Phnom Penh Fever

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As usual, I am tempted to say "woooooooh time has passed so quickly since the last time I wrote, it's incredible" blah blah blah blah. But it's so true, so at the risk of sounding boring: woooooooh time has passed so quickly since last time I wrote, it's incredible 😊
So after visiting the ruins of Angkor Wat I jumped into a bus headed for Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia where I visited my friend from Laure. She has been living there for 3 whole years and is undoubteldy an expert. Not only an expert at being at exapt (the phrasing here is superb) but also an expert in all things Cambodian as she speaks the language etc. I tried to pretend I was also an expert expat when I went to places with her, but would soon get found out. For example we would walk into a Khmer (ie Cambodian) restaurant and Laure would say hello and ask for a table in Khmer, and I would follow and try to mumble something that sounds also Khmer and look confidently fluent. But the illusion would last about 10 seconds.

My 3 days in the capital were busy with:
- visiting the Royal Palace compound + Silver Pagoda (Pagoda = temple and Silver because it is tiles with 500 silver tiles weighing 1kg each).
- going to visit S21, the prison used by the Khmer Rouge during their terrible regime in 1975-1979, as well as the Killing Fields: an area where they carried out mass executions. These were very sobering visits and incredible useful to depict the horror of the regime. Just to give a reminder of history, the Khmer Rouge were a communist force that took over the country in 1975 and imposed a regime full of paranoia, bloodshed and destruction. They emptied the cities of all inhabitants who were sent to the fields to grow rice, in horrid conditions and actually starving to death in many cases. People would get executed for no reason, families destroyed, and all national culture wiped out (because when you have Khmer Rouge communism you do not need religion, intellectuals, free thinking, freedom). It reminded me of the horrid situation in Stalin's Russia in the first half of the 20th century.
I also read a book called "First they killed my father" by Luong Ung, a woman who was five when the regime started and who depicts what her family went through.
- wandering around town, being useless at negociating taxi rides in motorbikes
- following Laure on nights of Khmer food, Western Expats, and a night of Khmer disco (fabulous!!).
- hoovering up cakes and fruit shakes in all Western bakeries in town (I know, what is the point of going all the way to Cambodia to eat a carrot cake, but OH My God if you could feel how good it is to have a carrot cake after weeks without sugar, you would understand, really ok??ok??).

All in all I really liked the feel of Phnom Penh, although it does not have an incredible infrastrucure and things to do compared to other capitals in the world, I could have easily stayed there 2 weeks soaking up the atmosphere..

But I had other cats to whip*, so on I went...


* I don't mean I am going round Cambodia hurting animals on my path, "Avoir d'autres chats a foutter" is a French expression meaning to have other things to do (yeah I know what cruel people the French 😊.

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Photos

Killing Fields
Yes, these are real skulls. And up close you can see where they were shot/smashed. Horror in its pure form..

Phnom Penh Clubbing
Laure, Shanna, Pia and Khmer friends

My favorite Cafe in Phnom Penh
I don't know why, I really liked this place. But can't remember why :)

Phnom Penh Clubbing 2
Chappie, Alastair and me (can assure you, was not drunk!! despite apprearances!)

Promenade
Promenade des Anglais in Nice? No, river side in Phnom Penh

Comments

[mu]

tu as aussi des amis au cambodge ?!!!!

[ElisabethV]

voui
Et ce sont pas des cafards cette fois :) Je suis en retard de mails, te dais une full update dans la semaine. Espere que tout roule en Suisse/ France, faudra tout me raconter!! Z