Lost in a big world

Phnom Penh has lots of things going for it. It has a beautiful riverfront setting. Great French Colonial Architecture. Wide boulevards. The residents are young and very good looking. The food is great.

But everything about the city makes me want to cry. The ghosts of years of war and of the Khmer Rouge are everywhere. The population is young, because the KR killed many of the adults (and 20% of the population). You see cripples everywhere, many of them are victims of land mines (the country is covered with them). There are beggars everywhere. There is an incredible amount of prostitution. I hear that parents sometimes "sacrifice" one of there daughters, and sell them into prostitution, often quite young, to support the rest of the family. There is widespread AIDS here. And corruption is terrible (you would not believe the number of Lexus SUV's owned by government officials).

For whatever reason, it does look like the country is being repopulated. I see girls who can't be much older than 17 holding babies all over the place, so it looks like everyone starts the families very young.

Anyway, my mom's good friend and former business partner (they founded a school for immigrants and refuges together) Anne and her husband Georges spend part of the year in PP running a center that teaches English, French and Khmer to poor children from one of the villages near PP. They arranged my lodging , but my instructions were sort of scrambled. I was given an address, and a name of a residence, but I was not sure if that was where they were staying (which was full) or the place nearbye where I was staying. In any case, I got a tuk tuk (cart driven by a motorbike) at the airport, and gave the address 8 75th street. but first I needed to stop at an ATM, well I soon discovered that all the ATMs wanted to pay me in US dollars, and not in Cambodian money. I wanted Cambodian money since I felt I would get lousey exchange rates on everything. but as it turns out, everything is actually denominated in US dollars (at least in the city), and were artificially expensive (prices were about 3 times those in Indonesia on everything other than housing). It was sort of upsetting to be that in a country with an annual per capita income of $571, where teachers and nurses and police officers make $30/month, that practically everything in town cost $2 or more.

Anyway, back to my adventure, having failed to get cambodian money I just decided to go to the guest house anyway (I had some US $ on me). But we could not find 8 75'th street. there was a 2,4,6 and 10. but no 8. A phone call later, we found Riga Guesthouse 3 blocks away (actually the address outside said 35, and it was on the odd side of the road, but there business cards said 8). Anne was there waiting and soon Georges came. Georges and I were soon taken around the corner to a chinese run hotel. It was pretty nice, for $13 a day I had a bathtub and about 80 channels on TV. After walking around town a little bit ( I was about 1.5 miles from the downtown area along the river) I had dinner with Anne and george and a friend of theirs. Their guesthouse and friends were all french speakers, but shifted to english on my behalf, and Anne translated some for me and this one women who did not speak much english. After dinner I walked downtown and explored the river. I first walked past a small hill with prostitutes walking around and massage parlors everywhere. I later past many massage parlors with descriptive names such as "Titi Massage-Romantic Massage". Well at least you know what you are getting in PP. I walked past the famous foreign correspondents center (restaurant and guesthouse) which was featured in the killing fields movie and along the river for a while past the palace and temple and museum. Finally I walked back on backstreets and saw a hotel lobby filled with ladies of the night and other colorful scenes.


My next day I took a motor bike downtown for $1, went to the national museum (very small), had lunch at friends (ex[pensive but good, they give jobs to former street kids) and finally took a tuk tuk to Tuol sleng , the former school used by the KR to torture and interrogate people before usually sending them to the killing fields to be executed. Its now a genocide museum. I spent 4 hours there since I wanted to see a video that wasn't starting until 3 and I had arrived at 12:30. Afterwards, in a daze, I let a motorbike driver convince me to go to the kiling fields. I really wanted to spend 3 hours there, and get a guide, but instead I arrived 45 minutes before closing. Well, it was intensive enough seeing a wat (buddhist temple) filled with skulls and the pits that were mass graves.

Finally I went back downtown, had a happy pizza at happy herb pizza, and these girls kept aggressively selling books, so I ended up buying 3 books (good quality for $14 for all 3) on Cambodia. This was followed by a massage, where I was taken into a large room, with cushions on the floor for 20 perople, and I was all alone. It was pretty weird getting undressed for a massage in such a large room. And the happy herb still wasn't doing anything. Finally, I went back to Riga, joined Anne and George at Riga, and hung out. And finally, 2.5 hours after dinner, I was happy. Soon after I went to sleep.

My last day in PP was pretty chill. In the morning I visited Anne and Georges center and got to meet the kids in the morning shift and there staff. It was a nice facility and they seem to be doing a great job. I thought the kids were well behaved and attentive. It was interesting that the youngest (who look 2 years younger than they really are) were being taught basics-like how to even hold a pen and make letters. Georges took me over to see the village around the corner. It was built along train tracks, and the temporary stoles would quickly come down and peopled moved when the train came. Basements of homes were still partially underwater. Its very sad. The lake overflows in rainy season so half the country becomes under water. The really need better flood control, it would greatly help peoples lives (I hear a Japanese group is working on this).

After visiting the center, I mostly wondered around and had a chill afternoon. And went back to Riga for dinner.