Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Phnom Penh takes a bit of getting used to. After four days there I think I finally did. There is so much money going into that city, from NGOs to private schools that the rich are just insanely, like Beverly Hills, rich. Then you go to the river front a little ways down and you see slum after slum after slum. Gated mansions sit next to metal shacks. It is something else.

There are a ton of people here, and a ton more foreigners. Cambodians speak better English than Thai people, so it is easier to get around and communicate. The streets are filled with people just scraping by who offer you tuk tuk and motorbike. Again, these people continue to be the highlight of my trip.

I didn't do much in Phnom Penh. It is crazy expensive if you don't know how to do it right. The currency is pretty much US dollars, and they over charge for everything. Unless you are eating street food, which is more difficult to find, then you are paying $4-5 a meal. Which, I guess, in retrospect, is still way cheaper than the US. But far more expensive than Thailand.

I went to S21, the former high school turned prison/torture chamber for the Khmer Rouge. It was intense. Blood still stained the concrete floors and bed posts were lined with chains and shackles. Torture machines were on display along with paintings depicting their use done by one of the seven surviving inmates. Seven. Seven people lived out of thousands. And not only did thousands die, but they were tortured, interrogated under the pretense of being set free, only to be tortured to death. This place is real.

Luckily though, today the Khmer Rouge's effect seems to have worn off. Everyone is so pleasant and kind and funny. If you get a chance to have a conversation with a Cambodian, please do. In fact, it is Cambodia that should be called the Land of Smiles, not Thailand.

On Friday I got my visa, at 3:30pm, and immediately booked my bus back to Bangkok for 9pm that night. I just needed to get home. Traveling alone is hard on the old soul.

I got on the bus, my seat was in the very back, so it did not recline, I had nowhere to put my 3 bags except in front of me, so I had no foot room, the woman in front of me had her chair fully tilted back the whole time, and the air con vent above my seat was broken so air was blasting onto me at full force for 10 hours straight. Luckily, another good thing about Cambodia, is they sell sleeping pills over the counter. So I took one of those and called it a night. At one point in my daze the cute couple next to me offered to share their blanket with me, as they were freezing and could tell I was also. If sharing a blanket with a random Cambodian couple isn't enough, there's more: The woman put her head in her husband's lap, and her feet in mine, and we all just had a little cuddle puddle. Of course every time the road turned to dirt (every 10 minutes or so), the bus would jump and so would the woman, who in turn would kick me in the stomach. At 6am we reached Poipet, the border of Thailand, and waited until 7am for the border to open. We waited in line for an hour to get stamped out of Cambodia, and then another hour to stamp into Thailand. While we waited we watched thousands of Cambodians cross the border to go to work. It was an amazing sight. If they had a cart they would push the cart through the border crossing, one by one, hundreds and hundreds of them. And then by foot, literally thousands more came. I bet they do the same thing in the opposite direction, every day. I didn't see any Thai people trying to get into Cambodia.

The minibus took four hours to get to Bangkok, where I got to my hostel, took a shower, and then went to the big grocery store to get Tobasco sauce and olive oil because you can't get that in Sangkla. Later I met up with Kori, a girl I went to high school with, who has been traveling around the world for the last 5 months. Crazy. The world really is a small place.