rural to urban

My final day in Cambodia involved another trip into the countryside. This time I went with my agriculture partner, Kimsang. We took turns driving the motorbike to the village and then stood on the farmers plot wondering why his watermelons weren't growing.

 I was more intrigued by the fact that the cucumbers were growing on the same plot of rock hard dirt with no organic matter or water at all in the soil. The farmer was a friendly old man who also did some blacksmithing to make some farm tools that he presumably sold at the closest market. We asked some questions, took some pictures and gave him some seeds. Then along came his drunk wife, who fell in love with me. She cooed and pet me and then after a while she dragged me through some yards to the store, which was the village hang out and there someone produced a boom box so that she could dance with me.

 I was very embarassed, but didn't really see a way out, so I dance with her as about 20 people stood by laughing. I managed to pry myself out of that situation after Kimsang finally said we had to go, then we visited another farmer, who was too drunk to talk to. His plot of land reflected his drinking habit and there wasn't much use in analyzing the soil since he wasn't making much use of it. After that very rural experience I boarded the bus for Ho Chi Min and (after 14 hours) entered the bustle of motorbikes that everyone had warned me about. "You think this is a lot of motorbikes, wait until you get to Vietnam" is a common travelers comment. What first impressed me was the narrow buildings. Apparently at one point the government taxed businesses based on the width of the storefront, so now many of the buildings are only 4 meters wide, but very long and tall to make up for it. The war remnants museum was my first tourist destination and it was well done, making me wonder again how humans can be so inhumane. I was deeply impressed by the photography and at one point I had to step out of the exhibition on torture as it made me increasingly nauseous. I'm meeting up with Hieu, a friend of Duncan's from his time here. Tomorrow night i'm very excited to attend an icecream buffet for dinner. All the ice cream you can eat for just $5.- and as everyone knows I can eat a lot of ice cream.
Love to all.