CAMBODIA

I have mentioned this before,  the more money spent on education, the more advanced the country.  In Thailand education is paid for by the government.  Even though you do see very poor living conditions in places, for the most part Thailand was humming along fairly well.  Then you get to Cambodia.  The conditions those people are living in, even the better off people, were appalling.  And we hadn't seen garbage strewn everywhere like this since Central South America.

We left the ship on a very  dilapidated bus, one Bill could barely deal with.  We were in a coastal city of about 200,000 people. The first stop was at a pagoda/monastery.  We were immediately accosted by dozens of little children, begging and selling things.  On Bill's brother Frank's suggestion, Bill brought tons of pencils and tiny pads of paper.  He started handing them out, much to the little one's delight, much to the nasty man with a cell phone sitting on a motorcycle's dismay.  He was running the whole begging show and pencils just don't cut it.  I took his pic and will post it on facebook.  We had a good look around there and then back on the bus and on to a posh hotel/resort on the beach.  

The hotel seemed nice, what we could see.  The water was beautiful but again, as we sat under thatched roofs, we were accosted by people selling things etc…  I finally caved in and for five bucks succumbed to a fifteen minute hand and arm massage.   Mmmmmmm so gooooooood…reminded me of you and me when you were little Aryn!  Nothing beats an arm massage.  There is so little to do here that to fill in time they take us to a resort spot for a rest and drink.  It was nice.  We then moved to "downtown".  We had been in this market before so we opted for a tuktuk ride.  Am I ever glad we did.  He drove us all around the little downtown area and on the edges of the town, where we saw makeshift farms. The roads were very very rough and broken or unpaved entirely.  And…no matter how tattered and barefooted and hungry, everyone, and I mean everyone, had a cell phone.  A few times I just shut my eyes and hoped for the best.  Motorbikes are careening around in every direction everywhere.

It is Chinese new year today.  Everywhere we went people had little fires lit in front of their places.  They were burning stacks of fake money…american dollars.  Apparently, this money goes to their dead ancestors for their dead relatives to use in the hereafter.  What we DIDN"T see here were people just sitting around doing nothing…like we saw a lot of in Egypt and the middle east.  Everybody was industriously doing something.  And a lot of the men were handling the babies and toddlers.

We finished in what they called a fishing village.  It was truly the most squallerous dirty smelly place I have ever been.  But…the people were the happiest and most fun.  The buildings along the road and piers were dilapidated and collapsing and absolutely filthy but all the people were smiling and busy.  What was truly fun was watching and listening to the overly protected tourists reacting to it all.  Some of them turned back…they didn't want to get their shoes dirty, or they couldn't stomach the smell.  The tourist that was most fun to watch was Bill.  Honestly, for an old dude who is stiff, can't lift his feet or turn his neck or can't remember his bus number, he gets into the whole experience more than any other  traveller.   He gets a bright excited spark in his eye and a goofy kind of grin on his face and just loves it all.  He is kind of shy to try new things so I do the advanced scouting and necessary communicating and then he just jumps right in and goes for the ride.  He really is almost the perfect travel mate. Almost.  He does go the speed of dark.

Anyway, we are back in the Neptune lounge, much to Bill's delight, eating tiny tuna, egg, cucumber, salami sandwiches and dainty little desserts.  I think I am on my third latte.  Tomorrow is a sea day thank goodness.  By this time in a trip we both are living in deadly fear that there won't be a bathroom near when we need it.  We need a ship day!  I am in the midst of watching a delightful Masterpiece Theatre series called Lark Rise to Candleford.  I love the show.  Bill is reading a 30,000 page book or something like that.  My next face book pics will be Cambodia.  TTYL