Cambodia bound - Day # 1

Nothing better than a 23 hour trip (counting my 2.5 hour layover in Taipei) to start a trip! Left at 1230am Friday morning and landed in Phnom Penh at 1130am Saturday morning. Cambodia is also 12 hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone, so noon here is midnight the night before in Connecticut.

I step off the plane, get my visa and walk out of the airport. A digital sign says it's 29 degrees, which I think translates to around 88 degrees Fahrenheit - it's warm here and I don't miss the New England cold. A guy holding a sign with my name, named Bunlee, is waiting for me. He is a Bunong student studying at the university here in the capital. The Bunong are a hill tribe that live in the hills and mountains of eastern Cambodia and some in Vietnam as well. He leads me to his moto (a small dirt bike or moped) which will bring us to the guest house. When he sees my large duffel bag, large and small backpacks he looks shocked. He puts the duffel bag in front of him at his feet and has me wear both backpacks. He then tells me he only has one moto helmet - I say ok - at which point he smiles and puts it on! The 20 minute ride from the airport to the guest house is chaotic at best and closer to anarchy. The best way to describe driving here is they use the Darwin Theory of Evolutionary Driving. A pedestrian has no rights and yields to all. A moto yields to cars, and cars yield to buses and trucks. The biggest vehicle always has the right of way. People even drive up the wrong way on motos all the time to avoid traffic. It's an educational ride to the guest house.

The guest house is close to the central market. Once I check in Bunlee asks if I want to meet for dinner tomorrow night with him and his friend. I have no plans so I gladly accept. After a few minutes he departs. I go to my room , shower and change then head out. I must try to stay awake until the evening to try to get my body onto Cambodia time. I wander down some streets, have a beer at a beer garden, and continue walking. I end up at the National Museum by chance and head inside. It has a large collection of statues and artifacts from the various Cambodian kingdoms of the past. It is a nice museum.

Nearby are two places I wanted to find here in Phnom Penh( referred to as PP by many people). The first is Seeing Hands Massage Center. It is a massage parlor where all the staff are blind. The cost is $6 for an hour body massage. I have a guy work on me and it helps relieve my body from the endless plane flight. The guy looks like he has been blind since birth. He speaks decent English and says he has worked there for one year. Great opportunity for these blind people - the only person with sight is the manager who greets customers and takes the money.

After my massage I head down the street to a restaurant called Friends. It is run by an organization that gives street children/vulnerable children a chance to learn a trade - such as waiting tables, busing, cooking, and running a business. The place is very busy with mostly foreign tourists. I order stir fried chicken with mangos and cashew nuts and also roasted zucchini with Chinese pears, basil and lemon. Both dishes were excellent!!

At 7pm I return to the museum to see a cultural song and dance show. A band of about 7 musicians and a cast of around 12 people sing traditional songs and perform traditional dances. Wedding songs and dances, birth of a child songs, and funeral songs are all performed. I only hope the singers didn't notice me nodding off at the end of the show. Honestly it was jet lag - not your show...

I'm tired and it's late so I flag down a moto driver to bring me back to the guest home. The guy wants $2 - double the normal price - but I'm to tired to haggle and we leave. Back at the guest house I go to the room and notice the lock to my large backpack is gone! I open the backpack and everything seems to be there. At the bottom of the pack I find the cut lock and a note from the TSA sating they had to open my bag to inspect it. How thoughtful of them. With that I climb into bed for the night - it's 9pm after all...