Oh thank heavens i’m back home. G Love and Special Sauce is on the stereo, Sam’s getting fish n chips from the new place on Sydney Road .. and the massive heat wave faded away just before i arrived. Tim and Nathan are here, with beer.

Life is perfect.

Sometimes you can have enough of a foreign place and living out of a backpack. Phnom Penh is beautiful in its way, but the poverty gets to me (not as much as it affects the locals obviously), my comfort zones are stretched, the heat and dust wears me down. i needed the comfort of home.

mmmm .. off to Victoria St to get me some frozen lychees.

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photo credit: roboppy

Shanny and Phil turn up in a tuk tuk, to take me to the Russian and Central Markets. Peter is their regular driver who takes them all around town from their base in the Lake District. He’s a friendly man and a good driver.

Along the way, his tuk tuk starts to make cranky noises but after a while it’s okay. Using bits of English and sign, he tells us it’s an oil problem, but he’ll fix it later. He waits at each market while we shop.

My favourite part of the market is the area where women sit cross legged on the counter chopping meat with giant cleavers. The meats hang raw and bloody in the muggy shade. No refrigeration.

oh, there’s the deep fried spiders too.

You always get the best noodle soup at the market, no doubt!!

What a fun day. i love it !!

i thought the traffic was mad in Phnom Penh .. and it is! Bikes traveling along only centimetres from other cars and tuk-tuks. People weaving in and out of traffic as though it’s a giant tapestry.

To cross the road, you just walk into the traffic. Bikes and cars move around you. Terrifying at first, until you get used to it.

Lauli described it as a giant stream full of many schools of fish. You need to learn to go with the flow.

Then i realised that the whole stream is moving at around 20-30kmh .. and actually the drivers are all really good at managing tight situations.

They drive slowly enough to be able to change course instantly. It helps that most people are on pushbike or moto .. you’re totally aware of everyone around you. Not cocooned and separate in a car.

No way would Australians drive slowly enough to manage this traffic.

When we got out of the city onto the open road, our driver hit 60kmh and it felt unbelievably fast. Oh, then you see the buses driving down the middle of the road at high speed. Now that really is mad.

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photo credit: thejonoakley

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