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Published: July 17th 2010
So this blog started out with the title of "Goodbye Cambodia, Hellooooo Thailand" - that was until I started downloading the photos and saw this weird phenonemon ... Jakki had taken my camera with her on a tour in Bangkok (mentioned below in blog) and what resulted was pictures of Jakki in front of EVERY site in Bangkok... kind of like a Where's Wally episode.. so this blog is dedicated to Jakki and her 1000 poses (which she assures me she did NOT want to be in!!) Blame Nang!!
An Oasis in Phnom Penh
Having finished our time in Siem Reap it was time to head to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. I am not a huge fan of Phnom Penh however I believe that anyone who visits Cambodia really needs to at the very least visit here to see S21 and the Killing Fields. To truly understand the hardship that Cambodian people have endured over the past 30 years... and the reasoning behind Cambodia being so poverty striken in this day and age, one needs to visit these places. How Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge could destroy a country as quickly and horrifically as
they did in my lifetime… still shocks me.
Having been to these places on my previous visit, I had no intention of returning to them.. they are very very sad pieces of Cambodian history, but I felt that the girls both needed to see them to put some perspective on my passion for helping the people of Cambodia.
We left on the 8am bus which picked us up from the guesthouse. We were crammed into a minibus which was packed to capacity with backpackers and their backpacks… from there we were dropped to the main bus… unfortunately on this bus route we were given seat numbers.. I happened to get the dud seat on the whole bus (does that surprise anyone? I doubt it!)
My seat was right at the back (a couple from the back) and had the engine underneath it.. so the floor was a foot higher than everyone elses… this resulted in my knees wedged firmly against the back of the seat in front of me and my legs at a strange angle with was not going to be comfortable for a 5 hour bus ride.. I was so angry that I was tempted
to get off and buy a new ticket on a different bus.. but hell I survived to tell the story!
Once we arrived in Phnom Penh we headed to our guesthouse Blue Lime… let me just say … WOW… what a great little find it was… we paid $60 for a triple room including breakfast and it was great. Modern, clean, airconditioned, nice bathroom (with flushing toilet), gorgeous swimming pool, cheap cocktails, free internet… the breakfast was to die for! I would seriously head back to Phnom Penh JUST to stay here again!
Chea the tuk tuk driver dumps us for his newborn baby
During my research I had found a tuktuk driver and had contacted him via his facebook prior to arriving… he is usually hanging around Blue Lime and so when we got settled I asked the reception if they knew him. We went outside to find him and when we did, the other tuktuk drivers started getting all funny towards him … he then turned to me and said “can you tell them how we know each other.. they are angry” … so I had to tell the tuktuk mafia that Chea
and I go ‘way back’ and are facebook friends! Lol
We then got Chea to take us to a money exchange before asking him to take us for some ‘local’ food. He took us to a small shack like restaurant where the food and shakes were both great and so so cheap! Afterwards we headed back to the guesthouse for a swim and relax…. For dinner we headed down to a riverside restaurant where we indulged in food and cocktails that were above our budget, but what the hell it was our last night in Cambodia…
After we finished tea, Chea was outside waiting for us and was going to take us to a few clubs…. When we got in his tuktuk earlier in the day he had been telling us that his wife was almost due to have her baby, and as we travelled along to the first nightclub, Chea took a phone call… he then turned to us and said ‘my wife just have baby’ … we were like ‘what?? Now??’ and he was like ‘yes just now, boy’… what made it so sweet was that he was going to continue to work for us for
the night… we were like ‘no no you go to hospital … dump us whereever’. He dropped us to the Heart of Darkness nightclub and left for the hospital.. all he could say was ‘are you sure?’ We assured him we would make it home by ourselves and that we would see him in the morning (since he was still insisting on doing the girls tour in the morning!)
Heart of Darkness was dead and all a bit exhausted from our big day we headed home. While getting ready for bed I decided to try plug in the light that was on my side of the bed I was sharing with Narelle so I could do some reading. I had used the powerpoint earlier to blow dry my hair... I tried to put the plug in to the electricity socket but it fell straight out so I tried again. On my 2nd attempt, my brain knew before I did, but before I had time to react, I felt the electricty running up my hand... throwing it on the ground and yelling words which can not be repeated here, I realised how close I had come to ending my life
by electrocution! What is it with me and electricity!!!!
Goodbye Cambodia
The next morning I had a sleep in while the girls went with Chea to do the Killing Fields then S21. I lazily got out of bed around 9, went down for breakfast (which I loooooooved) and then I decided it was bikini time by the pool… the next few hours consisted of me catching up with people on skype, swimming and drinking passionfruit juice (which Blue Lime do SO well)
Once the girls arrived back to the guesthouse we checked out and Chea took us to the airport… At the airport we grabbed some food and drank beers/wine while we waited for our flight.. I decided to pop some valium for the flight as I was feeling really anxious.. especially since we had all been seated separately and then when I saw the state of the plane.. it would have to be one of AA’s oldest in their fleet I would say! An old battleaxe!
We all boarded separately due to our seat numbers and I was last.. I was halfway down the boardwalk thingy and felt like I was about to
faint.. I am not sure if it was the valium combined with the beer kicking in but I seriously thought I was going to pass out.. I grabbed the rail to steady myself and finally made it to the plane.. once on, I saw Narelle and said to her ‘quick grab this’ referring to my large pain in the ass painting I was carrying and told her I didn’t feel well.. I made it to my seat and it took a good 10 minutes to start to feel normal…
Khao San Again!!
We arrived in Bangkok drama free and headed to our guesthouse… that night we decided some street food and a few quiet drinks were in order. After eating some street noodles I decided to get a massage. Afterwards I felt worse than when I started as the guy had got my back really tense but couldn’t crack it… it was sore for 3 days after! Lol
We went for drinks at one of the big bars in Khao San Road and then called it a night around 2am. The next day Jakki went on a morning tour of the Grand Palace, Wat
Po and the flower markets… while I slept in… I was sooo sick the next morning, and it definitely was not the alcohol this time. When Jakki finished, her guide then took Narelle and her to Chatachuk Markets for some shopping therapy… I dragged my butt out of bed around 3pm and tried to eat/drink in the guesthouse restaurant but was feeling really bad… I went to the pharmacy for some drugs before deciding I needed some ‘me’ time and some good nutritious food for my belly.
Me time!
I caught a taxi to Siam Paragon where I ate some Hainenese Chicken (the broth was just what I needed) before heading to the comfort of the the cinema to watch the latest Twilight instalment. This was a huge effort in itself due to the fact that the Paragon Cinema complex is huge and confusing.. I swear there was 20 different seats in 20 different types of cinemas and I couldn’t for the life of me work out what to do! Lol… I ended up picking the 350 baht seat for Twilight as it was the only one I could work out was on in English! Spoilt
for choice when it came to popcorn flavours I went with cheese and original and then confused myself further watching the movie… Hands up all those NON-Twilight fans… that would be me! Now I have seen the first one and knew the second was out… but didn’t realize number 3 had also hit the big screen so I was somewhat confused at the skip in the storyline and was not ready for how hot Jacob turned out to be after shaving all that hair! I sat in lust for 2 hours before shopping up a storm on the boardwalks near MBK… Having had my fill of shopping, I knew it was going to be a hard task to get a taxi to go on meter for me out the front of MBK back to Khao San but I refused to give up…. Finally one taxi said yes to using the meter… only problem was a 5 foot fence standing between us…. The taxi driver was laughing hysterically as he watched me try to hold onto all my shopping bags and jump the fence virtually with no hands… I almost ended my life early by ploughing head first into a Bangkok
pavement but saved myself at the last minute and tried to make a graceful entry to the taxi!
An early night was had by myself while the girls continued their big day by heading over to Patpong area for drinks… They stumbled in around 1am… brave considering we had a 5.30am alarm for a tour with Tong the following morning!!
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Lynn Tate
non-member comment
Alive & well
Hi Reet & Girls, So glad u survived electricution & death by headbut to be able to write the blog..lmao.. It shows how much the Thai people need tourism to be willing to miss the birth of a child for u. Amazing. Glad Jakki is getting to experience our SE Asian passion. Keep having fun & eagerly await the next installment. Loved Jakki's pix..hehe..very cute. Cheers, Lynn