penhomenal

this morning's first outing: a trip to the killing fields outside of the city. little more than a field with a thoughtfully constructed memorial, the site was rife with emotion still. placards marked the three onsite mass graves, a tree where a loudspeaker designed to drown out the sounds of the executed, a pole where children were beaten, and a stack of skulls that reached three stories high. there were butterflies everywhere, starving cows whose skin provided little more than a membrane to shield bones from the street side dust, a few water buffalo ambling around, and lots of children offering there service as subjects of photographs for a dollar. it was depressing, needless to say.

and then it was back on the bicycle. at first i just wanted to go north of town to see wat phnom. but that was silly, depressing, full of dollar gorged beggars and americans who have still failed to notice that pointing feet directly at buddha, pointing at people, and leaving the functional volume on digital cameras are all no-nos. it was a freak show. so i headed even further north to check out some random wats, hung out with a few kids for a while and jumped rope with them, fumbled through the eight lanes of traffic, got a little sunburnt, ripped through the central market before realizing i was going the wrong way, and just returned to my hostel sweaty and dirty.

i'm loving the city but longing for air sans melting plastic, corrugated metal sparks, and dust. maybe a few paved roads, and a respite from the ubiquitous motorbike.