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Published: December 3rd 2012
Royal Palace
The Silver Pagoda of the Royal Palace.Gkee and I have been on many journeys together -
Greece,
Bosnia,
Iceland,
Italy,
Hungary,
Sweden and
Poland to name just a few - so I'm used to seeing him in foreign countries.
Yet I would never have guessed that I would be flying into Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to visit him - and three years ago, neither would he. Yet here I was, about fly into Phnom Penh to visit Gkee and his girlfriend Fiona who are now
living there.
First however, I had to negotiate my first ever Air Asia flight.
KL's Low Cost Carrier Terminal is pretty ramshackle, in tune with the nature of the airlines flying out of it. This is in stark contrast to KLIA, (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) which was voted the world's best airport in 2005.
Boarding my flight, I wasn't used to being one of the taller passengers on board - I towered over the the mostly female, Cambodian crowd, tiny and happy as they yapped away like Ewoks in their native tongue. In contrast, the Air Asia stewardesses were relatively tall and pretty, as if Air Asia had plucked South East Asia's most beautiful women to take care of their passengers.
Independence Monument
Celebrating independence from France in 1953. Air Asia is supposed to be Ryanair's equivalent in South East Asia and in comparison, the plane was much nicer and cleaner. So far so good then, as I proceeded to fall asleep upon take-off.
I hadn't got too much sleep while I was in KL so I was pretty out of it as I kept drifting in and out, so when the plane suddenly dropped for a couple of seconds I wondered if I had dreamt it.
I hadn't - the pilot announces that we are going through turbulence and asks everyone to remain seated and remain calm. I drifted back into a state of sleep purgatory.
When the plane dropped a second time, for about three seconds, I definitely knew I wasn't dreaming it as my heart stopped and I started to feel pins and needles all the way up my arms. That moment when you suddenly realise you might quite possibly die is f*cking scary.
And then it happened a third time and mayhem ensues. Pins and needles run through my veins and I inhale sharply as ice-cold fear courses through my body. The little Cambodian women who were happily yapping away just an hour earlier were
Central Market
Housed in a striking art-deco building. now screaming for their lives - everyone was. The women next to me is throwing up into a paper bag. The whole scene lasts about five seconds before we level out again.
"Thank you for flying Air Asia - we hope to see you again soon."
Once on the ground, I went through an immigration process that was as frustrating as my flight was harrowing. There are no signs or instructions anywhere telling foreigners that they have to fill out any forms, so I got turned back by the visa processing people because I hadn't filled out a form that I didn't know I had to fill out, and once I had done that I got turned back by the border control because I hadn't filled out a second form that I didn't know I had to fill out, and then once I had done that I got turned back by customs because I hadn't filled out a third form that I didn't know I had to fill out.
The water-feature-flanked walkway leading out of the airport is nice though, about the airport's only redeeming feature.
Mike (Gkee's real name in case you don't know) and Fi had
Memorial Stupa
At the Choeung Ek Killing Fields. sent round their tuk-tuk driver to pick me up which I thought was a nice touch, and as I emerged from the terminal I see a local man holding up a sign for "Mr Derek". It was so cute. I point him out and introduce myself as Mike's friend and Sambo welcomes me to Cambodia with a smile.
So. If I thought that KL's traffic was chaotic, then it had nothing on Phnom Penh's.
Sambo had parked his tuk-tuk across the road and there were absolutely no gaps in the traffic for us to cross. Sambo slowly creeps onto the road and holds up his hands to stop traffic and beckons me to follow. As we snake our way through the traffic, I implicitly and instinctively trust him, and we make it across the other side.
As he starts up his tuk-tuk, I then have to implicitly and instinctively trust him again.
Normally when one pulls out of a driveway, one waits for a gap in traffic. Because there is no such thing as a gap in traffic on this particular stretch of road, one has to improvise - so Sambo simply drives head-on into oncoming traffic in the
Carpooling
Cambodia-style. wrong lane and slowly inches his way across into the right lane.
It is mayhem on the road - as we make our way to Fi's office, we are completely surrounded by all manner of trucks (packed with people hanging off the side of them), motorbikes, scooters, cars, tuk-tuks and bicycles. There are no fast lanes or slow lanes - hell, there are no lanes at all - it's simply a free-for-all, as everyone forces themselves into the non-existent gaps in the traffic in a bid to get ahead. Footpaths turn into motorbike lanes - it's amazing how much people carry on their motorbikes here. I even witnessed a dude steering his motorbike with one hand while holding a live chicken in the other. When traffic stops, the people in the vehicle next to you are literally close enough for you to have a handshake and a chat about the weather.
Viewing all of this while feeling the warm wind hit my face in the back of Sambo's tuk-tuk, I couldn't help but smile at the madness around me. It was madness, but awesome at the same time. That tuk-tuk ride was an experience so different to what I am
Motorbike Lane
Pedestrians need to be careful when walking along the footpath in rush hour. used to and was a slightly exhilarating reminder that I was indeed somewhere exotic.
Part of that exoticness was is the fact that things are a lot poorer here than in Malaysia. This was evident from the state of dwellings, the poorly maintained infrastructure, the clothes people wear - they don't have a lot here. But the people here don't seem to be down on their luck here and just get on with it, making the most of what they have. This gives Phnom Penh a great bustling energy that enlivens anyone who visits the city.
The locals always seem to be very cheerful here, friendly, always with a smile on their face - just a complete contrast to London where people are all sour-faced despite having so much more. Just goes to show that wealth doesn't always bring you happiness.
Mike and Fi are pretty happy with their lot here however. They currently lead comfortable lives like most ex-pats in Cambodia, and reckon they will be here for another year or two. They have a nice, simple, well-located apartment, and there is a small but close-knit community of ex-pats over here that they draw their friends from,
I'll Have A Large, Thanks
Mike's colleague Eric and his massive glass of beer at Boat Noodle. a group of young professionals all in the same boat in an foreign place. The lifestyle certainly has appeal to me.
I get to meet some of their friends over dinner at a very authentically decorated restaurant called Boat Noodle. Compared to what I was enjoying in Malaysia, I didn't think the food was spectacular but it was still very much enjoyable.
When the bill came out and Fi announced that it was US$28, I got out a US$20 and a US$10 bill to pay for my share - only to realise that it was US$28 for the entire table of five! For the quality of the food, service and setting, this was amazingly cheap - these are pretty standard prices for Cambodia however, which I would get to enjoy for the next six days.
Money here is a little strange - the US Dollar is the main currency used and there are no coins in circulation at all. For fractional amounts, the local Cambodian Riel is then used at 4000 Riel to US$1.
After dinner, we all head to an Absinthe bar!
With what seemed like over twenty varieties of Absinthe, your order is served the proper way
Absinthe
Douse the sugarcube in Absinthe and then set it on fire. Then drip ice water on to the flaming sugarcube and let it melt through the spoon into your glass of Absinthe. Drink. - see the photo included on this page. I start with a 65% proof Absinthe and we make it a rule that your next order has to be stronger than your previous one - not good for Fi who started out with a 72%.
We are joined at the bar by some of Mike's Swedish workmates (Mike works for a Swedish company here developing Android apps). Must say that I didn't think I would be meeting a whole lot of Swedes in Phnom Penh!
We then move on to a specialist rum bar run by a Frenchman. A former French protectorate, some of the old folk in Phnom Penh still speak the language, and you still see some of their influence around the place.
Anyway, the rum bar makes its own rum and comes in all manner of flavours. The bar itself is nicely set up and has that old colonial feel about it.
The rum is nice too - the coffee one I have is delicious and tastes like a cold, sweet, alcoholic espresso.
Unfortunately, my lack of sleep, the heat, and the fact I have been drinking straight Absinthe and rum all evening catches up with me and
Waterworld
Our tuk-tuk driver driving us through a flash flood following a downpour. I start to feel a little light-headed - time to call it a night.
The next day, Mike's parents arrive and we head out for lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant.
Mike and I go back a long way - all the way back to primary school when we were six years old in fact - and as a consequence, both of our families are familiar with each other - for example, Mike's dad was my sister's football coach! It was great catching up with Richard and Lesley and I enjoyed reminiscing in our school memories and having 'grown-up' conversations. Despite the fact that I am 30, I still see them as grown-ups like I did when I was a kid!
It was a great coincidence that they were to be here the same time as me because it meant that Mike and Fi had the next two weeks off work and we could all go up to Siem Reap together.
Anyway, it is monsoon season and it is absolutely pelting down, just about the heaviest rain I've ever seen. We scrap the idea of walking to the restaurant but even after just a 10-second dash to the tuk-tuk, I
Riverside Promenade
A nice stroll along the Tonle Sap. The Tonle Sap is unique in the sense that the river reverses direction during the monsoon season. am saturated. Roads have turned into rivers in some parts of the city as our tuk-tuk wades through the water. The rain certainly never gets this heavy in London.
The meal is delicious, with the Vietnamese omelette being the highlight.
We then decide to stop by the covered Central Market which is housed in a large, yellow, art-deco building and houses all manner of stalls selling replica watches, clothes, jewellery, souvenirs, electronics, flowers and all sorts of other assorted nic-nacs. It doesn't seem to busy however and none of us are particularly keen on buying anything so we don't linger long. It is quite a striking building however.
Next, is a stroll along the promenade that runs along the Tonle Sap River before we decide to cool down with a beer overlooking the meeting of the Tonle Sap and the Mekong River from the FCC. The FCC stands for Foreign Correspondent's Club and is housed in a colonial building with a cool colonial style bar. The FCC is named as such because it was traditionally where foreign journalists congregated and was where many journalists based themselves while covering the atrocities committed during the reign of Pol Pot's regime in
Khmer Food
A chicken salad, amok, and a local soup. the 1970s. These days it is simply a bar and restaurant with a great view.
After a delicious dinner with Lesley, Mike and Fi at a slightly fancy restaurant complete with candles, wooden carvings, and a pond - which was followed by the best chocolate mousse in Phnom Penh - I hit the solo backpacking trail.
With Mike's parents having obvious dibs over Mike and Fi's spare room, I checked into the Mad Monkey Hostel, which was recommended by Mike, Fi, and my sister Fern.
The hostel certainly well organised, with friendly local staff and is lively as a result of its cafe-restaurant entrance and its top-floor bar.
Anyway, I get talking to a group of girls at the bar and after a few beers, one thing led to another and before you know it - like it has on countless times before on my travels - it's Hostel Night Out (TM)!
For those unfamiliar with Hostel Night Out (TM), it is pretty self-explanatory - you meet a group of people at your hostel, you have a few drinks and then you all hit the town. It's not quite the same as Hostel Pub Crawl (TM) where you
Rum Bar
Cool colonial-style rum bar that makes and serves its own rum. pay an third party organiser to take guide you to several of the city's drinking establishments on an organised route - Hostel Night Out (TM) is much more organic in formation and has no set route.
The first stop we make is at Champs Elysees - and I don't mean the famous avenue in Paris.
As we walk in, the charcoal marble floors and red carpet hinted at a rather classy establishment but in contrast, the red walls and surfeit of young, friendly local women hinted at rather the opposite. We were here for karaoke, but I am sure there were some here for something else...
Anyway, about twelve of us are led into a room with a TV against built into one of the walls and a long bench built into the wall directly opposite it. We are given microphones, song lists and small glasses of beer.
The karaoke videos were classic in the sense that the videos were almost certainly bought off some dude displaying his wares on a mat at a local market, where lyrics have been mistranslated, the video themselves are stock tourist-video footage, and the only songs available are Love Songs Til' Midnight (TM) from
Pontoon
Where Hostel Night Out (TM) ended up. the 80s and 90s. Think Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" over a background of old European tourists scrubbing themselves with mud at the Dead Sea. It was a blast though - Sarah, the American girl, turned out to be actually quite good.
There was a bit of a fiasco as we tried to leave the place - the establishment were charging us for beers that they served us but that we didn't want nor did we drink. Choice words were exchanged and mistranslated, some tears were shed, but in the end Andy the Australian sorted it out buy paying them the $5 or so in question - it just wasn't worth the acrimony and the possibility of the situation escalating to the point where we would have to pay off some corrupt cops. It was all a bit underhand though, and left a bitter taste in the mouth.
Next up was a place called Love Bar - and there was no disputing what this place was, despite the name. With a smoke machine, laser lights and soft white lighting, we had a couple more drinks in this swanky-looking bar/club before moving on to our final stop -
Tuk-Tuk
Typical Cambodian taxi that was our main form of transport. Pontoon.
A true club, Pontoon has a bit of an infamous reputation about it - the Tiger Tiger of Phnom Penh if you will, except dirtier. As I entered the club and saw all the well-dressed, local women around me I remembered what Fi told me; "Derek, if you go out tonight, especially somewhere like Pontoon, and you see lots of friendly, well-dressed, local women, remember that they are most likely prostitutes."
As the night went on, western men start to hook up with local girls - whether they know what they're in for is moot. Apparently local girls aren't allowed past 8pm by their parents - yes, it's true - and that they even have "day-clubs" for girls to go party so that they can be back home in time.
Anyway, they played some awesome tunes I haven't heard played in a club in yonks - loads of early 90s rap and hip-hop including Warren G, Snoop Dogg, Beastie Boys and 2Pac (several times). It was 5am when the final six of us got back to the hostel - good times.
I obviously missed my planned 9am tour of S21 and The Killing Fields the next day.
I
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
Looking over the courtyard inside S21. eventually got up around 1pm and went downstairs to try and organise an alternative tour. Andy was down there too trying to do the same thing, so we thought we might as well pool our resources and hired a tuk-tuk who would take us to both sites and back for $15.
If there was time, I thought I might do some shooting like I did in Krakow - apparently you can shoot rocket launchers and for a little extra, you can buy cows and chickens to shoot at! Hmmmm...not sure if I'd be up for murdering cows and chickens for shits and giggles.
Like how you shouldn't visit Krakow without going to Auschwitz, or visit Munich without going to Dachau, you can't visit Phnom Penh without visiting S21 and The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek.
Cambodia suffered its own Holocaust between 1975 and 1979 when Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge came into power and killed an estimated 1.7m of his own people. People were killed for a variety of reasons - suspected connections with the former government, suspected connections with foreign governments, for being a professional, or for being an intellectual.
It was all part of Pol Pot's implementation of
Cells Inside S21
Some of the tiny cells that prisoners were kept in inside S21. agrarian socialism which forced people from the city into the country to work on farms and forced labour camps. Money was abolished.
A former high school, the site at Tuol Sleng was converted into a prison by the Khmer Rouge - "Security Prison 21" (S21).
People suspected of "crimes" were brought to S21 and were generally held here for two to three months, in squalid conditions. The objective of bringing prisoners to S21 was to get prisoners confess to their crimes. Torture was often used to eke out confessions and techniques included beatings, electrocution, searings by hot metal instruments, hanging, waterboarding, and nail extraction.
S21 is now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the torture, the rules inside the prison for prisoners and staff alike, living conditions, prison practices, victim stories and what happened after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, are all documented inside and reading about it all is a sobering experience.
Once prisoners had given their confessions, they were then taken 17km outside of Phnom Penh for their extermination at Choeung Ek - better known as "The Killing Fields".
The stories detailed here are horrifying.
For instance, to save ammunition, prisoners were executed using whatever
Choeung Ek Killing Fields
The depressions you see in the ground were mass graves. other means were available including machetes, poison, spades, sickles and other farming tools. Execution would often be excruciating and hardly swift. Most sickeningly, babies and infants were brutally and mercilessly executed so that "the family tree can be killed at the roots - so that they cannot grow up and take revenge for their parents' deaths". Babies were bayoneted; infants would have their heads smashed against the trunk of a tree.
At Choeung Ek today is a commemorative stupa filled with the skulls of over 5,000 people are displayed inside. I was there too late unfortunately so I couldn't go inside to pay my respects.
The site is littered with large pits that were once mass graves - human bones are still scattered throughout. The audio guide is excellent, detailing exactly what happened at the each exact location at the site.
I couldn't believe how people could have been driven to do such things to their fellow human beings. I will say that walking around Choeung Ek didn't feel as chilling as walking through the gas chambers in Auschwitz, but it was still pretty grim. Put it this way, I certainly wasn't in the mood to blow up cows with
Rush Hour
Rush hour in Phnom Penh a bazooka.
It was too late to do anything anyway and it was also too late to visit the Russian and Uru Tai markets which are supposedly the 'real' local markets unlike the touristy Central Market. Dusk was beginning to fall and our tuk-tuk driver drove us back to Phnom Penh.
It was a nervous ride back.
I had to keep my sunglasses on because of the dust flying into my face and our driver took a couple of long back roads that were littered with potholes and bumpy to say the least - there ain't no seatbelts in these tuk-tuks, y'know.
Our tuk-tuk had no functioning headlights and our driver was pretty aggressive, trying to overtake trucks and lorries that could easily have flattened us as we tried to get past them on the shoulder of the road. This while trying to also deal with the rest of the motorbikes, cars, tuk-tuks, bicycles, potholes and pedestrians coming at us from all directions. Without headlights. So dangerous.
Andy is a good guy so I invited him to have dinner with me, Mike, Fi and Mike's parents, who also had a guest of their own who worked with Fi.
Streets Of Phnom Penh
Typical street in the middle of Phnom Penh. We had Cambodian barbecue which went deliciously with a sauce made with a local ground pepper and lime juice. You really can't go wrong with grilled meat though.
Back at the hostel, Andy and I had a couple more beers although there was no way we were going to have another Hostel Night Out (TM) as we happened to both be heading up to Siem Reap bright and early the next morning.
Phnom Penh was so much different to any place I have ever been before and I really liked the energy and friendliness of the place. I reckon I could've done with one more day here so I definitely won't be against coming back one day.
Up next though, is some temple-seeing up in Siem Reap!
លាហើយ,
Derek
WARNING: Some of the photos and descriptions of S21 and The Killing Fields below may be upsetting.
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