Phonm Penh

sok sabiy! that means hello. along with my language lessons the team has been very busy. after orientation at Kirirom National Park, which was a good start to our journey, we headed back to Phonm Penh. One quick note I am very proud to share is that in Kirirom I took my first bucket shower. Bery interesting. Countryside villagers don;t have showers so they put water into huge urns and pour water over them to shower. So me and the girls headed out in the traditional sarongs and kramas to bath in. It was a very cool experience. Not at all what I expected. The krama is used to cover our shoulders because it is inappropriate to show your shoulders here as girls. So, Phonm Penh. A bustling city, the capital, and similar to most third world cities you will visit. There is trash on the ground, geckos on the walls, sewage lakes in public view, outside vendors, controlled chaotic traffic, and much more. The equivalent to hostels here are guest houses. Were staying at one called Tatoo and its nice. So are the people. Out of all the countries I've visited, I've never met a people as kind and friendly as Cambodians. They will always grace you with a smile, and help if you need it. The food here consists of noodles in various combos, rice, and those two mixed in stir fry from with vegetables and meats. Not much variety, but its good eating. Fruit is also available in all the street markets. A couple days ago we went to basically the slums and into an apartment where the cambodian living arts dancers practice. They were very good. A big thing in their type of dance is to bend your handa backwards, which they do for hours a day so they can bend the back of their hands to their forarms. It's a painful process but looks so graceful. Yesterday we went to a monastery and had the god fortune of being blessed by four monks. They chanted scripture that wished us luck and happiness on our journey. It was the coolest sound I've ever heard. They have us red bracelets dipped in holy water to make it complete. That was an amazing experience. Today was filled with intense emotions. We visited S 21, a torture and prision camp during the Pol Plot regime. Then we visites the Killing Fields. WE were standing over the bones of thousands of lost souls. The mass graves were literally at my toes. It was brutal. The crimes the soliders commited were horendous. After that we came bak to the guest house and embarked on a journey to find two traditional healing methods that are popular here. Cupping and coining. Cupping is where they coat many cups with alcohol, then quickly put a flame inside to suck the oxygen out and put it on your back. Then your skin literally rises about an inch inside the cup. It feels like a thousand pounds of pressure was just placed on your back. A very uncomfortable experience. Coining is even more intense. They take a coin and in smooth, but hard strokes, rake it across your back, arms and chest many times. It just hurts. A lot. I had both done to me today. It was a good experience, but one I'm not so keen on doing again any time soon. Tomorrow we head to Siam Reap. Almost a week has gone by!