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Published: July 13th 2010
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Phnom Penh, 29th - 31st May 2010
The bus took us through some attractive scenery which looked much the same as Vietnam, with wide open expanses and with little basic houses perched on the roadside. We arrived into Phnom Penh bus station at about 3.30 pm to the onslaught of eagerly awaiting tuk tuk drivers and hostel agents. We noticed a guy holding up the sign for ‘Okay hostel $10’ which we thought was reasonable so once we had collected our bags we enquired and asked if he could show us where it was. He was only too happy as the possibility of us staying spelt commission to him.
Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia and with a population of 1.3 million it felt like a quiet village in comparison to Saigon. The city certainly gave us the vibe that it was much more working class and just from first instincts showed signs of poverty. The hostel like its name stated was Okay, so with our thanks given to the taxi driver we checked in and climbed a maze of staircases that took us to our room. We were soon back out again to go and have a
wander and search for a food establish as we hadn’t really eaten any lunch. We followed the road that ran alongside the Tonle Sap River into the city passing street vendors selling coconut juice which was a common sight in towns and cities. We also noticed many more beggars, homeless people and street children. We eventually found a little restaurant that looked good where we enjoyed some Cambodian cuisine and some more fantastically cheap beer. Whilst we sat eating and drinking Bowks paused with a chop stick full of food and told me to turn around which I did, only to see an elephant just casually walking passed the restaurant. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that before!
We finished off our meals then carried on having a walk along the river stopping to play hacky with some locals (not sure it’s the smartest plan when I had just eaten) and passing a couple of local markets with sea food and in particular fish being its biggest seller. As Phnom Penh sits next to the Tonle Sap River and Mekong River the abundance of fish and other water creatures is high. Watching little market stall owners with their fish swimming
Monument at the Killing Fields
Housed the clothes and bones of the people killed there round in a small bowl in front of them, then picking out the fish, giving it a quick whack, chopping off its head, scraping off its scales putting it in a bag and yours is a sight to behold, and now that’s fresh fish!
Passing through the locals’ market we finally reached the night market which was a little bigger and sold more gifts and crafts, it also had a stage in the middle with two young and budding Cambodian rappers whacking out the rhythmical lyrics which was quite funny. Having seen our fair share of markets for one evening we made our way back to the hostel. We made it back and decided to go to the local bar opposite where the owner had tried to entice us in earlier and enjoyed a jug of beer.
Bowks writing now...
Whilst enjoying the beer we got chatting to one of the locals also drinking thee called Sara. Sara was a tuk tuk driver who had moved to Phnom Penh when he was 13 (he was now 26) to try and find work. We chatted for about ½ hour, it was really interesting listening to what he had
to say. As we’d got on with him so well we arranged for him to take us to the Killing Fields the next day. Before bed Doddy had a game of pool with one of the boys (no older than 9 years) that was selling books. He was trying to get us to buy off him but we said we’d give him a game of pool instead and give him a $1 if he won (which he did!)
At 10 am the following day we met Sara and went along with Julie a German girl from our hostel to the Killing Fields which were situated around 15 km from the city centre. It was incredible moving and shocking to see what had gone on there during Pol Pot’s regime, especially seeing all the clothes they wore when they arrived and the killing and magic trees. They also had all the skulls and bones of the victims arranged and ordered in a big tower monument according to Buddhist tradition.
Back in the city centre we got Sara to drop us off at Wat Phnom and arranged to meet him later that evening for a drink. Wat Phnom was a
large temple set upon a hill. It was beautifully decorated and we enjoyed looking inside it and walking round the grounds below it which were also home to some wild monkeys. From there we walked through Central Market to a shopping mall where we could get some lunch from the food court. We tried lok lak a traditional Cambodia dish with beef, rice, salad and a fried egg. We then went back through Central Market to explore a bit more. The market had pretty much everything you could ever need and people were bartering hard. With tired and achy feet and the prospect of rain we hopped in a tuk tuk (bartering hard ourselves this time to get a fair price) and went back to the hotel to chill out for an hour before meeting Sara at 8pm. Sara and his friends were there and we spent a really nice evening chatting and playing pool with them. Sara was a genuinely friendly guy who also offered good value on his tuk tuk trips. If anyone is heading to Phnom Penh and would like his contact details then let us know.
We had also seen the boy that sold books
(from the night before) getting kicked out of a cafe for trying to steal, so when we saw him later Doddy gave him another game of pool but also told him how it was bad to steal and how it upset people. Doddy then dropped his bag ‘accidentally’ and when the boy spotted it he gave it back. Doddy then dropped some money on the floor and again when the boy noticed it he picked it up and asked if anyone had lost it. So hopefully a bit of a message had started to get through.
The next day we were up for our final morning of sightseeing in Phnom Penh and went to the palace. It wasn’t far from our hostel so we walked there and then in trying to find the entrance we proceeded to walk the 1.5 km perimeter of the palace only to find out if we had turned left instead of right then the entrance was only 100 meters away! Never mind, we got to see a bit more of Phnom Penh. The palace was very nice, although at $6 each was significantly was more expensive than any of the other tourist sites we
had visited. There were some lovely and ornately decorated palatial buildings and manicured gardens and the highlight was the silver pagoda, a huge temple with a silver tiled floor. Most of it was covered in carpet to protect it but it was still pretty cool to think that we were walking on a floor of silver. Back at the hostel we packed up (we are expert packers now!) and had some lunch with the friends we had made the night before. Just before 2 pm Sara came to take us to the bus station for our 6 hour bus journey to Siem Reap.
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