Advertisement
Published: February 11th 2008
After a smooth transition in Kuala Lumpur, which I rate as the most chilled airport I've ever beeen in - probably due to the curved wooden rooves and the canopy of foliage outside the glass - but was missing the fun of Miami airport that Rush and I had mischeviously delighted in enroute to Mexico because of the movement sesnor soundscape - we arrived in Phnom Penh, the bustling capital of Cambodia. Motorbikes dominate the city. I wasn't feeling kamikaze enough to risk being separated from Irantzu by being on separate bikes laden down with 2 rucksacks each, so we opted for a taxi. It gave us a chance to get our heads round the currency, which we'd changed from US dollars at the airport to a wad of 10,000 (=$2.50) riel notes; we hadn't expected to become millionaires!
We struck lucky with our guesthouse in the Boeng Kak (Lakeside) area of town, which we'd chosen on the basis of the Lonely Planet describing it as having the smartest rooms in the budget range - we weren't anticipating pull cord tassle adorned curtains, an ornate plaster ceiling and a chandalier! Our first foray that evening by tuk tuk to a
misunderstood destination provided us with a chance to interact with Cambodians away from the tourist ghettos, and they couldn't have been more helpful or friendly; our attempts at Khmer led to much hilarity. We returned to our guesthouse never having reached our anticipated destination, but had a great tour of Phnom Penh at night.
Because of the change in time zone, 7 hours ahead of GMT, and the snoozing I'd done on the planes, I decided to be proactive and knock myself into Cambodian time with a muscle relaxant sleeping tablet that night, and the plan worked - in my hippier days I probably would have opted for melatonin, but I'm a tad wary of messing directly with synthetic analogues of brain chemicals these days. I wasn't up for a night of enforced yogic breathing techniques either...
My masterplan equates to seeing the sombre sights of Cambodia first, followed by temples galore and then heading down to the southwest to enjoy the beach. We got a tuk tuk to drive us 15km out to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, which was an extermination camp for about 17,000 men, women and children between 1975-8. Disturbingly remnants of clothing
could be seen sticking out of the ground around the mass graves. The site was peaceful but had an eerie vibe. A memorial stupa was built in 1988 that houses tiers of shelves holding thousands of skulls.
Next stop was the Tuol Sleng museum, a school that was turned into Security Prison 21 by Pol Pot's security forces, where people were detained and tortured before being taken to the extermination camp. There were 20 torture cells with blood spattered on the walls, floors and ceilings, which had metal beds which prisoners were shackled to. Photos of thousands of the detainees were on display, and some moving paintings and photos depicted the horrors detainees had to endure.
We diffused the heaviness of the day by going to see a traditional shadow puppet performance in the evening. The sequined costumes and stupa like head pieces were stunning. We were treated to an episode of the Reamker, the Khmer adaptation of the Indian epic Ramayana, which has a very complicated plot - difficult to follow even with the story printed in the brochure!
Our second day in Phnom Penh was a leisurely stroll round Wat (temple) Phnom, the Royal Palace
and National Museum, topped off by cocktails as the sun set in the colonialesque Foreign Correspondents' Club. Photos explain better than words...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.096s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 11; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0619s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Jason
non-member comment
Asian Adventures
Wow! Looks awesome... And sounds adventurous but achievable... Enjoy the cocktails, looking forward to the next installment...