Last days in Cambodia

It was an easy bus ride from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh. We stopped at a roadside stand and I devoured some excellent fried rice with pickle on the side. The Westerners on the trip were not very friendly, but the locals sure were. Two Vietnamese ladies insisted that I share their snacks: they offered some bean-like fruit with sweet red interior. I didn't even know what they were handing to me but I took a deep breath and gave it a try - very good! The younger of the two gave me two thumbs up and a big smile when she found out that I'm travelling alone. Sweet.

Phnom Penh is a wild ride. I got a moto ride to the backpackers area at Boeung Kak, on the lakeside. Soon I was ensconced at Grand View Guesthouse, which is supposed to be up-market for that area. A relatively clean room with a fan, cold shower and no bed bugs. Not bad for $5 a night. The moto drivers around the guesthouse were pretty determined to take me on a tour that very day and it was a bit exhausting fending off all the offers. Instead of going on a big tour, I wandered a bit, sent some postcards, and then had a meal and a foot massage.

I decided not to check out the Royal Palace on Sunday afternoon because it was so busy. Walking out, I miraculously ran into the same moto driver who had taken me from the bus to the guesthouse. "Ana?" he called after me. "I know you!" He was very friendly, with kind eyes, and not nearly as intense as other drivers I'd encountered. We made a deal that he would take me to the sights the next day. For the rest of Sunday, I went to see a documentary about the Cambodian genocide, and bed early. All the Aussies at the guesthouse were glued to the tennis on tv: Federer and Nadal at the Australian open.

On Monday, I practically had the whole Royal Palace to myself in the early morning. It is a very ornate estate of buildings, quite the contrast from the dirty streets of Phnom Penh. Then, it was a long moto ride out to the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek. This is were thousands of Cambodians were brought for execution and mass burial during the Khmer Rouge's regime. It was a haunting place, hard to imagine so much suffering in a field where the flowers were blooming and birds chirping. Back in town, I dined in a stall street side next to the Russian Market and had a little shopping cardio: my pack is heavier still with lovely tapestries, tablecloths and sarongs. I finished my moto tour at Tung Sleung, an interrogation centre of the Khmer Rouge now converted to Genocide Museum.

It felt a bit morbid to be a genocide tourist but my curiousity was strong. Also, the Khmers I've talked to want the world to know what happened in their country. The dark side of humanity is very appalling in the places of torture I visited. The politics behind Khmer Rouge are complicated, but it seems like the Cambodian people were a pawn in the great struggle between China's communism power and America's capitalism. It angers me that a country that prides itself on liberty could influence such a tragedy.

I wrote before that Cambodia is still suffered from the genocide. Many people live in shacks made of corrugated steel, with a plastic tarp for a roof. There is no concept of garbage disposal and the streets are littered with rotting vegetables and plastic bags. Electricity is very expensive and most people live without it. In the morning, you wake to the smell of cooking fires, like camping - no stoves here. The total lack of infrastructure may come from a "live-for-the-moment" attitude, which isn't surprising considering that many Cambodians spent a lot of time just surviving the days, not knowing if they would be alive tomorrow.

My moto driver dropped me off at the end of the day back in Boeung Kak. I was sad to say goodbye because he was such a nice man: an excellent driver and good guide. There's nothing like the feeling of sitting on the back of the moto and whizzing around the busy streets. With the wind on my face, I witnessed so many beautiful and shocking little scenes in this place where life is teeming out in the open. I dubbed my moto driver Spiderman because of the design on his fingerless riding gloves. He asked $15 dollars for his services for the day and I paid without haggling over the amount. He had been at my disposal for 9 hours and took me all over the place so I figured it was a fair price.

My last night in Cambodia, I had a drink lakeside and watched the big red sun go down over the water. I had barely spoken to anyone all day, except for small conversations with Spiderman. An Italian guy sat down next to me as I tucked into a cheap thali at an Indian resto and we had a great 30-minute conversation, both solo travellers thankful for a little human interaction. After dinner, I packed my bag and had another early night. Next stop: Vietnam!

Lots of love to everyone back home.