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"This place is so different from any other city in the world," Adam had told me as we waited for our spaghetti to arrive. "It doesn't necessarily change you, but it does give you the space to change yourself -- to experiment. You can choose who you want to be here -- you can be as normal or as crazy as you want. You can try out a lifestyle you've always wondered about, and nobody back home ever needs to know the difference."

"Sure," I replied, somewhat sarcastically. "You can buy 10-pound bags of dope in the public market and sleep with a different hooker every day of the week for less than it costs to rotate your tires back home." After two charming weeks in rural Cambodia and Angkor Wat, I was beginning to tire of travelers who came into the country expecting little more than a depraved amusement park of guns and dope and whores.

Adam shrugged. "Phnom Penh has a shocking reputation because people enjoy convincing themselves that they are being shocked. But if you lived here for a while, you'd see that it isn't shocking at all. You just have different facilities for amusement here than in most places. In Europe, you rent a video or go to the pub when you're bored. Here, you buy some hash or visit a brothel."

"Do you live here?" I asked, still skeptical. Adam, a handsome young German, didn't seem to fit the hollow-eyed, middle-aged Phnom Penh expat demographic.

"I used to live here; now I live in Vietnam."

"Did you shoot smack and run with hookers when you lived here?"

Find more on Cambodia at BARNES & NOBLE

Adam laughed. "I was never into drugs all that much, but I did come to enjoy the brothels. I didn't go every day like some of the guys here, but I went a lot."

"How much is a lot?"

"Well, if you count the times I've come back to Phnom Penh on holiday, I'd say I've slept with about 120 prostitutes in Phnom Penh."

"120?" I said incredulously. I thought for sure he was misquoting his own numbers.

Adam grinned. "Like I said, it's different here. After a while, it becomes a matter of simple mathematics. Say you have $5 in your pocket some afternoon -- what are you going to spend it on? A book? A new pair of pants? Maybe, but when $5 can also get you sex with a beautiful young girl, it doesn't take long to realize that you can just wash your old pants or get a book from the library."

"And it doesn't seem strange, sleeping with so many girls?"

"Well, it's not like I slept with them all at the same time. Granted, I once had four girls in five hours, but that was an exception. It's more interesting -- more romantic -- when you treat each girl as a unique experience."

"Romantic?" I said, still somewhat incredulous.

"Maybe it'd make more sense if you saw it yourself. I'm going to Svay Pa with some guys tomorrow afternoon, and you're welcome to join us if you'd like."

"Svay Pa?"

"It's a little brothel village just outside of the city. A whole street full of prostitutes. Your first time there is like going to another planet. If you want to come, just meet us here at about 2."

Always a sucker for interplanetary travel, I shrugged my consent. "Sure," I told him. "I'll be there."

"We'll be sure to wait for you, then," said Adam.

I can't remember anything significant about our conversation after that. All I could think about was that I'd just made brothel plans as casually as I might make an appointment to play tennis.

Next page | A journey to the Lay-Lay