Why I Don’t Want To Become An Expat

I had an interesting day today. I spent the first half of the day seeing the sights of Phenom Penh, the Royal Palace, the Silver Pagoda and the killing fields. What I love and hate about already about SE Asia is the bombardment of moto, tuk-tuk and taxi drivers at every corner. My moto driver, Paul (most likely just a random English name that he picked to tell tourists), was an excellent guy. The great thing about moto/tuk-tuk service is that they basically wait for your at every place you go and in the end of the day it costs you about $10. The annoying part is dealing with the other thousand drivers that want to compete for your service.

The Royal Palace was impressive. Massive, multi-roofed buildings that blot out the sun with their gold and silver leafed tiles. If it weren’t for the scorching heat, I might have stayed a little bit beyond the half an hour that is took, running from patch of shade to patch of shade within the palace grounds. Paul and I then headed out to Choeng Ek, or the killing fields. To bring you up on Cambodian history, basically this guy named Pol Pot took power with a group known as the Khmer Rogues that slaughtered anyone who was thought to be educated. It’s thought that 1.7 million people were slaughtered and the killing fields were one of the mass grave sights. It was a very chilling experience, especially the monument that holds 8,000 skulls that were excavated from some of the graves.

I spent the afternoon with some crazy expats, both named Gary. Gary #1, originally from New York, walked up to me and had to rave about my random pins on my backpack. We spent the next half an hour standing by the Mekong, while he tried to convince me that a meteor hit Cambodia and was the source of all life on earth…yep, it was amazing! We decided to mosy on over to the local pallet wetter where we met Gary #2, original from jolly old England. We had a few beers and while Gary #1 was off trying to score some dope, I found out that Gary #2 had lived in Encinitas in the 70’s. We swapped stories of the old and new days in SoCal and I got some tips that included some supposedly good Mexican food in Siem Reap! I left pretty soon after Gary #1 came back with his stash. I must say though, it was a memorable afternoon in Cambodia.