he had some real insights. I've only walked around this city for a night but I can tell it's a place you really need to get to know - the Khmer friendliness and spirit are as present as ever, even if every "you want tuk-tuk?" is then followed by "you want boom-boom?" If I ever come back, I'm going to need to spend a while here!
Went for some street food (my favourite kind - cheap and good) and several beers. I was going to blog about the rest of Sihanoukville but my already sour mood would have only gotten worse - so I'll skip it - needless to say it was full of abuse, corruption and mind-fucking (as well as underage indiscriminant body).
I'm definitely learning the way to bargain here - with humour. The hard-sale way of Brit/US doesn't cut the mustard out in these parts. Speaking of brits, they are rife out here - they seem to be everywhere. But I always meet them as two girls - 1 chilled out, cool, going with the flow, relaxing - the other a complete stress-head. The pattern continued with the nations of Australia, America and Canada toboot (or aboot?).
Yuki was born in Kuwait but happened to be on holiday when the shit hit the fan - his father was a refugee for a while but then fortunately they eventually made it to Amsterdam where they've remained ever since. Smoke and a pancake?
Tomorrow I'm going to see the horrors of the legacy of Poll Pot and the Khmer Rouge, then on to Saigon, where I finally meet up with Lizzie Assman of the BBC Proms.
There were 2 recent apointments to the BBC Proms both called Lizzie.
Their surnames were respectively Assman and Coxhead.
Bad portents??
over and out
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Ed O'Meara
non-member comment
Good wok
That's it Phil. Hang out with the seasoned people. As long as they aren't too sanctimonious, they're great at showing you how to get the most out of your time/ money.