Phnom Penh: day three. No tourists here! :)
I am sitting at a fancy restaurant on the river with my glass of white wine after just ordering a nice steak with fries and a salad. I feel like a queen even though I know that this treat will cost me under ten dollars. However this seemingly perfect afternoon by the river is overshadowed by a constant flow of kids selling things from their little baskets and men offering tours of the killing fields and other sad places which are a testament to the pretty difficult existance that Cambodians have struggled with. I must be honest though, because I have gotten used to the kids beging and selling things on the street, this does no ruin my nice lunch. On the contrary. It makes me appreciate what I have so much more. And these kids have a pretty good sense of humor. Instead of just asking and making sad faces, they actually make jokes and respond to yours, which makes the situation a bit better.
Now that my meal is finished and I still have a bit of wine left. I will sit back and enjoy my wine in this chaos filled beauty of a place. Tuk tuks, cars and motorbikes wizzing by and my mind is as calm as ever. I am very relaxed and happy, although that could be the fault of my low tolerance to wine. No but really, I am happy with where my life is and although the future is always a concern for me, I do not intend to worry about it anytime soon. It will come and it will go and in the end, it will just be another moment in the past. So why worry abou the past? Worrying makes people old, physically. Worry takes a toll on your body and wears it down. So why speed up the natural process of aging and instead, just enjoy life? Sounds like a plan for me. It should be a plan for you also.
There were two older French guys sitting at a table to the left of me who were getting harrassed by kids left and right. That was probably because they gave money to one of the kids so many others came by after they heard about the rich French guys. After the kids kept coming back, one of the guys bought all five of them ice cream so they finally left. But, all came back couple minutes later to say thank you for the ice cream.
It occurred to me that as intimidating as this city is (and it really is) for some reason I feel very much at ease here. All the chaos around me somehow relaxes me. Maybe it's because the chaos isn't mine but it's everyone else's and I'm just a tiny puzzle piece in the grand scheme of things. As much as I was enjoying the small towns and villages, it's been nice to live in the bustle of a big city. Although I can completely understand why some say they don't like Phnom Penh. For me it was a good place to be sick, to then nurse myself back to health, buy necessary electronic appliances which had broken oh and as I just picked up my camera from the repair shop; fix my camera and recover all the photos I thought were gone! What a day :)
Phnom Penh is a bit unsettling though. There are so many middle aged and older white men walking around with young Cambodian women who are barely women. It's clearly a business relationship but it is everywhere and I think people have gotten used to it so much that they don't see it anymore. I guess this is better than the alternative for some of those women. Which would be barely surviving and working at markets trying to sell things that noone really wants. I guess you can never know what is going on in anyone's lives until you walk a mile in their shoes.
Tomorrow I will be taking a bus to Siem Reap to explore the eighth world wonder, the Angkor Wat. Very exciting! :)
I will finish this blog by an excerpt from a book I am reading right now. For some reason, these words really stuck with me..."There's a kind of luck that's not much more than being in the right place at the right time, a kind of inspiration that's not much more than doing the right thing in the right way, and both only really happen to you when you empty your heart of ambition, purpose, and plan; when you give yourself completely, to the golden, fate-filled moment." From Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.
Now that my meal is finished and I still have a bit of wine left. I will sit back and enjoy my wine in this chaos filled beauty of a place. Tuk tuks, cars and motorbikes wizzing by and my mind is as calm as ever. I am very relaxed and happy, although that could be the fault of my low tolerance to wine. No but really, I am happy with where my life is and although the future is always a concern for me, I do not intend to worry about it anytime soon. It will come and it will go and in the end, it will just be another moment in the past. So why worry abou the past? Worrying makes people old, physically. Worry takes a toll on your body and wears it down. So why speed up the natural process of aging and instead, just enjoy life? Sounds like a plan for me. It should be a plan for you also.
There were two older French guys sitting at a table to the left of me who were getting harrassed by kids left and right. That was probably because they gave money to one of the kids so many others came by after they heard about the rich French guys. After the kids kept coming back, one of the guys bought all five of them ice cream so they finally left. But, all came back couple minutes later to say thank you for the ice cream.
It occurred to me that as intimidating as this city is (and it really is) for some reason I feel very much at ease here. All the chaos around me somehow relaxes me. Maybe it's because the chaos isn't mine but it's everyone else's and I'm just a tiny puzzle piece in the grand scheme of things. As much as I was enjoying the small towns and villages, it's been nice to live in the bustle of a big city. Although I can completely understand why some say they don't like Phnom Penh. For me it was a good place to be sick, to then nurse myself back to health, buy necessary electronic appliances which had broken oh and as I just picked up my camera from the repair shop; fix my camera and recover all the photos I thought were gone! What a day :)
Phnom Penh is a bit unsettling though. There are so many middle aged and older white men walking around with young Cambodian women who are barely women. It's clearly a business relationship but it is everywhere and I think people have gotten used to it so much that they don't see it anymore. I guess this is better than the alternative for some of those women. Which would be barely surviving and working at markets trying to sell things that noone really wants. I guess you can never know what is going on in anyone's lives until you walk a mile in their shoes.
Tomorrow I will be taking a bus to Siem Reap to explore the eighth world wonder, the Angkor Wat. Very exciting! :)
I will finish this blog by an excerpt from a book I am reading right now. For some reason, these words really stuck with me..."There's a kind of luck that's not much more than being in the right place at the right time, a kind of inspiration that's not much more than doing the right thing in the right way, and both only really happen to you when you empty your heart of ambition, purpose, and plan; when you give yourself completely, to the golden, fate-filled moment." From Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.
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