Blogs from Phnom Penh, South, Cambodia, Asia
May 23rd 2012
It's funny how you look at a place so differently when you are visiting as a tourist. I think as a tourist you find the magic in everything. I remember when I first went to the Dominican Republic to work in a rural village the truck stopped to drop off the first group of volunteers. My work partner, Tom, said, "oh, this isn't so bad. This looks like a nice community." I said, "I'm glad you feel that way because this is our home for the next eight weeks." "Oh, shit, Tom replied, you gotta be kidding?" You just look through very different eyes when the expectations of home change your rose colored glasses to a microscope. Phnom Penh has sort of been like that. The smog doesn't feel so quaint and the election campaign that ... read more
May 9th 2012
Vanaf Sihanoukville hebben we de bus gepakt naar Phnom Penh de hoofdstad van Cambodia, gelegen zuidoosten van het land bij de rivieren de Mekong en de Tonle Sap. 's Avond aangekomen en had echt trek in een goed stuk vlees dus nu even geen nightmarket of lokaal restaurant maar een iets chiquer restaurant. Lekker genoten van een Steak! In Phnom Penh is opzich niet heel veel te zien maar 15 kilometer buiten de stad ligt Choeung Ek (bekend als de Killing Feels) en de gevangenis Tuol Sleng (bekend als s-21) deze gevangenis is nu het Tuol Sleng museum, een herinnering aan diegenen die vermoord zijn door de Rode Khmer. Eerst hebben we Choeung Ek gezocht, een plek waar vreselijke dingen zijn gebeurd, onvoorstelbaar. Op de plek staat nu een groot monument met een aantal van de ... read more
May 7th 2012
Phnom Penh was nice. The people were very friendly, and the food was great. I enjoyed hanging out by the river with the cool breeze to beat the heat..Also visited the killing fields and the S-21 prison..pretty brutal stuff...... read more
May 5th 2012
Does it sound ridiculous to say we knew it was coming, we knew it was going to be wet, but we just didn't understand. When it rains heavily in Australia we both use cars, buses and trains. here the modes of transport we can choose from are motorbikes or tuk tuks. The tuk tuks keep you mostly dry as they are well prepared for the rain. unlike us - as of yet we do not have two rain coats. Something we plan to rectify tomorrow and the one we have - we don't take everywhere which has resulted in Chris getting very soaked 2 days ago whilst riding his bicycle, it was so wet the water was mid thigh. So the rain came down heavily around 4pm 3 days in a row, defiantely suprised by this ... read more
April 28th 2012
I got into Phnom Pehn Sorya's bus station and shared a tuk-tuk with a Canadian guy who'd booked up at Hostel 88 just to the northwest of the Wat Phnom temple. It was another great hostel with another free pool table and outdoor pool, although this one was considerably warmer than the one in Siem Reap. It was 7USD a night. So far Cambodian hostels seem to be head and shoulders above those in other Southeast Asian countries. Phnom Pehn was hot... ball-sweatingly, T-shirt-disintegratingly hot and possibly the hottest place I've been to in my life so the aircon in the dorm and outdoor pool were lifesavers. Going outside at any point between 11am and 6pm was madness! I stayed for 6 nights which was longer than I wanted but I was forced to stick around ... read more
April 25th 2012
Cambodia is a country so raw with character, history and culture likely to leave any tourist with a new perspective on life. Leaving Siem Reap we opted for a bus ride south to Phnom Penh. When we stepped out of the bus, we almost felt as though we were stepping back in time. Despite being the capital, Phnom Penh has not experienced the same development Siem Reap has over the recent past. What is more intriguing is that Phnom Penh used to be dubbed the jewel city of French Indochina, that was, up until the instability and deterioration experienced during and after the period of the Khmer Rouge from 1975 – 1979, which now masks the facets of the buildings. However, if you look closely, you can see remnants of the exquisite Chinese and ... read more
The Royal Palace, The Killing Fields, The National Museum, and Tuol Sleng
Published: April 22nd 2012Asia » Cambodia » South » Phnom Penh
April 22nd 2012
Cambodia breaks my heart. I have spent 2 days here in Phnom Penh and the country is one of the poorest countries in the world. I have seen so much proverty and it really breaks my heart. It is quite dirty here and people leave trash on the streets (I'm assuming someone picks up the trash that is left in a pile). I see people digging through the trash, hoping to find something worth having. People have told me that in this country, the wealthy are extremely wealthy and the poor, well, they fight for survival. Anyway, I woke up and headed out to the Royal Palace and the National Museum. The places are spectacular and the Golden Buddha displayed is beautiful. The weather was quite humid and hot with a scorching 90 degrees (30 degrees ... read more
April 21st 2012
OMG! What is up with traveling from place to place. First, I had to buy a new Eurostar ticket in Paris, second, I almost missed my flight from London to Amsterdam, third, I had issues flying from Amsterdam to Bangkok cause I had a lay over in Moscow and they were hassling me about how I needed a visa for Moscow, and the final straw: my flight was never fully booked cause my travel agent's credit card didn't go through! OMG! So I had to buy a new ticket from Bangkok to Phnom Penh. UGH! Next time, I think I'm going to do everything myself and not go through a travel agent! I know I'm better at it than they are...but I just didnt want the hassle of finding everything when I was crunched on time. ... read more
April 17th 2012
Leanne and I spent a good few days in Sihanoukville. Great little costal town. Lots of drinking involved. Its pretty for now but it wont be much longer and all the big developers will move in. We stayed at g'day mate. Lovely guys running it. Can you guess what nationality they are? Australian and the barman irish. We did quite a bit of a drinking in that bar. We also went on a booze cruise and met a guy from western super mare whos friends worked with us (small little world). We did a lovely boat cruise which included snorkelling,meals and a walk through the forest. I made some poor guy carry my bag on his head as we went through the marsh/swamp. He didnt drown though so it was all ok in the end. We ... read more
