Advertisement
Published: February 13th 2007
After a scarey moto transfer across Battambang at breakneck speed (No idea why as we were half an hour early), we got our bus to Phnom Penh. Our driver was of the careful variety and blew the horn at every living thing he saw for 5 hours driving us to the brink of madness.
Our moto driver from Battambang had arranged for a friend of his to meet us at the bus station but we decided we would probably be better off moneywise if we looked after ourselves. He was waiting at the bus stop for us and chased us as we grabbed another tuk tuk to the Lakeside where most of the budget accomodation is. Lakeside turned about to be a crazy place, buzzing all day and all night with people and noise. After a few beers in our easily found guesthouse we hit the hay.
The next day we caught the same tuk tuk as the day before (he was waiting for us when we got up) to Tuol Sleng Museum. Once a secondary school the Khymer Rouge converted it into a prison and torture camp during its reign. It was here most of the victims of
the killing fields were held and tortured prior to execution. It was really interesting but also extremely grim to visit but gave us a good induction prior to visiting the Killing Fields.
We waved goodbye to our tuk tuk driver who assured us he would be at our service the following day and walked to the Royal Palace. Enroute we passed the National Independence Monument which sits on the busiest roundabout in the city. The Royal Palace is a spectacular collection of temples and beautiful buildings. After that we walked along the river and made our way to Wat Phnom temple. Crazy place with lots of cheeky monkeys jumping around entertaining the tourists. That evening we treated ourselves to a delicious Indian and a beer Lao or two and went to bed.
Naturally our tuk tuk driver was waiting for us the following morning all smiles. After some long and hard negotiation with him we arranged to go to the Killing fields at Choeung Ek. While the place itself was pretty badly explained the Memorial Stupa containing the skulls of some 8,000 victims left us speechless. As you walk around the site, clothes and bones of some of
the 17,000 victims are visibile in the soil. The whole experience is shocking and horrific.
After a fairly grim morning our tuk tuk driver brought us to Psar Tuol Tom Pong Market to cheer us up. After an hour of harrassment and good fun with the locals, selling just about everything legal and illegal under the sun, we headed back to the lake to have some food. Who should we bump into but the guy we had run away from at the bus station. He was less than happy with us and our pronouncements of innocence.
After a few beers we headed to the local ex-pat nite club, sinisterly called "The Heart Of Darkness". After a few rum and cokes we were forced to fend off the advances of a few members of the local gay community (See Pictures) and finished the night dancing with a bunch of backpackers. We responsibily called it at night at 4am while the club was still in full swing as we had a bus to catch early the next morning.
Next Stop Sihanoukville...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.248s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 16; qc: 77; dbt: 0.2011s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
