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Published: July 29th 2008
Spiders for breakfast
Anybody fancy spiders for breakfast?The 23rd July was a day of traveling from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. It was a 6 hours bus drive with two stops. I meet two guys from Singapore on the bus that I hang out with for a few days. The bus left at 7.30am and I did not have time for breakfast before the bus left. After two hours the bus stopped at a small restaurant. Spiders and other insects were on offer, but I went the safe route and bought a banana.
When we arrived in Phnom Penh, the two guys and I went looking for a hotel. We checked out a hotel and the room offered to me was a floor under the room for the two guys from Singapore. When we meet downstairs they said they were happy to take it, but I told them no way, which they did not understand and wanted to know what was wrong with it. I could not really tell them as the staff where with us and I told them to trust me and leave. When we got outside I told them that I was a bit suspicious about the bar next door, as there were some
naughty looking girls. When I was shown my room a girl in high healed shoes, short skirts and make-up left a room. I realized that the hotel obviously rented rooms out by the hour. When I told them outside they burst out laughing and told me they had not noticed the bar next door.
In the afternoon we went to see the Royal Palace and after that we decided that was enough sightseeing for one day.
On the 24th we went to the Killing Fields, which is about 15km outside Phnom Penh. I had mixed feelings about going as I saw the film “The Killing Fields” when it came out, which I think was in 1984, and it touched me quite a lot then. It is full of mass graves from the time of the Pol Pot genocide where 25-30% of the Cambodian population was killed or died from starvation. After that we went to the genocide museum, which is a prison used by the Khmer Rouge while Pol Pot was ruling the country. This was more frightening that seeing the Killing Fields, as it was full of photos of people killed there and stories of some that
Genocide Museum
Photo of one of the prisoners that did not survice survived.
In the afternoon we went to the Russian market which is full of clothes of well known brands. I bought a t-shirt as I was running out of clean clothes and realized that 4 t-shirts are not really enough in this heat. After that we went to the National Museum which was full of Buddy statues and a bit boring.
In the evening we had dinner and a few drinks at the Foreign Correspondence Club, which has a fantastic view over the river. As there is really not much more to see in Phnom Penh I decided to leave the next day to go to Vietnam, but when I checked my visa it was not valid before 26th.
On the 25th I was been a bit naughty and stayed to a top-end hotel with a swimming pool as I just wanted to relax and read my book in the sun. It rained all afternoon, so I did not even use the swimming pool!
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Ole Hougaard
non-member comment
Hotel
Hi Klaus, Lovely to read your story, it sounds really exiting, and you look very fit in the pictures.... My question is, wasn´t that being a bit suspicious in the hotel? She could have been a business woman on a business trip. Just because she wears make up you believe the worse? Look forward to your next entry... Ole