Phnom Penh

We arrived in Phnom Penh late in the afternoon after our boat trip and spent the evening at a local Cambodian restuarant owned by a man and his wife who runs an orphanage for street children, many of whom have only one parent, or none at all, and would have ended up pimped on the streets of Phnom Penh, in a life of crime or dead. They have 25 children in all, ranging in age, and the kids performed traditional Cambodian dance for us while we ate at the restaurant and then gave us all hugs and flowers and thanked us for our support - shown by simply paying for our cheaply priced and exquisitely tasting dinner. All of the orphans live, eat, sleep, go to school and practice their dance in a two room flat - recently upgraded from a one room place. The orphanage is a charity organisation with its money coming from the sales in the restaurant (not good in the low season) and any donations it can find. We spoke with a man who had been living in Phnom Penh for a year or so and who told us about the research he had done about the orphanage (all kosha apparently) and about how some of the children had come to be lucky enough to be taken in - one of the girls, for instance, 12 years old, had at some stage been offered by a pimp to the man running the orphanage (luckily) who of course refused but instead arranged to have her join the orphanage. The children were adorable and were so clearly appreciative of what they had - knowing that they were luckier than many of the other children in Phnom Penh. The others, of which there are many, were still walking the streets when we headed out to a bar late that night, selling books and flowers - anything to go to school or even just to get some food. We bought a few items, each time asking the kids to count out the money we were giving them and to tell us about their schooling. The children in Cambodia are so excited about learning yet are so destitute and struggle to get an education - it is hard to see, and it is quite a contrast to what we saw in Vietnam. We had met an Aussie guy, Carl, in the internet cafe earlier so many of our group and some of another headed down to his bar, Pontoon, (which was actually a pontoon) and spent a great evening chatting to him and learning about setting up business in Cambodia. He hooked Grant and I up with free drinks for the evening for bringing our friends and gave us a tour of his house boat - a massive old fishing boat with gorgeous rooms and the absolute best view from its decks! On Tuesday morning we visited, with a Cambodian guide, Tuol Sleng, the S21 security prison, which held around 20,000 prisoners during the Kymer Rouge regime, only 7 of which survived. We also went to one of the Killing Fields. We cannot really provide any comment that would describe what we saw. Our lack of comment should, in itself, be enough for those who know us well to understand how bad it was. We can only really suggest that you visit yourself, if you haven't already, and you will understand. On a lighter note, we toured around the city on tuks tuks in the afternoon, visited the silver pagoda with the emerald and the diamond encrusted buddhas, the russian markets and some museum (we are a little over museums...). We spent the evening at our Cambodian tour guide's house - a young guy with three kids and not a lot of money. He uses any spare cash he has (some made from having us over to dinner) to run extra english lessons for his, and all of his neighbours', children - 23 in all. We met with the kids and spent around quarter of an hour chatting with them in english which was really neat as they were able to practice their skills on us and we were able to teach them a few words. Afterwards, we were served up the most delicious, and huge, feast of Cambodian food that you have ever seen - chicken and fish curries, stirfry vegetables, stirfry noodles, meatballs and plenty more. We were lucky enough to hear first hand the inner workings of Cambodian politics and life for the average person in Cambodia. The level of corruption and extortion that happens in everyday life is mindblowing and it is hard to see how the Cambodian people will be able to lift their standard of living very easily in the future. Many Cambodians are recognising the progress that could be made for the country as a whole if the next generations are educated and more and more of the people are struggling to ensure that this is achieved through additional schooling and lessons for the children.