Partying in Phnom Penh

Good day,

I chatted with my mom on skype, first time in a while, it was lovely. Shortly after I went for 1 drink and a smoke, a fine way to retire @ ~11PM. I arrive, have my smoke, have my drink.

I begin chatting a lady from England who is going to Sihanoukville at 2am, sounds interesting. As our conversation begins to come to a close, this gorgeous Canadian girl shows up. After a few minutes, I ask if anyone in that group is from Canada (I already knew). Now we’re chatting together. Turns out her, her bf and this other couple with other randos are going to a club, I’m invited.

I go to a club called Pontoon, it was floating on the river, Mekong I do believe. It was basically a hard house / funky house rave that was floating on the river. Stayed there a while, met some new people and left. By “awhile”, I mean I stayed until the music stopped and it was getting light out.

Suffice to say, I got back to my hotel room at 2:25pm today and quickly passed out for 3 hours, now I feel human, human enough to share this, with you. Now that I’ve tasted the night life a few times here, I can safely move on to Vietnam… My visa is expiring after all and I’m still here as I’m too lazy to pack.

I have run into like NO BACKPACKERS here at all, just expats. Most seem to like it, most have aged faster here than back home and most have mixed emotions about the place. At night, I’d say it’s not safe but safe. It’s safe enough as long as you assume it’s not safe and act accordingly, make sense? All I know, is I do not want to get stuck somewhere. The world is huge, lots of places are cool for 5 days, 5 weeks, but 5 years!?

I walked through part of downtown at dawn with some people and had no problems. At 8am when a girl I was with walked out of a minimart, her purse was stolen by moto thiefs, it happens SO FAST. She went to curb to get a cab, lifted her arms and at that exact time a moto came by and snatch purse. Her neck is bruised and it was gone before she even could think about it.

She predicts they waited for her to come out, I think maybe they just went for it? Who knows. Supposedly lots of street level justice here. Meaning, had they been caught… Who knows. When she told some moto drivers they got all annoyed.

You see, from what I’ve learned is that in many countries like this, many people have no money. It’s a fact of life. If everyone STOLE there would be no one to trust. So especially among people with very little, NO ONE wants a thief in their neighborhood. The main “robbers” are people with guns, people who a vigilante mob would not chase after.

A friend said someone threw a brick at him from a car last night, I’m not sure I believe that. Spoke with some other people today about walking at night, they agreed once the “witching hour” is out and about, wherever you are, always best to be in a moto. Kinda makes sense though, yes?

I’m off to have some satisfying and filling food.

The internet sucks here so bad, I feel paying $1us a day is still being ripped off, it’s that bad. I can’t even surf.