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Published: December 11th 2006
We left Vietnam, heading for Cambodia on yet another bus. This time however, there was only about 10 of us on the coach allowing ample space for us to stretch out. We had opted to get our Cambodian Visas on the border, opposed to buying in advance. Once on the bus the guy was offering to sort it out for us, at a slightly inflated price, but to avoid any potential stress we decided to opt for this option - We were glad that we did!
One couple insisted on buying their visas at the border themselves to ensure that they paid the true price. Everybody else got the necessary stamps in their passports and were back on the bus and it pulled off. With so few of us on the bus it was obvious that this other couple were missing. Rob brought it to the drivers attention, but he was not bothered stating that we would stop for lunch soon. About 20 minutes later, this other couple appeared - they had been blackmailed into paying extra to be taken back to the bus, so the guys still ended up making a bit of extra cash. I am glad we
avoided the stress of being stranded at the Cambodian border!
Rob expertly orientated us, and managed to move us away from the swarm of tuk-tuk drivers that had accumulated around us, and we found a guesthouse for $5 a night. Immediately we noticed the difference between the motodrivers in Vietnam and these tuk-tuk drivers - they were less pushy and were friendlier, managing to have a laugh with us.
Our first impressions of Phnom Penh was that it was far dirtier than the cities in Vietnam, and we noticed flies for the first time. Cambodia is visibly poor in the majority of areas, although you do see some reasonably sized houses next to nothing more than shacks. There are a lot of children trying to sell you things, but they are not that persistent. The other big difference was that all of the conical hats had disappeared!
We sampled our first Cambodain cuisine - Khymer curry. Completly different to anything we had eaten in Vietnam, it is a mild coconut milk curry with aubergine, potatoes and meat. De-lish! (I promise this blog will not all be about food this time!)
Our guesthouse had a nice area
for congregating, eating meals, and watching telly. It had a number of hammocks so we spent the evening relaxing in these.
The next day we went to visit Tuol Sleng Museum (S-21), the site used for tortuing thousands of Cambodians before they were transferred to the 'Killing Fields' for execution. Around the site they were signs requesting appropriate respect and no laughter - in my mind there should have been no call for these signs to be there, as the sights were grim. On display were photos of hundreds of victims, men, women and children. On display were items used in the torturing of these people, and photos post-killing. Unpleasant, but gave good insight into the recent history of this country.
The afternoon was spent walking around the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, but not before we had hired t-shirts to cover our bare arms. We were more impressed with the outside of the buildings than the contents. These included the floor of the silver pagoda which is lined with 5 tons of silver - but it was in need of a good polish! Also there was a Buddha adorned with 2086 diamonds.
The next day we
made the 14km journey from Phnom Penh to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. We took a tuk-tuk, as this was one journey that could not be made on foot, and having seen the state of the roads I am glad that we didn't opt to cycle!
In the centre of the site is a monument in memory of those killed at Choeung Ek. Inside it, there are numerous shelves with thousands of skulls on them, and piles of clothing. As you walked around the site you could see bits of bone poking through the ground, and other items of clothing. We both felt odd, that this is now a tourist attraction.
That afternoon we were in no mood to do a lot more sight seeing, so we just had a quiet afternoon in preparation for our next onward journey - to Siem Reap.
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Grandma and Grandpa
non-member comment
Silver Pagoda.
Grandpa is all for re-jigging his Church polishing box into a Temple polishing box and taking off for the Silver Pagoda. He's not sure whether to use his favourite brush or put J cloths on his feet and glide up and down for a bit. Any ideas? Lovely to hear all your news dears, we are both well and send you lots of love, XXXXXXXX