Siem Reap to Phnom Penh

After a good day of resting and feeling very very lazy, I woke up with a sense of wonder... What did this new day hold for me?

Why, whatever I choose!

I was a little bit lost, to be perfectly honest. Being with party people for 2 weeks and letting go of the reins has somewhat damaged my resolve. I found myself wondering what to do, and browsed Québec news for the first time since I left.

After a brunch and a quick chat with a red-head from England (she worked in vineyards in New Zealand last year - sounds awesome) I went for a quick tour of the city's national museum.

12$ for the entrance, and nothing really gained from that visit: the whole of the subject was their Angkor Wat. I did learn a little bit about their history, and hinduism deities.

I still prefer greek mythology.

Went back into the heat and let myself be guided by drums to a nearby tiny Wat where a wedding ceremony was taking place. I lingered for a few moments but couldn't see much and felt like a voyeur.

I then had the idea to go back to my previous guesthouse to try and find Sam, we didn't have the time to exchange facebooks. I showed up at the roof bar and an hour later he appeared, surprised and happy to see me.

We headed out in search of cheap beer and relaxed atmospheres.

We started at Crazy Bamboo Bar where a drunk Khmer kept calling everyone darling and liked to hug.

We visited Temple bar but it was a huge loud club and we couldn't hear ourselves talk. I saw the prettiest cambodian girl there, in a small white robe, all smiles, her black hair braided and hanging over her shoulder. She had eyes only for her boyfiend.

We ended up at X Roof Top bar and played pool versus two cambodian girls who were really good. I quickly learned that they were prostitutes on their day off and learned a little bit about their business. They saw it only as another career, came from a small village to gather enough money to open a business.

They let me know to not trust anyone in Cambodia. Not even them.

They were surprisingly open about practicing the oldest trade in the world and so I asked a lot of questions without impunity. The only one they asked me in return was: "why do foreigners always want it for free? On the first date, never free".

They let me know they charge between 30$ to 300$ per client depending on his social class ("good deal for you tomorow" - "no thank you"). One of them started to play her seducing game on me but i decided to leave.

That night I had a dream that one of them snuck into my room to rob me blind. I woke up abruptly and turned on all the lights in my room while yelling the idiotic "helloooo?". I kept waking up nervously for the rest of the night.

The following morning a nice, smooth headache ensued. While slurping on a banana-shake, the cure-all of travelers, I logged in on Facebook to be drowned by x-mas posts.

I then discovefed the feeling of being homesick. It is quite like the feeling of being lonely, but with a sense of despair attached to it. No matter, I knew it would dissipate after a few days - as soon as I got myself into a new adventure.

And so I decided to go to Phnom Penh.

The journey was not as chaotic as I had mentally prepared myself. I was able to finish Game of Thrones book II and even get a tiny bit of sleep.

The scenery was pretty depressing after having visited the Philippines and Thaïland... No more green fields and rice paddies, charming and homely bamboo hutts, vast jungles, palm trees and distant sharp mountains...

Only ugly concrete houses, litter everywhere, yellow fields and that damnable red sand on the roads, like a final joke from the Khmer Rouge. That made me think about everyone else in the bus... I was the only foreigner. Every single other person on that bus must have lost one or more loved ones in the last 2 decades. Yet they all smiled, were all polite.

The man next to me must have been sixty... He probably went through tragic times in his life, things that I cannot even imagine. Yet he was all smiles and declined politely when I offered him some pringles.

I arrived in Phnom Penh and found it looked a little bit like Manila, but the locals did not scare me. I walked around after 10 pm in search of an interne cafe and everything went smoothly.

Some girls said hi, but now in my head it only means they are looking for clients, and I just keep my pace.

I got a bed in a dorm, as expensive as the private room I was renting in Siem Riep. Tomorow I'm meeting up with Sam again, and I'm gonna go hunting for a cheap bed and an internet café with a webcam to skype with the family on this winter solstice.

It's 20 minutes into the 25th of December as I write this last line.

Joyeux Noël tout le monde.