Phnom Pehn (days 6-8)

The next morning we got up early to catch a bus to Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. Our hotel was really sweet and gave us all scarves as a sort of going away present when we left.

When we got to Phnom Pehn, we went for a short walk around our neighborhood and then the girls decided to go out wandering while my friend from the States relaxed at the hostel for a bit.

Why is there a cave in this garage? Who knows...

Us girls ended up at a grocery store and had an absolute blast. I think we scared some people there with how excited we got about some of the things we found. Coming from living in China and South Korea, because Phnom Pehn is a pretty big city, we were able to find things we hadn't seen in months (and naturally there was some new stuff that was fun to look at also).

H-TWO-O? And it's a soda? What?

Um, yes, that IS "Sugar Daddy" brand sugar. And he is a luchadore.

Gross. This is right up there with the corn juice they drink in China.

That night, we had to do it up right, because it was my Songyuan friend's last night with us. Phnom Pehn isn't a big party city, most things close down early, but we somehow managed to stay out until about 4am and cram like four night's worth of activities into one. We started drinking at our hostel and got a pretty good start there. Then we tried to go to the market because my Songyuan friend wanted to eat crickets, but it was already closed so we went out to eat instead.

As soon as we got to dinner, I told my friends I'd be right back and walked off. While they ate, I went in search of crickets. I went down a side street, talked to a hooker who helped me hire a guy on a motorbike to take me around, and after about 45 minutes, stops at at least 12 different barbeque stands and a good tour of the city, I returned to my friends the successful victor and plopped a bag of crickets on the table. They had no idea where I had gone, so they were a little upset, but the crickets were completely worth it. They're mostly just crunch and taste like barbeque.

After that, we went to a reggae hookah bar, then we got fishy pedicures and then we ended the night at a tranny hooker dance club called Heart Of Darkness. Naturally, none of us girls noticed the trannys or the hookers, only my friend from the States.

The next day, my Songyuan friend left and the other three of us were feeling pretty rough, so we just hung around the hostel and went in the pool (yes, the hostel had a pool, it was awesome). We didn't really do anything that night either.

The one thing my States friend had wanted to do was check out the genocide museum and the killing fields, so we did that the following day. That might have been one of the most depressing experiences of my entire life. Afterwards, we got in the tuk tuk and didn't even speak to each other for at least a half hour.

This might be the coolest tree ever. It also happens to be at the killing field.