Tuk Tuk? Tuk Tuk?

The Calcutta airport is an interesting, simple, dirty and a bit of a sleazy place compared with other airports I have been to. I arrived very early on Sunday the 16th of November to find that there were less than 100 people in the entire tiny airport and only two morning flights, little need for security and long waits to wait. The food shop before passing security was less expensive by a comical amount than on the boarding side!
Arriving in Bangkok, the airport is beautiful, huge and bustling with people. Bangkok feels like the Disneyland of Asia, to quote an Aussie fellow traveler I met. The streets are clean, the buildings large and ultra decadent and modern, the traffic is comprised of nice, new cars, no cows walking through the streets or anything. And, THE STREET FOOD!!! is clean, and lively and bright and delicious, mangoes, jack fruit, watermelon, papayas.... sooo good:) I went to a beautiful Thai cinema and saw a dumb action movie, Tropic Thunder, the previews lasted 30 minutes, during which, was a long ad with the national anthem in which everyone stands up to salute the beloved Thai king... finally a people that really LOVE their leader! Hopefully America will now follow suit!
Two days later, up early again, I got on a big bus and headed in the trails of Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, to the border of the Kingdom of Cambodia, famous for Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, the killing fields and the bloody 1975 slaughter of 3 million Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge Empire. The first part of the journey was air conditioned and smooth, the second half was hilariously bumpy and deviated because there are few real roads, but one can see them being slowly constructed from the dirty windows of the bus.
There are two classes here, the INSANELY rich, who drive jeeps, Lexus and Mercedes and eat at great restaurants, and the AMAZINGLY poor, who are sleeping in the streets, working in the streets and begging in the streets. The country had many mine fields over the bloody revolutions and coups and it is common to see 'survivors of mines' people playing music to make money and finding other ways to make money by begging. The local people LOVE pyjamas and I have seen all varieties on the women, teddy bears and hearts and you name it, kids and adults wear pyjamas everywhere. Bicycles, tuk tuks and motorbikes seem to be the main mode of travel, much like the rest of Asia, people pile by families of 4 onto the bike to commute to their destinations.
Here, people are constantly on the tourists to SELL anything and everything, mostly I hear the phrase 'TUK TUK TUK TUK' when I leave one building and step out onto the street. It feels like a way of saying hello at this point, although it annoys me greatly as well.
I am staying at a place on the riverside of Phnom Penh, this city, the capital, has its charm but is nothing like the beautiful Siem Reap, where the atmosphere is thick with the ancient and the holy, beautiful temples, smiling people, and a friendly place called, Old Market, where dozens of tourists have set up well decorated and delicious (and inexpensive) restaurants. I have been blessed to find a stellar vegetarian restaurant in Siem Reap (Chamkar!!) and took a cooking class there!! Today, finally managed to find K'nyay, Phenom Penh's vegetarian and Vegan hidden haven. Thank god for Vegetables and creativity!! I feel less like running out of this strange city now.
There is a huge French influence in this country, since it was for a long time a French colony until a few decades back. It is interesting to see the familiar Rue de France and Rue Pasteur street signs and see menus in French and English. Although, during the Khmer Rouge, the majority of educated people were brutally massacred, so it seems like people here are not as bilingual as one might think. They are beautiful, thick lipped like the buddha statues, dark haired, thin and overly accommodating to tourists though, hoping to make litterally a buck... they use American dollars here more than their local Reals! Strange to have Washington in hand again! Signs and campaigns are posted everywhere not to give money to beggars, not to come for sex tourism, not to touch the children... a sad state of reality indeed. And yet, what about adult prostitution? I see men and women alike, all dressed up and ready for the night scene here, older foreign men pretending to give company to the dolled up local girls. The money industry mixed with tourism and poverty makes me very sad here!
The tourists seem to be all stoned and drunk, and the locals seem to be the same.. at least near my guest house, which, funny enough is run by a police man! They offer all types of drugs here and it is frankly an odd vibe. I am excited to leave here for the Cambodian beaches and am craving my return to beautiful, natural, tranquil Koh Pha Ngan where I hope to find a temporary sense of home, purpose and routine. Give me a bungalow and a yoga course:)