Social reform is underway, thanks to a few cocktails (posting from the road)

Another painful bus ride ended in the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. After spending the recent past in smaller cities, the hustle and bustle of the capital was overwhelming. The city is crowded with but still full of all the weird Cambodianess I have come to apprechiate; buddhas collecting alms, randomly placed sweatshops, geckos everwhere, an elephant walking in traffic and the tuk tuk. I discovered that there are more tuk tuks then actual residents in the city. This overwhelming surplus leads to constant harassment, if you accidentally glance in the direction of a tuk tuk driver they will stalk you. I swear sometimes it is just easier to get in, pay the dollar then it is to get harassed - even if it is just a block.

I was able to check off another one of the 'thousand places to see' list - the Silver Pagoda at the Royal Palace. It was impressive but I was more blown away by the security present. There are over 4,000 diamonds (one over 20 carats) adorning a solid gold buddha, that is secured by a flimsy lock that could easily be picked by a hairpin while a guard naps near by. My guess is the karma that would be associated with stealing a buddha is what deters most would be theives...

I now can wear the badge of honour of being escorted out of one of Phnom Penh's 'toughest' nightclubs. Our first day ended with a visit to the "Heart of Darkness" bar - it had something to do with Apocolypse Now; it was inspired by it or it inspired part of the the movie, something like that - either way...that was in the past, way way in the past. How to describe it...a pottery barn decorated brothel that plays bad 80's music and sells overpricesd, but very strong, cocktails.

The strength of their cocktails is where I got the strength to try and make some much needed changes to the social problems in Cambodia. In case you missed the CNN expose last week, their is a HUGE prostitution problem here. Sitting in this club, the dance floor was empty except for young, scantily clad females shaking their asses for the creepy old white guys in the audience. I sat quietly for a while, just absorbing it all...then I snapped. I started yelling at this man sitting across from me, or as I like to think of it, telling it like it is. I said something about him being a dirty old pervert that is contributing to the degredation of society...this is what led to my invitation to depart. Realizing that there are 2 sides to this problem, I found some ladies, or rather, girls of the night, smoking by a tree. I started pleding them to go back to school ("education is important!") while Christopher and Scott dragged me in to a tuk tuk. Thank heavens there was one available.

A-gun