Guns, Girls and Ganja

HOME	VIEW THUMBNAILS	DAY2

"...oh, and one more thing, stay on the streets that

are well lit only!"

DAY 1. ( A very long day )

I boarded a large bus in Saigon for $10.00 that would take me to Phnom Penh. I was looking at a ten hour bus ride. There were plenty of Europeans on the bus along with two other Americans. These were probably the first Americans I've talked with since I took off from Taipei heading to Hanoi. Little did I know at the time that I would meet up with them again in another country a little later. Once at the border of Cambodia and Vietnam, we were made to stand in several lines and walk for several hundred yards. This is where the backpack came in handy. I made sure it was well placed on my back before I embarked on each segment of my border crossing. I say segments because we were made to walk then stop then walk some more. The sun beat down on me. I took several swigs of water, made a few adjustments to my hat and kept pushing onward. I filled out my paperwork and after about 40 minutes from our unloading I was officially in Cambodia. It was an eerie feeling if you know what I mean. Try watching that movie "The Killing Fields" and then place yourself in my shoes. Before we boarded the next bus we were given some time to eat some lunch. I had a beer since I had already eaten some rice and noodles after getting off the first bus. I don't remember how much this beer cost. I will guess at around 0.75 cents.

We stepped onto a much smaller bus than we arrived on. This one was half the size. But then we lost half the passengers once we arrived at the border. As we proceeded into the interior of Cambodia the stark contrast between this country and that of the one I just departed became very apparent. The first feature of how different this country is from Vietnam is the lack of paved roads. We bounced all the way to Phnom Penh. One of the American guys I met was filming himself with his camcorder and laughing. Like everyone else, I had my eyes glued to the window. The scene was repetitious but very amazing none the less. Many of the houses rose above the ground on stilts and seemed to be in a less than rigid state. There was a small body of water in front of everyone's home. I took this to be some sort of rice paddy or drinking water supply. Often you would see water buffalos, ducks, naked children or all of the above splashing around in them. Everyone looked at the bus as it stumbled by. Sometimes they waved and sometimes they just gazed at us as if they never had seen a bus before.

We came upon the Mekong River at Neak Luong and just barely missed the ferry. This gave us 30 minutes of exploring around to do. I teamed up with Dave and Jeff (the Americans) and Dee and Dawn (the English girls) and we explored the river town. The flies were thick. I remember seeing some kind of insect larvae, raw beef and other meats and foods sitting in the sun while being swarmed by flies. We walked down an alley way and found some kids skipping rope. Dawn jumped into the middle of the swinging rope and hopped a few times before getting her foot tangled. The little girls giggled. People followed us around and tried to get us to buy sodas and fruits. Half naked children ran around playing games. Some of the kids had scratches and scrapes from falling. They just kept running around and bumping into one another. The girls from England were very pleased with this place. They remarked that after being in Indonesia, this place is a dream. Wow, that just makes me want to jump on the next flight to Indonesia. Not really.

We boarded the bus and drove up onto the ferry. I remember a truck load of pigs next to the bus while on the ferry. There were two levels and the pigs were really smashed in there. I think they were packed so tight that they would argue and bicker amongst eachother. At one point, one of the passengers of the truck climbed over to one of the pigs, kicked the living hell out of him, and then cut the tips of his ears off. DAMN! I wanted to get out and throw that bastard off the ferry. It turns out that I wasn't the only one. Jeff, Dee and Dawn all witnessed the same horrific act and felt the same way. But we all knew that this was their culture and throwing one guy off a boat was not going to curve the brutality of the other 100,000 pig farmers in this country.

We rolled into Phnom Penh well after the sun had gone down over the tree tops. A man stood up in front and spoke to us all in broken English. He had a few crooked teeth and loved to show them when he laughed. He recommended a few guest houses and told us we would be safe in the city as long as we stayed on the well lit roads. I checked into a guest house that he said was somewhat new. I paid $4.00. I took a cold shower and met the Americans and the English girls downstairs for dinner. Before dinner, we all booked our trips to Siem Riep leaving the following morning. As far as I knew, there wasn't much to do here in Phnom Penh except for a shooting range which cost about a buck per round of ammunition. I'd already had my fill in the Army and so thought it best to push on. After dinner we hit the internet cafe and Jeff, Dave and I went in search of a bar. We passed a few cyclo drivers who had set up camp with their cyclos. Most of them just slept in the seat and threw a blanket over their bodies. A few cars and motorbikes drove down the quiet streets. Dave was searching for the "Heart of Darkness". Instead of finding it we found several other dives and a bunch of drunk Vietnamese walking around. Eventually we stumbled upon it. It was small but cozy. There was a pool table in the back and after grabbing a few pints we made it known that we wanted to play. Dave was up first and then Jeff. Jeff ran the table for a good four games. A small cambodian gal came in with her large boyfriend. She had a few tatoos in some obvious places and somehow kept a ciggarette, which hung off her lower lip, from falling onto the table. They played slop here and when it was her turn to break, she grabbed the cue stick from the tapered end and swung it like a baseball bat into the ball. What was even more shocking is that is was a decent break and she made a few balls in. After Jeff was done we headed home. We over paid a few motorbike riders to take us back to our little rooms.