Phnom Pehn

Phnom Penh is unlike any other place we've seen in southeast Asia thus far. It's dirty, and everybody wants your money. I don't feel safe here at all. This kid selling us books is telling us how often the kids will try and see if you have a lot of cash on you and then phone an older brother or someone who will then follow you around for a while and find the appropriate time to rob you. He says he saw this happen a month ago, this guy slashes a tourist's money pouch with a knife cutting her arm in the process. He reports it to the police and runs away, because corruption is big here and this mugger is probably going to beat the crap out of the kid. Luckily the mugger is in jail for 15 years. The kid says he's confident that he'll be big and strong enough to defend himself from a middle-aged man when the sentence is up. I'll be he's right.

For McGee's birthday we went to a highly regarded and recommended Italian restaurant run by a real live Italian gentleman. We're both craving not-rice at this point and I order a carbonara. You can't go wrong with carbonara. Pasta, egg, bacon, cheese oh how I've missed you all my friends. Instead of a regular birthday cake we had banana pancakes in our room which was pretty neat. I had burgers for the following two nights here then it was off to Kampot on the first local bus in the morning.