Brett’s Travelblog of Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and The USA

OOOOOUCH

7 off us managed to drink 5 bottles of Cambodian Vodka while playing cards then headed out to same Cambodian Night club last night…..

Not too bad if you can lay in but had to be up at 6am to pack to catch bus at 7am to Phnom Penh ( Cambodias capital ) the four of us Cathy, Steph , Mat and myself then managed just about to make the bus.

Six hours later we arrived in the capital, didnt look too bad at first sight( daytime) this is not the place to venture out at night!!!!!

We checked into a nice guest house called NUMBER 9, its right on the Boeung Kak lake, free pool, nice 2 tv’s, dvd collection for free. Not bad at all for 1 pound a night!!!!!! We just settled in and kicked back for the rest of the day eating, coupe of beers, watched two films, meet the fockers (again) and a film about street life in Brasil, subtitles but a very powerful film called City of God ( worth Watching)

The one thing that hits you, even at the border is abject poverty everywhere, it takes some getting used to. If you give to one they come back for more or send friends/family. You have kids like 4 years old walking around naked or in rags with a 6 month baby strapped to them begging for money. After spending a few days in Siem Reap this was horrific, Compared to Thailand its truely aweful here in that respect. My first day in Cambodia I could have turned around and headed back to Thailand. You have kids and adults coming up to you with arms and legs missing due to land mines. Cambodia is the most heavily landmined country in the world apparantly with 3 people at least everday gettin blown up along with tons of animals.

Its certainly an eye opener….. it still feels safe though ( no Im not getting complascent(spl?)) Will have to see about Phnom Penh. So far not given in to the beggers but when you have a kid holding a baby, or a mother holding a 4 month baby that looks likes its starving what do you do, alot do just ask for food not money.

Im heavily picked on by the beggers too….. Cathy who Im traveling with was born in America and lives in California but her parents are from Vietnam, Mat born in London who now lives with his girlfriend in Sweden parents are from the Philapines, Stephs mom was from south Korea and Father from Germany. So the kids go for me ever time as they cant tell where they are from, 6foot big white guy stands out like a sore thumb!!!!! All fun and games though.

Im glad Im here now and getting used to it but talk about making you feel humble!!!!

Just wish you I could help them all but we are talking hundreds of kids in most streets, if your wallet comes out you would start a riot and have kids following you for hours. They all use the same patter which is funny. All though very poor they are quite well educated, 4/5 year old kids talking a second language English, they ask were your from then tell you your capital city and president or priminister. So least they make an effort to help themselves.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 3rd, 2005 at 8:16 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.