Thursday, November 29, 2007

Take a breath and...Walk!

That's something Kaija and I say a lot. Its how you cross the road here. I'm in Phnom Penh in Cambodia by the way. It's mad here. Absolutely no road rules but it works so well. We haven't seen any traffic accidents. People just drive through intersections and nobody hits each other. Its scary at first but now that I've watched it for a day I don't mind it at all. Crossing the road took ages for the first couple of times but now we see that you just keep on walking. Everyone moves for you and its no problem.

The money gap is massive here and so obvious. There's people begging everywhere and motorbikes and all that and then suddenly a brand new toyota hilux ute will drive past you or maybe a lexus, shiny and black. There's no in between.

There's dogs everywhere. I think its great because for me animals are a really reassuring thing. When I'm having a bad time there's nothing that'll make me feel better then playing with a dog or cat. And the animals here just don't care about humans eh. They sleep on the road or at the top of the stairs in the train station and won't even flinch when people walk past them. There's loads of puppies around. Its terrible at the same time though. These animals are homeless and hungry and we can't touch them cos of the fleas and sickness that they have. Its great but its so sad. Sometimes I just can't look eh.

Moving along. Today we went to the Russian Market which was awesome. Then Tol Sleun Museum or S.21. It was a school but the Khmer Rouge turned it into a prison. I think 14,000 prisoners went in and only 7 came out alive. They killed whole families because of the theory of "getting rid of the roots to get rid of the grass". It was hard to walk around but beautiful at the same time. After that we went to the Independence monument which wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped for. Next we tried to get go to the Royal Palace but couldn't get in cos one of us was wearing a tshirt. We also went to another market today but that wasn't as good as the Russian.

Tomorrow we are going up to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. Should be fun eh.

There's so much to write but I forget by the time we finally find a Internet Cafe!

Oh we feel like celebrities here eh. Everywhere we go there's people asking us if we want rides on tuktuks or motos. It's hard out. They're really nice about it but by the end of today we are very tired of it. And when you walk anywhere near a stall they ask if you want to buy what they're selling. Or there's kids walking around selling water, glasses or books.

Better go. Tired now!

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