Im here, lakeside in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. Been awake for 28 hours and counting... big thanks to Emil Olsen for sending me off with my tail between my legs after deftly beating me at pool and loading my hard disc with lots of documentaries to watch when Ive exhausted juggling, sight seeing, chasing women Benny Hill style and spending huge amounts of time writing shit like this. During the flight I was treated to some beautiful views of mountain tops peaking through fluffy nimbus clouds, a strange counter-point to the stench coming from the guy sat next to me: poor lad had a nasty tooth infection, so bad you could smell it. We tried to have a conversation but the only word he could say was Cambodia. I guess he was heading to the place that could at least give him a fighting chance in life. So, my first impression of Cambodia is that its got some kind of energy to it Ive not felt anywhere else before. Somehow different to India but with that same kind of deep level psychic massage you get when youre immersed in it... its also colourful like Goa but somehow more uniform and less random. The people Ive encountered so far have all been exceptionally friendly and smiley, even the rather amused looking patrons of the restaurant I briefly slapped out my PC in to check where the guesthouses were: I felt like such a sad tech-obsessed westerner, but it was that or get ripped off by the tuk tuk driver who assured me I wouldnt find a room for a cent less than $10 a night (Ive found a nice single room for $5, cheeky sod). We were almost waylaid on the way to lakeside however: dozens of fully armored riot police with shields were stood lounging around en mass at the entrance to the route we were to take. I had to encourage the driver to go through with phrases like come on mate theyre only coppers, BE A MAN!, Quickly man, dont you know Im an English Gentleman and I wont be late for tea!? and I wont pay you unless you get me through that blockade post haste!. Surprisingly they let us through without a problem and I completely failed to take a sneaky shot of them with my phone. Probably wise, if theyre anything like Indian rozzers. On arrival at my guesthouse I asked what the police presence was about: the guesthouse owner, going by the distinctly authentic khymer name of Brian, assured me there were no problems, it was simply that the government here were also celebrating World Womens Day and that many of the local men thought it was a jolly bad idea and were preparing a full scale riot. As you do. Strange country... Id like to sleep but I consumed so much coffee last night that I feel like my head might actually spin around like the kid out of the exorcist. Ok bored of typing now. Ben out x
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 04:01:01 +0000
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