beached whale on the mekong

Bubblessss!

Sunday Funday was not destined to happen, though we were able to get a little taste of Phnom Penh's nightlife. We weren't even sure where to go in the first place--Lonely Planet listed like 15 places--so Francis asked the front desk staff at the hotel. Their response? "We can take you there on the motorbike, we can have fun, and then take you back." Yeah, we'll skip.

Eventually we settled on the Riverfront Something-or-Another, which was chill, but nothing really happening. So then we ended up checking out Heart of Darkness (ha ha ha...I hated that book), which I kinda had reservations about going to in the first place because Lonely Planet was telling us it was a hangout for the rich and spoiled Cambodian elite. It wasn't so bad when we checked it out, but we talked to Professor Path about it in the morning and he basically told us it was part coke den part brothel so ummm...awesome!

Sad thing I noticed about this place is the sex tourism that's clearly going on. Tooooooo many washed-up middle-aged men walking around with Cambodian chicks young enough to be their daughters. There's just not as much opportunity as there is in the US here; the women are doing this because they don't have too many other options to make good money.

Moo

Besides that...I guess it was probably better that nothing much was going on last night, simply because yesterday was a longgg day. Got up at 7:30, breakfast, then hour boat ride to a silk village outside of Phnom Penh. During then I was able to get about ten shades darker sitting up on top of the boat--it was fantastic. Equally fantastic was being able to get a taste of the more rural side of Cambodia. I think I read that 85% of Cambodians (or some other large percentage) still lives in the countryside anyway. Bought some beautiful silk scarves as gifts, and for myself of course :p After that we just explored the village. It was blisteringly hot. And I think I'm just genetically predisposed to sweat like a monster--I mean, I was sitting in the shade and was still literally dripping sweat. No one else was sweating nearly as much as I was. Nasty nasty nasty.

An hour boat ride later and we were at Danny Vong's resort-in-the-making. We were greeted with a super memorable lunch. We were on a floating platform along the Mekong, eating in the traditional Cambodian style with our hands and all. Delicious. And I know that eating with your hands generally means it will be messier than usual, but I think I was just an absolute mess at lunch. I hope no one cared. So that's two for me: profuse sweater and extremely messy eater...great.

Everything is good about this

After stuffing my face, it was time to take a dip in the Mekong. At this point I am seriously like a beached whale. Just fat. I don't normally sit there and complain about how fat I am, but really...beached whale. I wasn't even eating well in the couple of days leading up to this trip (dim sum, 2 huge tamales, big plate of BBQ were some of the things I had before leaving...), and this is all just rubbing it in. Other than that, it felt so surreal swimming about in the Mekong--it's also my first time swimming in freshwater. Of all places to have that first. We were worried about strange tropical parasites and whatnot festering in the waters, but so far I'm okay. I'm gonna say we had a good dip in the river yesterday.

On the boat ride back I just totally had one of those zen moments, though. At this point the sun was fading so it wasn't nearly as hot, plus the wind picked up so the heat was bearable. I decided to dry off by sitting up top, alone, and it was just...nice. At one point this fishing boat drove by and it was filled with kids, and they were all smiling and waving and yelling "Hello!" at our boat. Cutest thing! I could go for more moments like that. Afterwards, I talked to one of the guys who works at the DC-Cam. He told me they're working on an encyclopedia of sorts documenting the 2 million plus people that were killed in in the genocide, including a brief story on them. Can you imagine having to compile that much information? It's just mind-boggling. Respect.

Every kid here is sooo cute and soo funny...I'm in love

For dinner we went to a neat-o restaurant called Friends. Cheesy title but it's a restaurant for a great cause--they basically take kids off the street and educate and employ them to work in the restaurant to keep them out of trouble. What was nice was that the water, ice, and vegetables were safe to eat--they made that clear in the menu. Things like that sound great when you're in a country where cleanliness is not the top priority. Oh, and once again--beached whale. I was still full from lunch, but how could I resist more good food for dinner?

Random aside, but somehow I've been able to stay very awake and energetic throughout this whole trip. I'm not really sure how I'm managing it, but I hope it lasts.