The world has been filled with the chaotic sights, smells, sounds
and tastes (especially tastes!) of Cambodia. The initial rush of
landing in a dusty, colourful country has passed now and I can cross
the road confidently as a million motorbikes speed past…
...
and more than a handful of enormous Toyota LandCruisers. As if they
weren’t hugely inappropriate for Sydney’s busy streets with small
children around; here there’s 1000’s more yong tackers, all using the
streets as a playground, classroom and office. Yep, earning a buck as
soon as they can say ‘madam, you buy my water?’. Let’s hope that all
these LandCruiser’s at least get out of the cities and onto some of the
bumpiest roads in Asia once off the beaten track.
Surprisingly,
many of the roads are paved – at least in a stripe down the centre,
fighting constantly with the dusty edges that continually threaten to
eat the road back up and return it to the land. It’s nearing the end of
the dry season, ponds are dry and leaves crunchy and brown litter the
ground everywhere. Women covered up from the sun, heat and dust in
colourful headscarves, sweep the leaves into piles along the roadsides.
Heat wise, I find that my white skin (and I really mean
‘white’!) copes ok with the sunshine. There’s no hole over the Ozone
like I’m used to, so I’ve escaped any sunburn so far. The mornings and
afternoons are better suited to maintaining a ladylike complexion
though; what do they say about women perspiring and horses sweating…?
At midday, I must look much more equine than I’d like :-/
I’ll
save tales of Angkor Wat for another post. The convergence of Chinese
New Year and visting the largest religious structure in SE Asia is
taking a while to distill. Wowee, people galore!
Signing off for now… I feel a cocktail on the balcony of the Phnom Penh Foreign Correspondents CLub coming on. xox
