I arrived back into Phnom Penh mid afternoon after a rather dodgy bus journey. I was on edge the entire time as the driver seemed to be taking some serious risks, I've never experienced driving so bad at 60kph. We had so many near misses with lorries, mopeds and other slow moving vehicles, which in Cambodia is most of them, but we were so close on two occasions to taking out 2 cows that decided to cross the road as we were passing. He also had a noticeable problem with his chest, he was making some horrendous noises coughing up flem.
Upon arrival in Phnom Penh the American lad, Harr, really wanted to fire some weapons, I wasn't really interested in firing them but like a true Brit I wanted to follow and watch. I confirmed with Harr that he wasn't going to shoot animals as otherwise I wouldn't go. The whole experience was the most ridiculous and corrupt thing I'm ever likely to witness in my entire life. It began by the tour guide making some phone calls and we were later picked up by some Cambodian military guy in a pick up truck that had a beer gut (very unusual) and a gammy right hand (not unusual). We drove in his pick up truck for about 45 minutes out of Phnom Penh where we reached this army base. When we arrived we were greeted by more military folk who led us into a room which was lined with semi and fully automatic guns, grenades and bazookas. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, Harr was like a kid at a pick and mix stall choosing his weapons. One of the army guys asked me if I wanted to join in, I told him I'll stick with clay pigeon shooting. The whole thing just didn't feel right to me, apart from being extremely corrupt, I don't really have any interest in firing gun and it was expensive too (for Asia standards). Harr was willing to buy me a round on an Ak47 and i said I'll see how I feel. Anyway the weapons that Harr chose were 3 magazine rounds on a AK47, a magazine round on a tommy gun and one shell for a RPG rocket launcher, a total cost $550
The first gun that Harr was allowed to play with was the tommy gun. We were all given some headphones which was the only bit of health and safety that they went through. Harr then let off his round from his tommy gun at some target board. I was quite surprised how loud the gun was, the whole event lasted 1min 17 secs (checked my video).
Harr wasn't allowed to fire the other weapons at the first army base so we had to take the pickup truck to a mountain another hour's drive away. As we were leaving the base we bumped into an American family that had returned from the mountain. There was mum, dad, teenage son and a younger daughter, mum and son were bragging about what they had fired. Mum was extremely chuffed that they had allowed her to keep the pin from the grenade that she had lobbed. Her son who probably was only 14-15 was over the moon that his parents had bought him a go on a AK47, RPG missile rocket launcher and some other gun that "Rambo used"
I felt sorry for the little girl she must have felt really left out from her family day out.
When we arrived at the mountain area that they fire the heavier artillery i thought it was quite a nice area and reasonably picturesque, however I did start to feel anxious as they could just kill us and drive off. The first thing that Harr was to fire was the rocket launcher. The training was minimal he was told to point and shoot, a bit similar to taking a picture on a camera. The health and safety was minimal, they didn't have enough ear plugs or headphones to go round so I had to clasp my hands over ears. Harr launched it at the mountain and it was bloody loud, i didn't realise it would be so loud it was not like launching a firework. The launch was louder than the explosion. I asked Harr if he felt proud, he just smiled, which interpreted as yes. Total time of video 1min 03 seconds
The next weapon was the AK47 and Harr had 3 magazines of, he offered me a go but I declined the whole situation just didn't feel right. Harr fired the AK47 at distant ground and this gun was also loud but somewhat seemed a bit of an anticlimax to the rocket launcher. As I had declined to fire it Harr allowed the tour guide a go before firing the final round. Total running time of video 1min 49 seconds
The army guys were quite quick to get us out of there, I'm not sure if it was it because it was late Friday afternoon or if we shouldn't have been there in the first place I don't know.
So just a typical Friday afternoon for me in the end. That night was my last night in Cambodia before heading to Vietnam so I went and got an oil massage for $6, pretty normal stuff really. The massage was alot better than the Thai massages i had in Bangkok, it was also quite funny, the girl giving the massage kept telling me that I was "long".