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22 Thaikarl back in PP, cambodia bakeland

friends,

took the bus back to phnom phen this morning.  got set up in a 6 dollar hotel room (with satellite tv!) and we're laying back, preparing to fly back to thailand tomorrow.  i will miss cambodia.  i like it here. the streets dont have stop signs, there are only a few traffic lights in PP.  they name the beach huts names like 555, 777, 888 - so they are easy to remember.  the food is not spicy or hot like in thailand, so it tastes rather bland.  they always think Tok is khemer.  Tok asked a waitron why there are not many cambodian girls with farang men. the ladie told us it's because they don't think foreign men are honest, but the teenage girls are starting to show interest.

they have ATMs here now!  they didnt have a single one on all cambodia last year - progress!  not that many, but they can be found.  Toks sandle was loosing the sole on one foot.  we walked by a shoe fixer on the sidewalk, and i gotToks soles all nicely reglued for 2000 riels (50 cents).  Thy sell a version of red bull here that you don't see in thailand.  its in little 250 ml cans, not as syrupy as the 100ml bottles in thailand.  Tokays live here also - those sqwaking lizards i talked about in an earlier message.  at night, small herds of millipieds would be crossing the concrete in front of the rooms. about the diamiter of a pencil, and as long as your finger.. little smaller.  when you touch them, the quickly curl up in a spirial with their head at the center.  after a minute or two, they unwind and go trooping off again.  there were a lot of weddings going on in sihanookville last night.  strangely enough, the band plays the tune to "Happy Birthday" at some point in the flower-throwing, cake cutting ceremony.  internet shops are common, used by the khmer as well as the tourists.  the kids are amazed at the "pull the end of your thumb off" trick.  some truely astonished, others quickly figure out its a trick of some kind.  they almost forget to ask for money after you goof around with them a little while.  the kids at a mountain top temple we visited yesterday were playing a game on the tiled terrace of the budda.  they would put some money on the floor, then kick flip-flops.  the idea was to kick your shoe and hit the other guys shoe.  if you missed, the other guy could kick his towards the money. if he hit it, he wins it, if he misses, you have to hit his flip-flop with yours again.  interesting.  another game we just saw on the sidewalk used round, flat nuts (tok tells me thais call the nuts saba).  the kids would set up a triangle of nuts up on edge.  the shooter at the other side would try to skip his nut and nock over the upright ones - kind of like bowling.  when on kid won the whole game (not exactly sure what the details of that were) he would take two nuts and holding them together would bang them on the losers kneecaps 4 times.

the only tragic thing i saw was the street kids in Siem Riep huffing.  they have small plastic bags they put paint thinner, spray paint or solvents into, then breath in and out of the bag.  they hide the bags when they come up to you, but they get them out when they are off running around.  I suppose, the numerous land mine victims are pretty unpleasant, but different.  kids an adults missing legs, arms and eyes, stumbling around begging.  horrible things - mines.

any questions?

we fly back to thailand tommarow morning.

Onward!
Nu

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i am in thailand at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at:   http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/

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