Near all the hotels are hundreds of moped drivers, offering to take you anywhere you want. They all speak good english and will try anything to get you to go with them. They will offer to take you to your hotel and then wait outside your hotel for hours and even be there waiting the next morning until you come out. They are incredibly persistent. I denied these guys time after time and preferred to walk, until one tired afternoon I broke down and asked one of the guys for a ride. After that, this guy, "Dany" (with one D), became my defacto driver for the next couple of days. It was good for a couple of reasons. It is cheap, since you can pay your driver as little as 5 bucks a day (I paid Dany more since he was pretty good.for a while anyway), and they sometimes can be competent tour guides. Many are good since there is heavy competition in this business.
A couple of things happened that made me lose faith in Dany and I eventually dumped him as my guide. One was he kept trying to get me to go to a shooting range where he said I could blow up a cow with a rocket launcher for 150 dollars. I laughed it off, thinking he was joking, but he kept bringing it up. Finally I told him I thought it was depraved and wrong. The second was much more disturbing.
We were coming back from our ride out to the killing fields. As we were riding back, Dany said, "Do you want to see a special museum?" I said, "what is it??", He said, "it's a surprise, and it's on the way back. Do you want to go?" I said, "why not?" We drove for a few miles and arrived at a shanty town. As we pulled off down a dirt road, I asked him, "there's a museum out HERE?" He replied, "yeah, it's the women museum." uh, oh.
What I saw there, which turned out to be the infamous "K 11" (because 11 kilometers outside of town), was the most disturbing thing I have ever seen in my life. Inside each of the houses on either side of the road, are dozens of girls. Not women, but young GIRLS dressed in pajamas, waiting to have sex. Young men outside the houses pulled at my shirt, trying to get me off the bike, and asking me what type of sex I wanted. I just said "no, no, no.." My jaw must have been wide open in amazement. My driver asked me where I wanted to stop, and I told him to get the hell out of there. The image of that sad place is unfortunately burned in my mind. That such a place exists really makes you want to cry. As we drove away, I heard one young man shout, "What is your problem? We can get you young boy, if you want that!!" The prostitution in Phnom Penh is very in-your-face, and very depressing if you let it get to you.
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I read "Off the Rails in Phnom Penh" by Amit Gamit before I came here, and was expecting pure craziness. I thought there would be people shooting each other with AK47's in the street, armed robbery everywhere, and counterfeit money at every shop. Phnom Penh seemed nothing like this. The book is an interesting introduction to Phnom, but I think highly sensationalized.
There have been some interesting episodes lately however, showing the rampant corruption and danger involving the government. Hun Sen, the communist representative or a bizarre, multi-party "presidential system", is known for his corruption and brutal tactics. He is an old Khmer Rouge soldier and controls most of the press in the country. What he doesn't directly control he runs by intimidation. A western journalist reporting on corruption in the government was recently shot down. Hun Sen's nephew recently shot and killed 4 people in a drunken spree about a week ago and has still not been arrested, because the police fear arresting him and dealing with Hun Sen. It is tragic and hard to believe. The public lives in fear of imprisonment or worse from speaking out against the government, but you hear many people whisper to you about just how bad it is.
On a brighter note, I saw one of the coolest things in my life in the Water festival in Phnom Penh on Saturday the 8th. It is a 3 day annual festival, which is the biggest holiday in the country. The festival consists of outrigger canoe racing during the day of literally thousands of boats from the 21 provinces, and when the sun goes down they have fireworks and light shows on a parade of several boats that come by. The festival is an opportunity for many Cambodians to come to the city for a few days and forget about the work in the rice fields or fishing on the river. For many it really is the only holiday of the year and break from work, and the only time they see the city.
The fireworks show was not one of the most impressive in my life, by any means, but the crowd reaction made it special. Seeing the wonder in the faces of some of the kids as they saw the fireworks in the sky and the light displays on the boats was terrific. Some had obviously never seen fireworks and were in absolute awe. Everyone just seemed to have a real sense of great appreciation for it all, and they were really soaking in the experience.
I was taking some pictures, and it seemed that everyone took notice, especially the kids. I took pictures on my digital, and showed them the pictures on the small screen, and they were amazed! After I took a picture of one of the kids and showed it to him on the screen, everyone around wanted to see their picture on the camera. I would take a picture of one of the kids and all the other kids and their parents would crowd around me to see it, and laugh and point. It was great fun. They were so warm and never stopped smiling. I can see why Angelina Jolie adopted a baby when she was over here. The children are so wonderful, you just want to grab as many of them as you can and take care of them.
Just seeing them enjoy the pleasure of the fireworks and not having much more than the clothes on their backs, puts things in perspective. I know it sounds trite, but you do see the joys they get out of the simplicities of life, and you realize how unbelievably trivial all your worries are. Experiencing the warmth of people who have survived decades of unspeakable poverty and horrors of war is incredible. You think you will end up pitying these people, but end up being amazed. Amazed at the great resilience and spirit of the cambodian people, of which I have never seen anything like it. I stayed at the festival as it got dark and as I watched the people file out of the festival with a glow, I told myself to always remember the people that day and to put things in perspective when I worry about stupid little things in my life.