A Visit to the Garbage Dump (Part V of Cambodia series)

The Garbage Dump is a poor community on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. It consists of migrants who move from the countryside for work, but couldn’t find work in the city, or women who became pregnant and were shunned from working. For lack of options, these migrants were forced into the Garbage Dump to live. During the day, you see mostly women and children there because the men are often the ones driving the mopeds around Phnom Penh. The reason I wanted to see this community, is because Geoffrey spent a summer there doing research for a story he is working on. (I can’t divulge any more information because it hasn’t been released yet.) I had heard so much about his time in Cambodia, that I wanted to get a better understanding of what he was dealing with in his research, and whatnot.

Once back in town, I got a $7 full body massage and relaxed some. That night I had the opportunity to meet people from all over South East Asia, because they were all gathering for a conference (a technology/blogger/everything conference) that was taking place the next day. Geoffrey was running the Media Relations for this conference. It was a neat forum to meet people from all over the world and have an open forum for discussion. I spoke on the topic of seduction, and talked a little bit about my research on the matter. Actually, my topic was so popular, it made it into the Phnom Penh Post, go fig! http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2008092221780/National-news/-Cloggers-find-new-way-to-exchange-ideas-on-technology.html

Friday night we went to a local nightclub, called Spark. What fascinated me the most about this nightclub was not how hopping it was, how there was a live band that had the most un-energetic dancers on the stage, nor how sheik it was, but the fact that there was a giant projection television screen playing Tom and Jerry cartoons in the middle of this happening nightclub!

Both Friday and Saturday night, I experienced Cambodian BBQ dining. Much like a Mongolian BBQ, you cook meets and vegetables at your table and mix it all together. I also ate Ant. So add that to my list of “exotic” foods I’ve eaten: whale, crocodile, ant. The ants were crunchy. I felt like I was on an episode of Fear Factor.

I left early the next morning for the airport. After a $1.50 breakfast of tea and Pho, Mr. T and I set off for one last Tuk-tuk journey to the airport. $25 dollars later, and I’m back in Singapore. (Yes, you have to pay to get out of the country.)

Where will my next Asian adventure take me? Who knows, maybe Malaysia, Thailand, Laos? Stay tuned for more!