I arrived in Phnom Penh around 3:45PM yesterday. The airport is small, but modern. The final leg of the flight from Bangkok took us over the Mekong. It was a beautiful sight from the air. I got through immigration and passport control very quickly. Mr. Chau Sa from the U.S. embassy was at the airport to meet me. He seems very pleasant. He offered to take me on trips outside Phnom Penh "if it is secure." I’m game if he is! We also had a driver, a young Cambodian man. The embassy has a Jeep Cherokee which we used. As we walked to the car two little boys around 10 years old followed us to the car. They tried to help us with my suitcase, opening the car door, etc. Apparently they wanted money. One ran along side the car as long as he could as we left the lot.

The streets of Cambodia are unbelievable. You have to see it to believe it. It’s a mix of east meets west. The roads are crowded with cars, motor bikes and pedi-cabs (or cyclos). I didn’t see any traffic lights. It’s more of a free-for-all. There were cops directing traffic at a couple of busy intersections. Mr. Chau warned me about going out at night - not after 6:30! That’s’ disappointing. Fortunately my hotel has TV.

I’m staying at the Goldiana Hotel which is down a badly beaten-up dirt road. The hotel itself is quite nice, however. I had my choice of 3 rooms: $20, $35, and $50. They showed me the $20 room first. It was awful. I never could have stayed there for 30 days. The $50 room was quite nice, but larger than I required. The $35 room which I chose is very nice. It has two beds, air conditioning and TV. The bathroom is fairly modern and you can flush toilet paper, a definite improvement over Taiwan! Mr. Chau and the driver left me to unpack and relax.

Mrs. Margaret Bywater met me at the hotel around 5PM. Margaret is a librarian from Australia. She works at the University of Phnom Penh (UPP) but is actually employed by the Asia Foundation. She visited with me for awhile then left me alone with a warning not to go out. I didn’t mind because I was so exhausted.

I watched TV before dinner. The hotel has a very pleasant cafe adjacent to the lobby. A gentleman from Nepal struck up a conversation with me. He is here on business. Most of the hotel guests are westerners. I met a woman from Los Angeles, Robyn Ziebert. She works here full time for World Education, a "trainer of trainers." They basically train public health officers who in turn train locals. She is very nice. I also met two men from San Francisco. They are lawyers here with a program from the University of San Francisco. They are here to train attorneys in the Cambodian Bar Association. They left on foot in the dark which I had been warned about! Dinner was ginger chicken over rice which was very good.

Before I went to sleep I hung outside the hotel for awhile. Several young men who work here were outside. I noticed one kept a rifle nearby. I don’t think it will save us if the revolution breaks out. Another guy asked me to look at something. There were several cages with guinea pigs and one with a chicken. It was dark so he took the lid off to give me a better look. It was actually a huge snake devouring a live chicken! I didn’t need to see it.

I went to bed around 10. I just couldn’t stay awake, but I woke up around midnight and couldn’t get back to sleep. Did you know the "Golden Girls" is on at 3AM in Cambodia? I eventually fell asleep around 4 and slept till about 8AM.

Sister Luise from the University called today and invited me to join a group this evening at a local church. A young Filipino woman is professing vows with the Salesian sisters here in Phnom Penh. I will see Luise later.

After breakfast (tea and toast) I took a motorcycle to the Cambodiana Hotel. It is a beautiful 4 star western style hotel on the Mekong River complete with a casino. After having a coke at Hamburger Mania, a fast food joint in the hotel, I went to the Foreign Correspondent’s Club (FCC) by cyclo. The FCC is a bar restaurant overlooking the river walk which runs along the Mekong. The club isn’t much but what it lacks in decor it makes up for in character. I met two Australian journalists and a Canadian journalist who lives in Bangkok now. They’re here filming for Australian TV. I returned by cyclo to my hotel around 2. I had a light lunch, vegetable-chicken soup and diet coke. There’s a guy outside hounding me to let him take me on a motorcycle ride. I wish he’d go away.

Sister Luise and a group of Maryknoll sisters and lay missionaries picked me up in their van at 4PM. They were 4 nuns and 2 laymen, Kim and Patrick. Patrick is an attorney from Washington, D.C. Kim is from Vermont. His wife is her, too. Sister Luise is the former Superior General of the Maryknoll Sisters. She is currently an administrator at UPP. We went to the former diocesan seminary for Mass and the profession of final vows for the Filipino woman, Sister Elizabeth Castro. It was a two hour ceremony including Mass, but very beautiful. Typically Asian everyone, even the priests, removed their shoes before entering the church. There were no seats in the church. Everyone sits on the floor! The music was beautiful, all in Khmer. The local bishop who is French presided and the papal nuncio (from Vatican City) assisted as did several other priests.

After church they dropped me back at my hotel. Again I was reminded not to go out at night.

I had dinner at the hotel, pork fried rice. It was so-so. I hung outside the hotel with the men again for a short time. I went to bed around 9:30, too early, but I was dead tired. I woke up again around 2 and didn’t fall back to sleep until 4 or so.

Trip to Cambodia with John D'Amicantonio