Hi Everyone
Hi Everyone
Just wanted to say hi from Thailand before heading over to Cambodia in a few hours. Peace
Stay cool
Stay cool man and keep away from the Bangkok hilton not worth it.
Cambodia
The motorcycle-taxi driver at the airport was the first to offer drugs. Driving along Phnom Penh's wide, dusty boulevards, he produced a small bag of marijuana from his pocket.
"You want some drugs, yes?"
This was my introduction to Cambodia. Before long, I'd been offered ganja three more times (once by my guest house manager), and the opportunity to discharge automatic weapons.
To say I was offered drugs by my guest house manager is misleading; in truth, I'd had a sizable bag of sticky green buds placed in my hand with the expectation that I'd pay later - with the linen bill, no doubt.
It was midday. I'd been in Cambodia for three hours.
Phnom Penh is an anomaly among Southeast Asian capitals. While Bangkok, Vientiane and Hanoi all offer varying degrees of dubious after-hours entertainments, none of them come close to the prevalence – and openness – of the seamy Cambodian capital. In many ways Phnom Penh is a city strangely out of step with its more developed neighbours, Hanoi and Bangkok; an anachronistic throwback to the lost, lawless, drug-tinged orient that cities like Shanghai no longer are. A Wild West outpost in the East, if you will.
This frontier town feeling is unsurprising in a country that is as poor and as underdeveloped as Cambodia, and has such a staggeringly violent past.
Cambodia
The motorcycle-taxi driver at the airport was the first to offer drugs. Driving along Phnom Penh's wide, dusty boulevards, he produced a small bag of marijuana from his pocket.
"You want some drugs, yes?"
This was my introduction to Cambodia. Before long, I'd been offered ganja three more times (once by my guest house manager), and the opportunity to discharge automatic weapons.
To say I was offered drugs by my guest house manager is misleading; in truth, I'd had a sizable bag of sticky green buds placed in my hand with the expectation that I'd pay later - with the linen bill, no doubt.
It was midday. I'd been in Cambodia for three hours.
Phnom Penh is an anomaly among Southeast Asian capitals. While Bangkok, Vientiane and Hanoi all offer varying degrees of dubious after-hours entertainments, none of them come close to the prevalence – and openness – of the seamy Cambodian capital. In many ways Phnom Penh is a city strangely out of step with its more developed neighbours, Hanoi and Bangkok; an anachronistic throwback to the lost, lawless, drug-tinged orient that cities like Shanghai no longer are. A Wild West outpost in the East, if you will.
This frontier town feeling is unsurprising in a country that is as poor and as underdeveloped as Cambodia, and has such a staggeringly violent past.
It's cool to be kind
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imcalledstu
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