Phnom Penh

Ýes, you have to peel the meat out of this big ones or the shells get stuck in your throat on the way down. I haven't yet...but'I'm told they are like salty crisps. Its the ones that are still alive that i will stay away from.

Our tuk-tuk did run out of gas and we had to push it to the nearest petrol stand so the driver could buy a liter. (notice the Johnny Walker bottles they sell petrol in)

Part of the wall-o-weapons

The shooting range... I think it speaks for itself.

You just go back the way you came when you come across this.

A former high school classroom turned into one of the cells at S-21

Another....they have pretty much left them untouched.

The food stalls deep within the bowels of the Russian market. Sadly I didn't see any Russians when I was eating my noodles with "pork"...which was most certainly mystery meat!

Phnom Penh from our hotel window. Anyone care for a lung-full of smog to go with your morning cuppa-joe?

The central flower market

A motley crew of package delivery boys.

A pretty typical street in PP. It used to be pavement, but they road repairs have left the city looking like this.

This blog will be a continuation of Siem Reap and the inclusion of Phnom Penh, so stick with me as I ramble around.
Angkor Archaeological park was an incredible learning experience on my first day in Siem Reap, but seeing as there is a vibrant and lush countryside extending out hundreds of miles in every direction, temples are only one thing to see. Many developed countries have national parks and wilderness preserves. Cambodia is a little behind on this development due to a fractured economy and the ravages of war and genocide.
Land mines are real here. They are not props in movies and there are physical reminders of this in the signs dotting the country side, and the people you see walking in the streets. Many of the places visited by tourists have been thoroughly cleared of any danger, but just a few yards off the beaten path, danger lies under foot. I paid a visit to then land mine relief museum which contrary to my initial thoughts was not a gruesome and grisly picture show of what we all might expect, but rather one man's uplifting story and life-mission to clear the country of land mines and prevent such devices from being used in the future. The museum wasn't much, but reading the stories and new paper articles written over the past 30 years this mans work (forgive me I don't have notes with his name) was a worthwhile venture.
Our tuk-tuk driver on the way back from the museum asked us (this would be a few guys from the hotel, Andre from Canada, James from Ireland and myself) if we wanted to fire guns...only he couldn't say "fire guns"so he imitated what a child does when he plays war and cradled the barrel of an invisible rifle in one hand and with other pulled the same invisible trigger attached to that gun. "Bang! Bang!" His smile was so convincing, how could we say no! So we said yes. Apparently when the mafia-army-civilians are not training (which is all the time) they just lay around in cement tunnels that double double as fire ranges. This is about an hour outside the city for good reason. You have your pick form pretty much any gun you want, AK-47, Uzi, grenade launchers, machine guns etc... I know this sounds quite fictitious but trust me, and remember it's Cambodia!
Some of you will be relieved to know that I DIDN'T fire any of the weapons available as the price was a little beyond what I could afford. A clip for the Uzi ran 80 dollars, but this did not stop Andre from pursuing this weapon and an AK-47. (I hate to think what price they wanted for the machine guns or the grenade launcher) It was actually a very fun time, sans actual trigger pulling, and the army-guys, who speak little english, were really thrilled that we ventured so far from the tourist trappings near the city to join them for a morning of male bonding.
Off to PP...
The public bus arrived in Phnom Penh after dark and we were assailed by tuk-tuk drivers and moto owners all trying to win your business. It's quite amusing if you are as tired as Í am to listen to them fight with each other over who talked to the tourist first and who should get the next fare....etc..physical fights do break out over this subject.
A ride to the central part of the city is about $1-2 from anywhere else on the outskirts of the city. whic is quite expensive seeing as a tuk-tuk in Thailand is half the price. I guess since the US dollar is so readily available and used here, the small bill gets a rather high rate of circulation and everything becomes "One dolla!"...One dolla..you buy!". All prices are listed in US currency.
Although my arrival in Phnom Penh was after the election took place, it didn't stop hordes of ex-pats from swarming the streets and celebrating Obama's win. Quite a spectacle to witness "Cambodian Democrats for Obama" af the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) on the main drag next to the river! Yes, I stopped in a for a beer to revel in the spectacle...

Afterward-
Cambodia is an extremely poor country. From the roads and electricity, all aspects of urbanized infrastructure we take for granted is challenged here. The majority of the roads remain unpaved (I''ll get to the "remain" part in a minute) even in the largest city, Phnom Penh. The country has a very rich history and is the people remain amazingly upbeat and are always smiles, even in the face of adversity. In the late 1970's the Pol Pot regime took power and began what many believe to be acts of terror, violence and unspeakable torture worse than Hitler's. Entire family's were exterminated and anyone with any education, especially doctors, and teachers were thrown into horrific prisons for interrogation and unfathomable acts of anti-humanitarianism. I don't feel like going into a lesson of history here, nor do I feel like reliving yesterdays sobering visit to the S-21 "school-prison"and the killing fields. I will be happy to share my experience with you in person upon my return, but not here. The tour guide, who's father committed suicide in prison so he wouldn't have to rat-out his family, was an incredible wealth of knowledge despite his very personal connection to the subject. A statistic I heard was that 77 percent of Cambodians are 35 years of age or younger. If you look at the dates that means a huge percentage of the population in todays cities was born after the genocide, after Pol Pot had been defeated. It also means that a very large population of middle age people died during that time. As a result, the cities fell into disrepair, and poverty seeped into the ever expanding cracks in the foundation that would have very possibly made Cambodia a semi-modern country like neighboring Thailand. Despite this, it's remarkable that in just over 30 years these people have managed to lift themselves up and start again.