All roads lead to Phnom Penh\u2019s sublime Central Market<\/a>, of course. There, you can find every merchandise, fruits unknown to all scientists and faces you haven\u2019t seen in years. Just now, you pass your long-dead aunt. Wearing a new dress of the latest fashion, she looks much younger even. Coy, she pretends not to recognize your sorry ass.<\/p>\n Leaving Kracheh<\/a> was not easy, but my visa was winding down, so I had to take a drowsy mini bus to cosmopolitan Phnom Penh, where all problems can be solved, including securing a visa extension. Nodding off, my head nearly made a soft landing onto the young lady next to me. Though I had wanted to glimpse Skun<\/a> again, I dozed right through it. There, I had bought a mess of silkworm pupae, garnished with raw scallion and chili pepper.<\/p>\n Since I was Cu\u2019s<\/a> best customer for nearly two weeks, he was not happy to see me leave. On my last day, I hired him twice and treated him to lunch. On a visit to tiny Mahob, we lingered at a store run by a Chinese-Cambodian family. Encountering such a freakish foreigner, the kids didn\u2019t smile<\/a>. Clearly shocked, a three year old girl stared at me for a good minute. The middle aged store owner said no foreigner had ever ventured down that dusty road. Though just eight miles from central Kracheh, I was in a different world.<\/p>\n Rolling by, a van laden with cheap household goods had its speaker blaring. Perched in the back was a Muslim woman, so a Cham. In rural Cambodia, their houses aren\u2019t, like most others, elevated on posts. There are many minorities in Cambodia. A light skinned woman with angular features<\/a> entered the store.<\/p>\n Almost every bridge in Cambodia was built by China, Vietnam or Japan, so a short span nearby had the Vietnamese flag at each end. Crossing it, I couldn\u2019t help but blurt, \u201cThey couldn\u2019t even bother to build such a short bridge!\u201d Just south of Kracheh, there\u2019s an ornate monument to a young Hun Sen as a monk, however.<\/p>\n Writing this just after dawn, I sit at a neon lit sidewalk caf\u00e9, surrounded by five other customers, all men. They\u2019re chattering away. The grouchy old guy next door is still asleep, or maybe he\u2019s dead. Across the street is a joint where you can get decent broken rice with grilled pork chop. Five yards away is a grimy bus station where I once saw a joyful toddler in diaper. Quitting urban life, he was headed back to the ducks, toads, chickens, peace and boredom of the impoverished countryside.<\/p>\n Just learning English in 1975, I was delighted by Bernie Taupin\u2019s \u201cGoodbye Yellow Brick Road,\u201d as sung by Elton John. To me, \u201chunting the horny back toad\u201d was pure mystery and poetry. I imagined a mini dinosaur or monster dreamt up by Taupin. Before the internet, you couldn\u2019t google to find out. Now, you can see much more than you want or need.<\/p>\n As I pour myself hot tea, the man next to me shifts my glass slightly to make sure I don\u2019t spill anything. It\u2019s a friendly gesture that would not be welcomed many other places. To thank him, I smile.<\/p>\n The caf\u00e9\u2019s young server wears a cheerful shirt in primary colors with Donald Ducks and Mickey Mouses. Pushing endless war, America maintains an improbable image of goofy and endearing innocence. That\u2019s its unmatched genius.<\/p>\n Getting here just before 5AM, I snaked through two dark alleys. In one, a fat woman in her 50\u2019s sat immobile on a platform of wooden planks. At 6:15, I pass again that platform, but now there\u2019s a sleeping figure, curled up and facing the wall<\/a>. Above her is a portrait of Hun Sen. If it\u2019s the same woman, maybe she feels safer sleeping in daylight, but I\u2019m thinking like an American here. There, murders and rapes are nearly daily occurrences in any city, and it will only worsen.<\/p>\n Back at my hotel, Zing, a pretty young woman exiting the elevator says something to me, and she even touches my elbow. Ordinary Cambodians don\u2019t do that. Checking in yesterday, I noticed Chinese tourists and, this morning, I heard Vietnamese in the lobby. Maybe somebody hired her. Smiling, she shows braces. Though I can guess what she wants, I merely say, \u201cI don\u2019t understand,\u201d as the elevator door closes.<\/p>\n Circumstances dictate behavior. Domesticated animals turn infantile, so they become cuter, weaker, and, in an evolutionary blink, unable to last a day in nature. Of course, humans are the most helpless. Preposterously pussified, they ejaculate on Unz Review<\/em>. Most American soldiers are way too fat to march to the nearest KFC.<\/p>\n Still agile, I can last 12 rounds against my own shadow. Pecking jabs at my shredded curriculum vitae, I\u2019ll unload a left hook to finish me off. Don\u2019t bother counting, crooked ref. I\u2019m well done!<\/p>\n I have a cousin in his 50\u2019s who\u2019s still unmarried. Born in the US, he\u2019s never been to Asia. Mosey over and I\u2019ll show you around, I finally told him. Water flows back to its source, goes a Vietnamese saying. This only makes sense if such source is the ocean. To be flushed into that infinite darkness is the ultimate terror and comfort.<\/p>\n Until that happens, cherish each banal moment. If you\u2019re sick of normality, you\u2019re tired of life. Robbed of their land and most basic rights, even Gazans managed to resurrect normality, but they can\u2019t resist Jewish hatred forever. Bombs are shredding and pulverizing their bodies right now. Unlike that tale of decapitated Israeli babies, it\u2019s not another Jewish lie. They can\u2019t help but keep them coming. Those who cheer for Palestine\u2019s destruction are already in hell.<\/p>\n As Jews commit, most nakedly, ethnic cleansing in Gaza, the American Senate voted 97 to 0 to back Israel. With Jewjabs and the war in Ukraine, that\u2019s three simultaneous Jew orchestrated genocides.<\/p>\n On TikTok, Jews mock Palestinian suffering by dressing up as the most hideous Arabs. A keffiyeh draped Jew with a fake head wound holds an effigy of a dead baby. Enjoying her sick skit, she smiles. Another Jew wastes his tap water to taunt Palestinians\u2019 lack of access to that resource. What do you expect, though, from a nation whose defense minister just referred to Palestinians as \u201chuman animals.\u201d<\/p>\n Such nauseating racism is kosher in the West. Groveling to Jews has become a Western hallmark. That\u2019s why their societies are beyond sick, by any measuring stick.<\/p>\n This muted lament by Karim Benzema, however, has drawn strong condemnation, \u201cAll our prayers for the inhabitants of Gaza who are again victims of unjust bombings which spare no women or children.\u201d French politicians are demanding the Lyon-born soccer star be stripped of his citizenship.<\/p>\n At 8:22AM, I\u2019m sitting in Zing\u2019s lobby. There\u2019s a party of Vietnamese that\u2019s overly loud, but do forgive them. Judging by their excited tittering and yakking, they don\u2019t get out much. To protect its oil supply, China has moved warships to the Middle East. When that spigot is turned off, no one will skip about to buy trinkets and snap selfies.<\/p>\n Should I be stuck in Phnom Penh, Vung Tau or Pakse<\/a>, I\u2019ll be fine, however. Having endured the most unspeakable for a century, Southeast Asians are as equipped as any for our next ordeal.<\/p>\n Into that usual sunshine, I now stroll to the Central Market. More than any landmark, each city in totality is its greatest monument. It\u2019s what we have built together, over centuries.<\/p>\n Cambodians once erected the most magnificent. Long past their peak, they still have their pride, sense of beauty, grace and, most importantly, a sober maturity missing from smug savages.<\/p>\n Even as their house burns down, they threaten and crow.<\/p>\n [Loiet, Cambodia on 10\/15\/23]<\/p>\n [Mahob, Cambodia on 10\/26\/23]<\/p>\n [Kolab, Cambodia on 10\/23\/23]<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Loiet-Cambodia-10-15-23.webp\")
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