Crossing into a new country for the first time is always a kind of a high, but I think that Cambodia moved me the most. It felt like a whole new level of different.

The first thing we noticed about this new country was how friendly people were. The immigration cop asked me so sweetly, with an anxious brow, if I could rewrite for him the address of his penpal in America.

The city of Phnom Penh was like no city I have ever seen. Some streets were unpaved and children played in the mud up to their knees. People were hawking huge generators at nearly every stall at the Central Market, letting oil drip onto the sidewalk. The Central Market looked like an ancient hive.