Before continuing my narrative of the day's events, I'd like to say two exciting things about PP, and two depressing things (a good representation of my impression of the city as a whole):
The Exciting Things (or things Joe Ricci would be proud of)
1. I ate a cricket
2. I shot an M-16
The Depressing Things - infact, two of the most depressing signs I have ever seen:
1. At the Killing Fields, a sign that read "Please do not walk on mass graves"
2. At the prison S-21, a sign that read "What happened to the world's promise of "never again?"
More on these four things later, but for now back to the narrative:
After we settled into the Billabong (lovely hotel), we hooked back up with Mr. Ya for a ride around the city. During the few daylight hours we had left, he drove us around to look at many of the city's pagotas. We drove past the Imperial Palace, but it was already closed for the day.
As dusk decended upon us, Mr Ya drove us to what seemed like the outskirts of the city to stop off at one of the many tuk-tuk food stands. Here, I tried a cricket (salty, garlicy - but totally gross looking). Jared took a pictures of me eating the disgusting looking creature, and then we pushed on to a new section of the city called "Diamond City."
Diamond City was obviously created for tourist: high end resorts and world class gambling...Also, Mr Ya told us the story of a horrible bridge collapse - the bridge that lead from PP to Diamond City. 200 people died during the collapse (if I understood him correctly), and one of those who died was Mr. Ya's niece. (Maybe Jared will correct me if I'm not getting this right).
Across from Diamond City's largest gambling hall, NagaWorld, was Dream World Amusement Park. We asked our driver to drop us off there and we bought the all-you-can ride for $8 arm bands and went to it. I didn't know Jared loved rides (and so do I) so it was great!
4. Dream WOrld amusement park (I'm not going on a ride that goes upside down in a 3rd world country)
4. Nagaland (Vegas)
5. Dinner - super cheap Khmer food.
6. Mr. Ya's tragic past
