Advertisement
Published: April 28th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Livin'
Cruising round in the back of the Tuk Tuk So after careful deliberation, 9 months or so, I've decided to let the rest of this internet world in on what Joe and I experienced. It has indeed been a long time since the actual trip but, well I'm a procrastinator so here we are.
The story begins back in late July of 2008. Joe and I had just arrived on a late flight into Phnom Penh with no confirmation that our airport pick up was going to be exactly that, a pick up. I like to welcome certain little misfortunes on trips so I think both of us were ready for what ever greeted us at the end of the Jetway. Let me just say that Phnom Penh airport looks like the kind of place that hasn't been touched in the last thirty years. The interior is awash with colors of Yellow, Orange, Brown and something I'd call burnt Red. Having not lived in the 70's, I'd like to think that most walls and linoleum floors shared this wonderful color combination. After gathering our bags and paying the various fee's to get into the Kingdom of Cambodia, we headed out to see if we had a ride to a
our hotel. Sure enough our ride was waiting for us with a nice little sign where I recognized my name. I have to say, that I was loving all the different sights that this place was already showing me. I remember immediately wishing that I had all those polyester shirts with the giant lapels that I used to wear in high school. I've found a place for them and that place is Cambodia.
We checked into our hotel on one of the main roads in Phnom Penh, $9 a night can get you a pretty sweet room in Cambodia, and headed back down to the lobby to meet our Tuk Tuk driver who was gonna show us good ol' American boys just what to do in Cambodia after just entering the country roughly 45 minutes ago. Tuk Tuks are the way to get around in Cambodia, or as I've come to believe, anywhere in the nature world. We hopped in the back of ours and off we went. I don't think either Joe or I new what to expect on our first night here. Our only experience in Asia thus far was South Korea and I can attest that Korea and Cambodia are light years away on many fronts. About the only things in common between the two countries are that they are in Asia and that both can induce an unnatural amount of back sweat from certain fair haired boys from the Pacific Northwest. We headed off down a dark alley where garbage can fires provided most of the lighting until we cam to destination.
The Voodoo Lounge is an interesting place. On there outside there is a sitting area where the furniture of choice is wicker, very nice, and a few palm trees out front. We decided to sit in the comfy wicker chairs and have us a can of Angkor Beer and just kind of reflect on where we were. Our waitress took our order then slipped into the bar to return with two cold Angkors and another girl. "Why does it take two girls to bring out two beers?" I remember thinking. Well the two girls waited by our side for what seemed like an uncomfortable amount of time without saying anything. We made the first move with a drawn out "Uhhh Hhhiiiiiii." They made little talk here and there but overall the experience just felt very weird and I don't think either of us put our finger on why until about a few minutes later. The girls eventually retreated into the bar and Joe and I were left to savor our delicious beer. In case your curious I think the beers were $.75 each and they have pull tab tops they way beer used to have back in the 70's. I don't know what it is about these tabs but they just make the beer more enjoyable. Pabst and Rainer if your listening, please go back. Anyway, we started paying attention to just who else seemed to be hanging out near the Voodoo Lounge. Middle aged overweight men with dirty looks and dirtier tattoos. I think Joe and I looked at each other at the same time and commented on the seedy appearance of our fellow bar patrons. "Are we at a...." "Maybe we should go into the bar and see whats going on." "Sounds good, I could use another beer anyway." So off we went into the unknown. Upon entering the bar we came upon about 12-15 women, I'm not sure of what age because it is very hard to determine the age of Cambodian women cause many of them look very young. We noticed that the only guys in the bar other than us were two guys shooting pool in the back room. We also noticed that the women in this bar were dressed very seductively. Off to the bar we went and sat down next to two ice cold Angkors and were immediately approached by one of the women from earlier. She proceeded to sit next to Joe and stare at the side of his head as if she was gonna watch a Delorian do some serious shit. As I tried to make my self invisible and drink my beer without attracting similar attention I was approached by one of the ladies in a red dress who draped her hand on my chest as she stood next to me. "Yea, I think we're in a whorehouse." I thought to myself. The rest of our time at the Voodoo Lounge was spent in awkward silence except when the girls asked, "What are you guys looking for?" "Beer" we responded in a flash. After downing our drinks we left the the bar like a couple of school boys that had just spied on a slumber party. Once outside it was all giggles, see what I mean about the school boy thing. We decided that this would be a good end to our night. We got ourselves another Tuk Tuk and headed back to our hotel. As we headed down the same dark alley we came down our driver turned to us with a question "Eeehhhh, you get Boom Boom?"
Advertisement
Tot: 0.103s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 5; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0484s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Joe
non-member comment
Great line
"About the only things in common between the two countries are that they are in Asia and that both can induce an unnatural amount of back sweat from certain fair haired boys from the Pacific Northwest."