Day of Conquest

Well Saturday morning started off with a lovely dip in the pool with Christina. Savannah came over and told us that since our Twizzler, Alexis, was still a little freaked out we should do a big group thing. So we agreed to meet at one for a lovely lunch and then explore the Russian Market, which is the one must do market in Phnom Penh.

Then my Ya-Ya sisters (Lauren, Jess, Christina) and I had another great life talk/ bible study which was a great way to start and energize our day.

At one we all met to go to Friends Restaurant which is one of many philanthropic things you can do in Phnom Penh. Lonely Planet has this great list of places that offer services (like restaurants) that also serve a greater purpose. So Friends is a restaurant that takes children off the streets and gives them opportunities by schooling them in both Khmer and English, and reunites them with their families while also letting them work as servers in the restaurant. The kids are actua

lly about fifteen to twenty years old and they wear shirts that say “student” while the people who are ‘graduates’ of the program wear shirts that say “teacher”. What else is great about this restaurant? EVERYTHING. The Paintings on the walls are done by students. They guarantee that their vegeta

bles and fruits are bacteria free (in other words we can eat them) and that the water AND ICE is purified multiple times, so I got to have ice water for the first time in TEN DAYS. Which is something we all take for granted, but after this ridiculous heat and humidity, one really appreciates the goodness of frozen products that wont make one violently ill.

After lunch, we took another Tuk Tuk (the open air carts that are pulled by motorbikes- see picture)

to the Russian Market. –An aside on Tuk Tuks. I am pretty sure they are only a vehicle of choice for the tourists, which is why Alexis was a mega target. Really and truly, I have never seen a Cambodian in the physical cart part of a Tuk Tuk—. Ok So The Russian Market was like any other “open air” (a term I use very VERY generously) market in a third world country. As in it was full of knock offs everywhere and people are telling you how beautiful you are and how great their silk is. We saw North Face coats (I’m sure those are big sellers here on the equator), Puma shoes everywhere, Old Navy clothes, A&F, Lacoste, just all sorts of brands we spend big bucks for in the states. And of course, Daddy, I did some bargaining, but like any other market too, there is not much worth having. I bought a few dresses that are light and airy and perfect for LA but still too much for here (any and all clothing is too much to wear here. Nudity should be the outfit of choice). I also bought a bag for three dollars that is so durable and goes over the shoulders, which again after Alexis’s experience, is a necessity for tourists. I also bought a few silk scarves. Here I am drawn to orange. I now have TWO orange silk scarves from Cambodia and cant decide which one I love more.

After the Russian Market, we came back to the hotel and I was absolutely exhausted in all ways because Jess and I had stayed up until four am having the best life talks and Christina came bounding up the stairs before eight am full of her morning joy, so we were up for the day. Any way, my three Ya-Yas want out to dinner with an American missionary who has been in Cambodia for ten years. He is apparently fluent in Khmer and took them to the night market, showed them where children are bought and sold, and told them of all the complacency and down-troddenness (noun form in my world) of NGOs and missionaries here because of the pervasive sex slavery, among other soul-crushing things here that are just so hard to root out because of bureaucracy and the obsession with getting rich.

My night was a little more uplifting than that to say the least. Similar to Friends restaurant, there are massage places here that serve greater purposes than a great service. Niro (the Sri-Lankan beauty) and I went to get massages by BLIND PEOPLE. One can also get massages by acid burn victims (Aside: men here often leave their first wives for younger, more beautiful women who become either their second wives or girlfriends. As a way to keep their husbands from sleeping with the new gir

ls, the first wives pour acid on the faces of the young girls and burn them.)—like I said, there is a lot of heart break here. Anyway, so Niro had never had a massage and is from a very conservative culture, so we decided to go to the blind people to make her more comfortable.

We climbed in a little Tuk-Tuk who took us past Phnom Wat (which hopefully I will have more to say about after Jess and I venture there today). Then we turned down this street and there were MONKEYS. MOOOOONKEYS IN THE CAPITAL CITY. I was so excited, but didn’t have my camera with me, so I am a little forlorn about this. The monkeys were just climbing on the buildings and sitting in the road. It was fantastic.

So this massage. We walk in, we are led into this room where there are six massage beds. We are handed scrubs, we change in a make-shift dressing room. Then you lay down on your bed and get massaged by a blind person. The whole thing was amazing and quite the experience because they start by climbing on your bed. Did I mention that their massage style is half anma (body and spirit relaxation) and half SHIATSU. I have no more pain in my body anymore. It was beaten out of me in the most relaxing, beautiful way possible. I may go to the acid victims today for another one. It was the best. OH. And it only cost SIX DOLLARS FOR A FULL FREAKING HOUR OF MASSAGE. WHAT. It was just the greatest. I want to go back to the blind massage place (called Seeing Hands Massage) too because all of the blind massage therapists are old enough to have definitely been at least ten years old during the Khmer Rouge Regime. And it is not just that these people are blind, but they are faces are also contorted in ways that makes me want to know what their story is. So I am going to talk to Kru Kosal to see if there is a way that we can talk to at least one of these people, hopefully my masseuse named Mas. I just think they must have such an unreal story because Khmer Rouge went out of their way to kill anyone that was less than their idea of a perfect Khmer person.

I know that I will be leaving a piece of my heart and soul here. Jessica and I have already talked about plans to come back here. I am in love with a country.