Hello Phnom Penh

Well I'm in Phnom Penh now.. the capital of Cambodia.  I did get on a bus headed for Komphong Cham, in fact we stopped there, and I opted to pay an extra $2 US to take me to the capital instead... I'm not sure why I changed plains... but I just didn't feel like staying there - call it a vibe? But I just wasn't keen, so I headed for the capital.

The bus trip took about 9 to 10 hours including stops, I sorta phased out near the end, and dropped me in the middle of town (or should I say city, apparently the population here is about 1 million?) - and after that I grabbed a tuk tuk to the Boeng Kak Lakeside district, AKA backpacker hell (and of course I've already been offered fiky-fik/boom-boom/brown (heroin?),marijuana, opimun and coke. 

At any rate I had a squiz at the "green lake guesthouse" - seemed ok - so I've grabbed a $3/night room there, hopefully It's not too hot (Cambodia is definitely hotter then Laos, but the rain seems to be counteracting that somewhat.. go the rainy season!)

The "hilight" of the bus trip would have to be the trip from Strung Treng to Kratie, which is on roads which I imagine were adequate back in the day (they appear to have been sealed once) - but now they've decayed to an endless string of pot holes which the bus I was riding navigated at what I estimate to be about 30 km/hr - fun fun fun, The major problem here is that Cambodia is very very flat... and the roads appear to be uncrowned and the same height as the very very flat plain... ipso factso it's a disaster.. however I think my years of dealing with Northland metal roads on my parents "ticki tours" in New Zealand as a kid had prepared me well ;o)

The things that strike me in Cambodia as different to everywhere else I've been (so far) is.. horses.. they seem to be quite common in Cambodia, and used for all sorts of meanial labour that would fall upon the water buffalo or "japanese buffalo" (tractor/hoe contraption) back in Laos.  The horses however are very small, and seem to look kinda like their going to drop dead from Exhaustion..

After I sat down and watched the sun set I chilled out a little from my trip.. talked to a Cambodian student named "paul" (or something that sounds like paul) for an hour or two then meandered off to find food, eventually settling on the "Lazy Gecko" which is just up the road - they charge loads ($4 US!) - but did serve me pork chops, nice gravey and mashed potatoes with a tastey mixed fruit shake... I would never have thought I could actually miss mashed potatoes, but I did!

While talking to "Paul" we discussed various things such as the apparent corruption in government ..."Mr Private" kept cropping up, apparently he's done wonderful things for the country such as selling the tourism rights to Angkor Wat to the vietnamese, deforestation of Phnom Penh (which they now blame for the droughts here) and Taking bribes from Thailand to not enlarge the airport allowing for international air traffic - wether the lad was exagerating, who knows.. but he seemed pretty upset)

Poverty is definitely more "in your face" here - the contrast of wealth and poverty is massive.. people drive $100K plus cars past you in the street while just steps from this internet cafe people are crammed into a single room like sardines, grandparents, parents and children. 

From what I've read (and talking to Paul) - the ratio's run something like 5 million employed, 3 million self employed and 4 million unemployed in Cambodia - with the self employed all on or below the poverty line.. They had a riot earlier this year and with over half the population under the age of 16 I wouldn't be surprised if more occur in the future as the majority of the population get to the age of voting (or realising there vote doesn't count for much in a reasonably corrupt system).

While we're talking numbers, apparently the infant mortality rate here is around 9% at birth...  Joy!

Oh and I'm going to the killing fields tomorrow... so I'll appologise in advance for any emotive trite I end up posting around that trip, as who can say what effects seeing 8 or 9 thousand humans skulls will have on me... probably apathy, but I'd like to think I may be touched on a more then statistical level.

My mouse appears to be full of fluid and contains a small rubber duck..?