So it is my last day in Cambodia. I get up at 6am to head to Score! bar to watch the Super Bowl while drinking orange juice. Don’t worry…many others were willing to drink (and smoke) other things…just not me. The place was FULL of US expats. Sadly, the team I chose to root for loses.
I walk to my favorite spa for a foot massage, manicure and pedicure. It is my last chance for a $10 manicure / pedicure. I follow this with my last trip to Brown’s Coffee. I’m really going to miss the people that I’ve met while in Cambodia.
I decide it is time that I see more of Phnom Penh…hey, I’ve been running all over and haven’t had time. I hire a Tuk Tuk driver for a few hours (at a ridiculously cheap rate) and we head out. My instructions…I want to see the city (which required help and translation from one of the complex security guards since my driver does not speak English). He does, however, recognize that I’m on a photo trip and does a good job of slowing down when he sees that I’m trying to take a picture while we are driving.
One of the things that someone told me about the difference in Cambodia now from when it was controlled by the Khmer Rouge was this: “We were digging ditches then and we are digging ditches now. The difference is that now there is noise.” As I rode through the city watching much of the infrastructure work, that was what I always remember.
