Phnom Penh

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The Capital, Killing Fields and (S-21)

29.08.10 Phonm Penh - Cambodia's Capital.

It was a long slow bumpy bus journey through villages and paddy's, with a touch of tropical rain for effect that took us to Phonm Penh. Happily interrupted by a lunchtime pit stop at a friendly restaurant. Outside we were delighted to discover some unusual roadside snacks...spiders! Massive hairy tarantulaesque beasties, deep fried and ready to munch...luckily we'd just filled up on curry and rice so could resist the crunchy snack.

Back on the bus again, and it wasn't long before the buildings grew in size and density, traffic got madder, and we were nearly there.
Greeting us was the usual swarm of tuk tuk drivers eager to take you to their friend's guest house for a highly inflated price. We had pre-empted this, and our friendly driver from Siem Reap asked his friend to collect us, so off we went arriving just as the skies opened up with a torrential downpour that turned the streets to rivers and the pavements to swirling streams ... needless to say we relaxed in our room before heading out to explore our new town.

Phonm Penh is a diverse city, due to its troubled history, it combines beautiful traditional palaces, and temples with french style apartments, crazy food markets and the very westernized red light area, all zig zagged by motos and tuks tuks hurtling around with uncanny speed and accuracy.
The riverside seemed a safe and friendly option for a walk and before long we came across an entire hog roast , and for the princely sum of $3 we gorged on delicious pork filled baguettes (thanks be to the french!)washed down with a much needed beer. From our street-side vantage point we we able to observe the comings and goings of a certain sort of male tourist, and got a feel for the city's nightlife.
Over the next few days we hired a driver for the morning and headed a short way out of town to a war memorial dedicated to the victims of the hideous Khmer Rouge dictatorship headed by Pol Pot.
Known as the 'Killing Fields' it was a humble orchard that had been turned into an extermination site, where vile, brutal executions had been performed on thousands of men women, and children. On display were many skulls and bones and clothes of the deceased, which left us stunned and silent for most of the visit. The experience was certainly educational if a little chilling. We were humbled next to a tree that was used to smash baby's skulls on as bullets were considered 'too expensive'.

Next was the equally macabre S21 prison/concentration camp, housed in a former high school in the center of the city. Much of the building had been left untouched since 1979, and we were able to walk in and out of the tiny cells, and witness first hand the horrific equipment used for torturing the poor unfortunates interned here. Blood splatter still covered most of the ceilings.
Halls of photo boards displayed mug shots of all the prisoners, making the experience even more ghostly, as innocent, frightened eyes stared at you in black and white.
We headed back silently to the hotel to try an make sense of what we'd just seen.
Later on we enjoyed another evening walk around the winding streets, and shared smiles and hellos with many locals we passed, which went some way to show what a strong, brave people they are to have recovered from the awful past and found a determination to make the best of their future.
Highly entertaining were the groups of people who, in the cool of the evening gathered on the riverside to dance, do aerobics, tai chi and badminton. Every 50 yards a different set of speakers blared out dance music of one sort or another, with a keen instructor shouting out the moves, great fun!!

After a good night's sleep (we'd swapped rooms for air con, as the humidity left us rather sweaty!)we crawled out of bed to watch the sunrise over the river. Once again the promenade was alive and buzzing with exercise junkies of all ages bumping and grinding as the sun rose higher and higher. We even saw an elephant taking a morning stroll with his keeper...walking right down the middle of the road causing motos to perform some interesting diversions around the lumbering giant.

Coffee in Cambodia is thick, sweet and very very strong and could probably power a rocket given the chance, so we had two from a street side stall, and buzzed our way to the Vietnamese embassy to organise our visas for the next leg of our trip. We dropped our passports off and went to find Annie and Ling for breakfast (it was still only about 8.30am)Cambodian style...this meant a delicious beef curry that had been stewing for about 24hours served with a fresh baguette, surprisingly yummy for a morning snack.(Beef tendons rather than meat make up this tasty treat)
I opted for a traditional meat filled bun, called Bao... fluffy white dough with spicy pork middle dipped in chili sauce. Tummies full we set off to the majestic palace and silver pagoda, where the king still resides. Its also the home of the Emerald Buddha, the most amazing statue of the deity we have seen yet.
Bobbing and weaving along the pavements to try and hide from the scorching midday sun we made our way back along the river to the stunning walled compound.
Inside the walls were pagodas with the royal dancers practicing a very graceful routine, scores of topiary and statues, in beautiful courtyards, and an amazing fish pond designed like Angkor Wat.
We were allowed in only a few buildings, the Silver Pagoda, (so called because the entire floor was made of thick silver tiles weighing about 2kgs each) housed a vast collection of gifts from neighboring countries in gold and silver, and the star of the show a massive Emerald Buddha perched high on his very own stupa.
We saw royal palanquins and elephant 'seats', large detailed murals, and all kinds of royal luxuries.
Closing time came all too quickly, and Guy and I had to get back to the embassy to fetch our passports, so we said goodbye to the loveliness, and arranged to meet Annie and Ling later on for dinner.

Determined to go native, we searched around for the most popular looking streestall and ordered...'one of those'. Which turned out to be a dish of three different sorts of noodles, spicy sausage, greenery, and chili...absolutely delicious and less than $1 each.
We wondered the markets (Local and not so local) looking for the odd bargain, Crowded and colorful we got lost for hours.
Cambodian currency is weak to say the least and more often than not, things could be bought in Dollars, Riels or even a mixture of both...meaning we had to be very on the ball with our maths to avoid the inevitable attempts to rip us off!! Cigarettes come in at a hefty $0.20. Loving it!
Finally we booked tickets to Vietnam, including a trip down the Mekong, overnight stay on a houseboat and village tour...what good tourists we are!!!!!!

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