The Phnom Penh of Penn Phenom? (thanks Mr. Reznik)

Greetings from Phenom Penh (promounced P'nom Pen).  pretty quick visit so it's been somewhat of a whirlwind but figure I'll update on my first city in Cambodia - who the hell goes to Cambodia anyways?

We got here monday afternoon and justin was very hungry.  As many of you know, hungry-Justin may or may not be any fun to hang out with.  so we went out and found a place to grab a Khmer meal.  Khmer is what cambodians call themselves.  while waiting, this little kid tried to sell us some illegally copied books (as they are quite abundant and cheap here).  while he's trying to sell us, he starts casually punching my shoulder lightly.  I look at him after a few hits and tell him, "its my turn now!"  So I get up and start playing with this little kid.  He's really throwing some punches and elbows, i'm parrying or blocking most, but sometimes let him get a bunch of hits to my stomach (my stomach was a little red when we were done).  I tried to teach the little guy to keep his guard up- a very important lesson by administering some educational open-hand whacks to his head. It was all in good fun on both sides of this battle; and all the local tuk tuk drivers in the area seemed quite entertained.  (tuk tuks are motorbikes with a carriage on back used for transporting tourists cheaply).  He was a funny and feisty kid, but once my food came I had to eat.  sooo hungry.  twas a funny encounter.

Educating the children of Cambodia

While getting ready to explore in the evening I met a guy in the lobby of our hostel I met a swedish guy who lives in bangkok named Henrik.  We got a talking to him for a while and he ended up joining matt, marla and I for the eve to dinner and for a bit of hanging out.  We wandered around a bit along the Mekong river where there are a bunch of bars, restaurants, a market, and all sorts of other things.  as the night went on more peculiar snacks came around.  We walked by a cart with fried bugs; cockroaches, grasshopper?, maggots and there was a pile of black things i couldn't discern in the low light.  That is until the guy working the stand picked one up... as my stomach reflexively churned I see that he's holding a deep fried tarantula the size of my hand.  Henrik wanted to split one with me just to say we had done it.  Hell no!  I don't even think I could watch someone eat one.  I'm all for trying new things and maybe even eating something weird from time to time. No spiders! especially one that big.

Today we hired a tuk tuk for the day to take us around to the sites that were too far to walk to and also to allow us to see more with our limited time in this city (don't worry, with tip i think we paid a combined $20).  We first went to the Killing Field.  I didn't realize that there was such a horrible genocide here back in the 70s under the regime of Pol Pot.  well this field is one of many sites of mass graves where tens of thousands of Cambodians were brought to be brutally murded and thrown into mass graves.  many of the mass graves have been excavated to be given a more respectable resting place---or just put on display to be remembered and respected.  Basically, people were brought here, blindfolded, and while loud music was blaring to drown out the screams, they were beaten over the head with various objects and thrown in these mass graves.  although babies were just smashed against trees usually.  they then sprayed various poisons over the bodies, including DDT, just in case someone was left alive and then burried in graves with up to 450 people in them.  Even to this day, as rain and wind wash away layers of dirt, bones and clothes are popping up all over.  It's pretty gross.

I took this picture of Actual Skulls of those murdered at the killing field

We then checked out the genocide museum.  So pretty much before bringing people to the killing floor, they were often held and interrogated at what is called S-21 (now known as the genocide museum).  The khmer Rouge, under the rule of Pol Pot would capture civilians at random, or scholars or soldiers of the former govt and interrogate them and get them to admit ties to the CIA or KGB; ties which most people here didn't have.  Before being a torture prison, it was actually a school.  I've always thought that some of my old elementary schools looked like a prison.  Now i realize that THIS school looked like a frickin prison.  I won't get into the details, but they had pictures of every person who was ever brought to the place to be tortured....rooms and rooms ful.  they had drawings and explainations of the torture methods.  holy crap, it was pretty sick.

We then checked out the underwhelming russian market, presidential palace and a pagoda that turned out to be under construction.  not a bad day.

Tonight we are heading on a bus at 2330 to Siem Reap.  this is right outside Ankor Wat.  sleeper buses are definitely a good way to save time as a tourist.  so tomorow morning, after what will amount to only a few hours of sleep, i will pump up on coffee for a whirlwind couple days there.  I should be going to Bangkok on friday then if all goes according to plan, i'll find a Muay Thai kickboxing gym on monday and start my week of training on tuesday.  it sucks that i'm going to be so out of shape for this, but I'll still make the best of it.

Up Up, and Away!!!!