So anyway... one overnight stay in Spidertown and then it was an early rise for me the following morning, as I then made my way over to the main junction there in order to arrange getting some transport to the capital city of Phnom Pehn (which incidently is where I am writing this now)...
And... wow... what a place!
You see... whether I be walking down a street here where there is the odd fake 100 US Dollar bill or 2 laying about... or I be speaking to a man whilst he is showing me a bullet wound on his thigh from when he got shot by the Khmer Rouge...
And further to this... whether I be walking (quite literally) on the remains of human bones and clothes that exist on the sight of a 1970s killing field here... or I be hearing the odd gun shot being fired off in the air during the day... or I even just be paying attention to the fact that there was a forced mass exodus of people from this capital only 3 decades ago (when most of the population here had to work in the countryside and the whole area turned into a ghost town)...
I think it is pretty fair to say that all of the above make it quite a thought-provoking city indeed.
Add on top of this the fact that (up until I had arrived in Phnom Penh) most of the 21 different places I had slept at during the previous 47 days just so happened to be of the few-thousand populated, dust-layered, one-street long settlement variety...
And I suppose you could say that now I am in a capital city with over one-million inhabitants, with it's busy (busy, busy!) streets that are lined with big important looking buildings (ie. the kind of non-descript things which I as a Westerner associate as being an integral part of a normal town or city)... there is a familiar kind of buzz to the place as well.
Anyway... I think that the general travelling concensus for Phnom Penh's visitors is to use it for what it is... Use it's history to put your own life into perspective... use it's markets for the bartering... and use it's bars for the partying...
Quite a simple formula really... although why I am not sticking to it I do not know... as if the truth be known I've still not yet given myself the opportunity to decide which is better... Laos' Beer Lao or Cambodia's Angkor Beer on the party front side of things since I've been here... and you could say that I've found a quiet kind of peace in the city instead, this being on the balcony of my guesthouse where I find myself getting lost for hours on end whilst reading books to do with the history of this strange country that I am in...
Onto the funny stuff anyway... and well there's not been too much of it around this week really I'm afraid... but having said this though, the locals have been making me laugh with their funny sense of humour at times... In fact, to be honest, I don't know what it is that turns them into comedians when they find out that I am from the UK... but all I can say on the matter is that I do actually find some of their responses quite in line with my sort of wit as it goes...
Ha ha!... Firstly I had one of them tell me that he knew Tony Blair and that he was a good man (in a very serious, well-pronounced voice may I add)... oh, and then if this wasn't enough... not only did I have another one tell me that the UK is "spot on" (how much of a home expression is that?!)... but I also had yet another one tell me that the country of England is none other than "lovely jubbly" as well!
Aside from these strange characters I have managed to make friends with a local lad around my age who works at the guesthouse I've been staying at though, and he has been kind enough to invite me along to his boxing club during the evenings which has been nice.
Actually... speaking of which... and what a set up!... (what exactly I am doing in a boxing-club here I do not know... but hey, in my defence... it's Cambodia... and pretty much anything goes in this mad country really- so why not eh?!)
Anyhow... to be fair, the gym (or the "Sweat Pit" as I refer to it due to the 35C, 48% humidity in the city at the moment) is absolute chaos inside, and it is exactly like the hustle you see out on the street here (except in more of a gym-club type format of course)... so I suppose you could say that it is quite an exciting environment for me to be in to say the least...
Oh and the main thing that I like about the place? Well it basically concerns the fact that (in true Cambodian style of course)... the golden rule that people stick to whilst training there is... "to not pay any tuition money to the people on the front desk who run the gym, as they will charge you too much money"... and instead the advice given on the matter is that... "if you sneak the odd 1 or 2 US Dollars to him, him or him"... (ie. the 3 guys who wander about in the main training area of an evening)... "you will get much better training for much less money"...
Ha ha... Of course... why didn't I think of that one before?!
All good fun eh?! (Actually... I wonder if the gyms at home do a similar type of deal?!)
Back to my travelling anyway... and I am having to stay here in Phnom Penh for a short while at the moment in order to sort out some visa stuff on my passport.
This is no big shame really though, because (as you would have probably guessed already) I do really like the place... oh and what with the big open boulevards here, the nice riverside area, the big open parks and the few tourist attractions that are scattered about the city... there is quite a bit of stuff for me to be getting stuck into seeing as well.
Ha ha! Actually... on the subject of tourist attractions... yesterday I managed to visit the big palace here, and even though there was only a small part of it that was open to visitors, the area that I did manage to see did turn out to be quite impressive as it goes (the throne room, the room with the silver floor, etc, etc)...
Anyway... the funny bit came as I was standing on my own in the middle of a posh courtyard there (in the middle of a baking hot afternoon may I add)... and, if I remember correctly, I was trying to make out what on earth this (I don’t know- 10 metres high maybe?) big stone thing was in front of me at the time, when I suddenly saw this European looking guy of around my age come marching over towards me...
To be fair, he was the sort of person who I would normally just look at and admire from a distance really (as he kind of had an aura of strangeness about him to say the least), but on this particular occasion however, the fact that he was making a direct beeline for me kind of made me feel that I was just about to be treated to one of life's strange social encounters maybe...
So... he marched up to me didn't he (why he chose me of all people I do not know)... and with no introduction at all, he soon went on to tear the whole 10 metre-high stone thing that lay in front of us apart of course, in an explosive speech that, looking back on it, had the same sort of passion and dedication in it as the conversations that I have at home whilst I am up the pub with my mate Lung Man (when we are discussing the likes of the Foo Fighters, Queen and Led Zep over a pint of Carlsberg or 3)...
I was told about the contrasts... the Hinduism... the Buddhism... Cambodia... the Sub-Continent... the angry stone carved men... the peaceful Buddha... in fact it is fair to say that I got the full narrative history of the stone thing in one minute flat... oh and then after which, the font-of-all-knowledge just simply decided to walk off and disappear!
Ha ha!... I was that overcome by what had just happened that I forget if we even said goodbye to each other... and all I remember is that before I knew it he had gone (and he was probably over at the other end of the courtyard whilst admiring some other cultural icon or ancient relic he had found)...
What a legend. eh?!
Anyway... and the whole point of me meeting him?
Ah, I don't know really... as if the truth be known... at the time I was only visiting a palace (which was something in my mind that was only at the very edge of what is turning out to be a great experience for me here)...
But for him? Well for him this place seemed to be the centre of his universe... and as a result he was loving it being there just as much as what I was loving it a couple of years ago when I saw the Foo's play at Hyde Park and Brian May and Roger Taylor came out to join them on stage...
And it was further to this (and it was as a result of me meeting him I suppose) that I kind of appreciated being out here on my travels even more... whilst at the same time feeling just a little bit homesick for my family and my mates for the first time since I had been away since last July as well...
Weird I know... but it was a good feeling for me to have though...
Ha ha... the stuff I write in this blog eh?!
Rock on anyway...
Oh and on the subject of rocking on... I had that guy who I spoke about earlier (the one who was shot in the leg by the KR) come up to me again yesterday saying that he wanted to go out and share a 3-pint jug of beer with me sometime...
Time to have that drink now me thinks!
Spot on!
Speak soon ;o)
