Day 4

Today was quite a day. Early this morning I used an internet phone to call home. This place had slightly more up-to-date computers than the place I tried before. At $0.04/minute the 50 minute call, to someone 9,500 miles away, cost me just over 2 dollars. On the way back to the hotel, the first time I had walked to the hotel alone, I allowed myself to be bombarded by tuk-tuk and moto drivers (you aren’t supposed to respond to very much when confronted by them, but I did). The drivers asked me if I wanted to go shoot guns. They said down by the airport you could should AK-47s like Rambo. I don’t know if they assumed I would want to shoot guns just because I was a young male or if it was because of my nationality too.

Later, Elise told me that she was going to get a Thai massage. I decided this might just be one of those rare experiences I should not pass up on, so I got one too. The massage was amazing; my masseuse started by washing my feet. Then she walked on my back and, I’m pretty sure, put me in wrestling moves. I think she popped every joint in my body.

After the massage, Elise and I hired a different tuk-tuk driver and went to the river to get some lunch. We ate at an open air restaurant that was on the third floor of a building overlooking the Mekong River. The restaurant was international so it cost a lot more. Ours together was $22. After lunch we went to walk along the river. The side of the river has probably over 100 flag poles with many different countries represented. On our short walk we encountered many beggars. The only riel I had were 3 100R bills. I gave them to two small children and one amputee with no legs. I learned that 1 in 9 Cambodians is a victim of land mines, the highest of any country. I turned away many other beggars. Our tuk-tuk driver was very enthusiastic and nice. We asked him to drive us by the royal palace then to Wat Phnom. The palace was beautiful. It was huge with many golden decorations. The sidewalk outside the palace was scattered with monks walking towards the monastery and children begging. As we drove by, children would run up to our tuk-tuk with buckets asking for money. We then went to Wat Phnom, a famous temple on top of a hill where you are supposed to release a caged bird for good luck. The long flight of stairs leading up to the temple was scattered with many children beggars and amputee beggars. One man was missing his shins, forearms, and an eye. I bought a nylon hammock ($5) from a walking vendor and two birds ($1) to release. Shortly after releasing the birds, I wiped my face, remembering at the same time that I was told by the travel doctor not to touch any birds because of avian bird flu. I guess releasing the birds was good luck because Elise had hand sanitizer. On our way down we passed another amputee and more children beggars.

We got back to our tuk-tuk and the driver was standing under a tree next to the tuk-tuk with a big grin on his face. About that time it started to sprinkle and the driver motioned that we should cross the street for shelter. We said we could just wait under the tree. The rain grew much stronger very quickly and the driver said it would last for 15 to 20 minutes. We all ran across the street as the rain turned into a downpour. The three of us were warmly greeted into an open air restaurant. I bought a coke and was enjoyed the rain. We had waited for about 15 minutes when, to my surprise, the driver bought 3 ponchos. He handed them to us and said it would rain for another 30 minutes. He put his poncho on and ran to get the tuk-tuk. He picked us up and the drive home was amazing. People were gathered under awnings everywhere. Others were using their vending tarps to collect water in buckets. Children were playing in the rain and motorcycles passed us through 1 foot deep water.

I don’t know how to feel about the beggars. I do know that it makes me feel good with myself to give a beggar 100R (equal to 2.5 cents). I know that most of the children are probably encouraged by their parents to beg, and most of the pitiful looks are an act to do better (at begging). I’m afraid that by giving them money may just be encouraging them to beg when I want to encourage them to go to school. Then again, it is summer so school is not in session, and they won’t last long in school if they don’t have anything to eat. The amputee beggars are definitely a different deal, they are old enough to work, but can’t because they are nonfunctional as far as labor jobs go. Being that there are no soup kitchens or government programs for people like that who can’t help themselves, maybe it should be the capable’s, physically and economically, duty to help them.

Later, we went to Viesna’s mother’s home for an authentic Cambodian meal. Fred had been paying for six girls to stay in one room during their first year of college. The girls will be staying in the dormitory this coming fall. The six girls, Fred and Lipp, Alan and Elise, some of Viesna’s other family members, and me where all at the house. The dinner table was mind-blowing. There was food everywhere; grilled prawns, vegetable and calamari stir-fry, shrimp, amok, and soup in bowls over embers from the fire. There was pepper in a small dish in front of each place with a cut lime; you squeezed the lime into the pepper to make a dipping sauce. The table was pushed up against a wall with places set on the side against the wall. I assumed we would pull the table out and bring in some more chairs; but when it was time to eat, the grandmother and the girls crawled onto the table in front of the places. The dinner was amazing, and just when I thought it was over, they brought out corn pudding and a fruit tray for dessert. I was very skeptical about the exotic fruits, but I worked up the guts to try some. There three different fruits, all of which you peeled and ate the inside. The inside of two of them looked like eyeballs and the other looked like a brain. The fruits were actually very good, unlike anything I had ever tasted before.