CAMBODIA, Phnom Penh Monday 16th April

Well I saw my second New Year in dancing on a stage with 2 excitable Birmingham chaps, being rather fiercely upstaged by painfully thin prostitutes, while scantily clad farang writhed in the smoky pit below us in a club rather aptly named The Heart of Darkness.
Happy New Year South East Asia style! Hmmm. It is sad, the irresistible magnetism that draws the western men and the prostitutes together. It turns bars and nightclubs into seedy fleshy affairs; the girls jostling for attention while the red faced men paw at them with pudgy hands.
I'm not sure what's worse, seeing these young beautiful girls sitting looking bored with fat, balding, middle aged white men, or listening to the young westerners boasting about their conquests and the irresistibly they seem to have in a country where their money is everything. Its all rather gross.

New Year in Phnom Penh was similar to Holi. The streets were full of people throwing water and flour at each other and everyone saw fit to charge me much more money than usual in the spirit of festivity. "Two dollar? (Happy New Year?)"
I thought I'd celebrate the fact that I'd seen in 2 New Years in 5 months and phone home for the 1st time... guilt.
As I was having a good old catch up with Mummie, one of the other volunteers arrived so hurrah! The school is filling up and will be kicking into action any day now. So we can shape and bend the mailable young minds to form the leaders of tomorrow. This is Muoy's dream anyway. I myself will be happy if I managed to sort out and categorise 'Spot the Dog' into appropriate reading levels as requested... One thing at a time.