Pheon phen

Trip Start Oct 23, 2006

Trip End Feb 01, 2007

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Flag of Cambodia Pheon phen, Cambodia
Wednesday, November 29, 2006

down in the capital pheon phen at the moment - we only planned on passing through but it turns out to be a really interesting city so w�'ve been here 4 days now and no sign of moving on in sight. pheon phen is like a city tripping all the time - someone described it as a place where the insane becomes sane and the impossible plausible. i am very quickly understanding why. you can take the wrong turn off and end up in little towns of brothel shacks, another turn brings you to the palace with these beautiful golden top mosques. within an hour of getting into the capital some dude is asking if we want to blow up a cow with a rocket launcher for $200. now ive done cow-tipping and its a bit of a laugh - but blowing up one is taking the joke a bit far? it appetimizes everything that is cambodia - a world of extremes. . .went to see the killing fields yesterday where over 2 million people were executed by the khmer rogue 30 years ago - towers upon towers of skulls stacked up upon each other - pretty scary sight

7 in the morning

. outside theres a gift shop were you can buy knives and maschettes as souvenirs?!?
everyday we've been playing the local cambodian soccer team on a dirt pitch outside the local mosque - the first day we didnt think much of it - just a small kick around in the baking heat - turns out that news has spread of our international friendly and 100+ people show up to watch! since then it would appear news has spread wide and fast across the city because everyday the attendance has doubled in size - yesterdays game had a bigger attendance than most eircom league games at home. . you can see the locals come along with their beer and flags - i swear to god it must be one of the funniest things ive ever seen - and they dont just sit there and watch - they're up screaming and shouting at every kick of the ball! some guy approached us after yesterdays game and asked would we like to play todays game in the stadium in the middle of the city - so our team of swedes, aussies, english, french and irish have decided to lay off the beer, get a good nights rest and crush them later on today. walking down the street you get people smiling and shouting out some obscure football word at you!

the place where were staying is another reason we've stayed here for longer than planned - its called the ''new guesthouse'', and its right beside the lakeside - well actually the whole guesthouse is ON the lake - you gotta walk over some very dodgy planks which the entire place is balancing on. very cool place though -without doubt our most enjoyable accommodation yet - people running the place - jake the snake and co. are all very cool people - they got a really good pool table thats free, small bar where you can just run up a tab and serve yourself late at night - tv with a hundred channels - most of which play premeirship soccer, bucket loads of dvds, couple of hammocks, chess board, and a wicked sunset view. plus theres all this grass and a small island on the lake that floats around all day everyday - its the craziest thing, one day there might be grass right below you, the next its half a mile out.

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