First morning in phnom penh
April 20, 2010
1st day of the Old Hacks Reunion
Arrived in Phnom Penh late last night, 26 hours after leaving Raleigh. Not a bad trip at all, much better than I feared. I did read two complete books and watched two complete movies—sherlock holmes and the young Victoria, learned some stuff about her.
My new friend Alice Smith met me at the huge new PP air terminal. How wonderful it was to see a happy smiling face in all that chaotic crowd of people. She was a close friend of Dana Stone’s younger brother, Tom, who is described in my book. He was killed in Afghanistan after devoting much of his life searching for his older brother. He lived here in PP for a time in 1998. All the local workers were in almost cartoonish military garb….and nobody smiled. Apparently a characteristic of the people here. But, as one resident old hack pointed out, “they still smile if you smile…of course, in the old days it was the reverse.” Of course, they didn’t have a lot to smile about for quite a long time there and who can blame them with all the horrible memories they have to live with….however, a whole new generation has come of age since Pol Pot’s khmer rouge troops murdered 1/4 th of the population
Alice said people describe PP as Saigon 40 years ago. It is certainly seedy, garbage piled up everywhere. My hotel was locked up tight behind one of those metal gates. We hit the buzzer and walked into a tropical paradise. One of the most beautiful swimming pools, surrounded by a palm garden, I’ve ever seen….and after sitting on a plane all that time, it truly did look like paradise to me. And I jumped right in.
Alice is a speech therapist who does volunteer work with Operation Smile, a program to help children with cleft palates. I felt an instant kinship with her when she first began e-mailing me and telling me about Dana’s younger brother….
Nothing scheduled until 5 p.m. today and it’s a good thing. I was so wired when I got in last night, I could hardly sleep, and then the sleeping desk boy’s cell phone kept beeping until I woke him up and got him to turn it off!!!
So, I’m going to go for a swim; go out rambling around the neighborhood. The museum and royal palace are only a block away…..and then at some point, I hope to catch up on my sleep with a long old man’s nap……
Had a wonderfully healthy breakfast [free] by the pool; fresh bread and marmalade and fresh papaya juice, watermelon, pineapple, banana….what a breakfast should be but mine never is…..then, walked over to the river, desperately poor people every way you look, camped out on the very wide sidewalks; magnificently beautiful museum building a block away from me and the royal palace…..and some truly beautiful pagodas………….
1st day of the Old Hacks Reunion
Arrived in Phnom Penh late last night, 26 hours after leaving Raleigh. Not a bad trip at all, much better than I feared. I did read two complete books and watched two complete movies—sherlock holmes and the young Victoria, learned some stuff about her.
My new friend Alice Smith met me at the huge new PP air terminal. How wonderful it was to see a happy smiling face in all that chaotic crowd of people. She was a close friend of Dana Stone’s younger brother, Tom, who is described in my book. He was killed in Afghanistan after devoting much of his life searching for his older brother. He lived here in PP for a time in 1998. All the local workers were in almost cartoonish military garb….and nobody smiled. Apparently a characteristic of the people here. But, as one resident old hack pointed out, “they still smile if you smile…of course, in the old days it was the reverse.” Of course, they didn’t have a lot to smile about for quite a long time there and who can blame them with all the horrible memories they have to live with….however, a whole new generation has come of age since Pol Pot’s khmer rouge troops murdered 1/4 th of the population
Alice said people describe PP as Saigon 40 years ago. It is certainly seedy, garbage piled up everywhere. My hotel was locked up tight behind one of those metal gates. We hit the buzzer and walked into a tropical paradise. One of the most beautiful swimming pools, surrounded by a palm garden, I’ve ever seen….and after sitting on a plane all that time, it truly did look like paradise to me. And I jumped right in.
Alice is a speech therapist who does volunteer work with Operation Smile, a program to help children with cleft palates. I felt an instant kinship with her when she first began e-mailing me and telling me about Dana’s younger brother….
Nothing scheduled until 5 p.m. today and it’s a good thing. I was so wired when I got in last night, I could hardly sleep, and then the sleeping desk boy’s cell phone kept beeping until I woke him up and got him to turn it off!!!
So, I’m going to go for a swim; go out rambling around the neighborhood. The museum and royal palace are only a block away…..and then at some point, I hope to catch up on my sleep with a long old man’s nap……
Had a wonderfully healthy breakfast [free] by the pool; fresh bread and marmalade and fresh papaya juice, watermelon, pineapple, banana….what a breakfast should be but mine never is…..then, walked over to the river, desperately poor people every way you look, camped out on the very wide sidewalks; magnificently beautiful museum building a block away from me and the royal palace…..and some truly beautiful pagodas………….
posted by Perry Deane Young at 6:29 PM
1 Comments:
Hello Perry Dean,
We love your work. Come and visit us in Siem Reap while you are here in Cambodia. Please
Bill and Debra
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