Phnom Penh

So we (isaac and I, fucking keep up) get on this bus, and we're 2 of 3 tourists, with everyone else being some sort of local... But more than half the bus empty. It was definitely one of the shittier buses in terms of bus quality that I've taken, but may have been the best ride, though in the ~4 hours I barely caught up on any missed sleep due to our incessant chatting and whatnot. The more he talked, the more amazingly eclectic he became. Eventually at some rest stop (actually the same one that the flat tire bus stopped in) I fueled my hunger with some papaya. We were both hilariously exhausted but when we got to phnom penh (on time! You go asia! Even though we literally stopped in the most random of places to drop off locals on the way.. Which is somewhat amazing how they get that, probably pay a third of what we pay, and there are no reasonable, or linguistically capable complaints we can make) we grabbed a tuk tuk to some hostel that had been recommended to us, eighty8.

The tuktuk driver who tuk (shutup) us there was named tuck, as explained by his wee sign introducing himself and showing pictures of main touristy attractions for people to pay him to drive them to. He was a goofy, wide grinning, skinny dude, but fucking hilarious.

The second we walked in to the hostel we realised that this place was going to a. Be expensive, and b. Be the nicest place either of us have stayed in a hilariously long time. We checked out the $7 dorms, and the $12 each privates, and figured, fuck it. Worth the extra $5 to actually stay somewhere pretty amazing. It was quiet, clean, there was a real shower with hot water, a controllable air con, a toilet in the room, toilet paper next to the toilet, towels, a balcony, and a fucking massive comfy bed. (I digress, I should explain why something including both a toilet and toilet paper is special. Squat toilets have become far too regular for me, and I always carry around toilet paper/tissue/whatever because for some fucking reason, there's this weird spray thing, like a do it yourself baday (yep, no idea how to spell that) that I'm terrified of even touching. Then, the whole shower thing is usually just a bathroom with a spot where there's some sort of wall hose... No curtain, just you get the whole effing bathroom soaked, and towels- I haven't had one on me, so only the rare towel containing places have given me the gift of towel) the only weird thing was that the bathroom door was merely a curtain. Talk about privacy!

The hostel itself had an awesome downstairs bar area with comfy seats and food, as well as a swimming pool. Random awesome paradise.

We showered and then rested for a bit before deciding that if we didn't peel ourselves out of bed, we'd never end up getting up. The decision was to gry out the night market to get some much needed food. We wandered, confused at what the hell we were looking at (as it goes with cambodian street food) and picked a place where you put kebabs in a basket and then they cook them for you. I picked things I couldn't identify mostly, and also got noodle soup. Isaac was a little safer in choices, but also additionally ordered a dish (had no idea what we were doing). He went to sit at the floor mats where everyone was settled and I went to get a fruit smoothie. Way more expensive than I was used to seeing, which some chinese lady agreed with, so we convinced them to give us a deal since we ordered the same kind-- dragon fruit with some other something fruit that started with a g... Twas a recommendation. It took ages to get it, and while I was there I was talking with a german girl as well, and ended up telling her to come sit with isaac and I for dinner.

The shake was awesome, and once we got our food (which ended up at about $4 each) we realised we ordered wayyy too much, but it was all yummy, albeit sometimes unidentifiable. Charly (the german girl) and her friend from a past couch surfing experience ollie (from hong kong, or germany, or the uk? Seemed british in the end) joined us for chats.

Every so often a kid would come over asking for money, and though isaac gave in way more than I'd ever responded, the last kid was rewarded with a plate of our leftover. He was surprisingly thrilled.

We wandered the market after eating, but there was nothing worth looking at nor buying really. There was some interesting place selling some sort of juice beverage by putting stalks through what looked like a pasta roller, and we decided to give it a try. Isaac got sugarcane, which tasted awesome, but being weird I decided to try a different one... Green bean. Imagine eating edamame through a straw.. That's what it was like. I barely put a dent in it before passing it off to isaac who somehow found it interestingly palatable.

The 4 of us then decided to go out for coffees and found a little bar to sit at, sipping iced coffees and chatting. They were a great twosome to run into, but by 10ish we had to tuktuk home and call it a night.

The next day we woke up too early with plans to do all of the phnom penh must-dos that day. Tuck was waiting for us downstairs and we sloppily ate breakfast, drooling with tiredness, but soon we were off for what I must say should be entitled the most ridiculous 'date' ever.

First stop: shooting range. Earlier I had noticed that I somehow stole a pair of royoboms from someone, thinking they were the knock off raybans I bought a few days prior. Mine said raybans at least, but now isaac and I were traveling in the peak of tacky western style, donning matching blue fake raybans. We got to this place where I had heard of people going to shoot ak47s and whatnot. It was $40 for 30 shots with one, and various other weapons on the menu included a grenade for $50, and a rocket launcher/bazooka for $350. I tried to convince them to let us share the ak47 and they kept saying no, even though I know people that have done it... As with all bartering, they then said yes and we geared up with hilarious headphones, entered a weird enclosure, refused the coconut shooting offer, and had a shoot. It ended up being quick, but pretty fun, though it was nearly impossible to see what we were hitting, if anything. After we touched other guns, took a few stupid pictures, got the piece of paper target we were shooting as a souvenir, and were off.

Second stop: killing fields. So, in the same way you don't go to siem reap without going to angkor wat, you don't go to pp without doing the killing fields. I didn't really know much about what they're all about, but was told that I was in for a depressing day. We got there, paid the wee fee, and each got a headset, and map with a list of what we would hear on the headset, which isaac referred to as the worst menu ever (examples: 7- Mass Grave: 450 Victims, 123- Rape leads yo shame, 15- The Killing Tree). Mine was in german, as it goes, but that would be fixable post informational film. There was a short film to watch first, giving a brief history of everything, and then we were off to a little museum area where one was to walk around and do little more than read all of the massively wordy signs. It was good for figuring out all the story, but by the end of it I almost felt that I learned more from listening to isaac's history lesson, a notion that became a bit of a theme throughout the weekend. After, you do a walking tour around the killing fields, stopping to listen to the associated audio bit at each checkpoint. I found it all extremely powerful, mostly aided by the descriptive recordings, which sometimes spoke of survivor stories. It was great being there not alone-- and moreso with someone to lean on when learning about a tree used to smash babies against, or how all the bodies in one grave were found headless. We took our requisite picture in front of the massive case of skulls and were off to find tuck, who recommended we eat lunch when we arrive at the next stop.

Stop 2.5: lunch. So obviously, as it always works, he brought us to a cafe literally called the tuktuk cafe. Brilliant. Food was pretty awesome, albeit slightly overpriced, and we saw tuck playing chess with other drivers throughout the duration of the meal, having an awesome, speedy time. We ended up not being charged for the greek salad we shared, which helped allay my previous thoughts of overpriced-ness.

Stop 3: genocide museum. Conveniently across from the tuktuk cafe (it's all a planned tourist trap in this part of the world) was the museum we were off to next. S-21, which was where prisoners were kept and tortured was literally the building the museum was in, with much of it seemingly left untouched. As we approached the building we noticed a preventative sign that confused both of us. It seemed to show an asian man with a toothy grin, as something prohibited. No smiling? No ugly smiling? No asians? No happiness? We were confused, but the lightheartedness of the chat aided in mediating the sadness of the museum. We walked through torture cells, seeing horrific beds of metal and weird contraptions, as well as the occasional photographs taken when the bodies were found. One room had stains of blood dotting the ceiling. Another area allowed us to walk into and see the cells the prisoners were silently living in, no bigger than a tiny closet, and adorned with nothing but the occasional mouse hole to see the outside world. There was a section with photos of the prisoners in S21, with their heads propped up by a pole behind them, ensuring they all looked normal and fine, and photos suggesting the hardwork and productivity of the prisoners... And then photos of how they were found, emaciated and lifeless, and artistic representations of how the torture devices wouldve worked. This, as well as with the killing fields, was what made things seem most depressing- guns were rarely the choice weapon, and as we saw from skulls, blows to the head from axes, hammers, picks, or anything were what was actually utilised.

The whole place had been a school earlier, and the wooden pole set up outside for gym class was turned into a torture device, hanging prisoners upside down until they fell unconscious, and then dipping their heads in filthy water to waken them up before doing it again.
There were signs all over with various rules, and suggesting levels of punishment for various activities, like the number of lashes, or number of electric shocks, through which you were not allowed to cry during.

The last main region of the museum had testimonials and confessions of the people who were there, being the forms they filled out before death, or stories of survival. This included such paperwork from another war as well, but reading the horrific, gorey, first hand stories took me to being so thankful for having someone to hug.

We then found tuck, and he drove us home where showers and nearly passing out were once again on the menu. To defeat our lazy, we decided to go out for coffee and dinner, wandering until finding a place suitable. We sat there for hours, until they kicked us out for closing and went back home.

The ease in staying up for ages was intensified by having our own room, so we were literally up till 5ish chatting. I learned about the drunk elks that sometimes wander the streets of his hometown, due to the fermentation of consumed apples in their stomachs, and the chinese workers (I called them slaves) who pick the blueberries to fill the supermarket entirely with blueberries for one month every year (also vaguely incorrect, but not wrong!). When we had gotten to phnom penh, isaac decided to quit smoking, and until my leaving he stuck by it, though he showed me to roll cigarettes for fun.

At 11 am we were finally up and moving, and I skimmed through his thailand lonely planet, we packed, and checked out mostly on time. I had a few hours before leaving, and isaac quickly fell into feeling extremely ill, with a very obvious fever. We stayed in the hostel, trying to remedy the situation, and by the time I had to go to the airport, he was up and moving again, heading back to sihanoukville for christmas with his friends.

As we said goodbye, a staff member asked me why I was leaving without him, and how we met and whatnot. She shared a sympathetic smile and sighed whilst saying "falling in love in cambodia..."