Phnom Penh, Cambodia

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Phnom Penh, the capital and largest city in Cambodia, took a couple days to really grow on me. It seemed far dirtier and sketchier than calm, peaceful Laos, but after a few days I began to really take to it.


Its chaos makes it seem like the entire city is barely holding together. In the main section of the city that lines the river and contains many of the tourist attractions, you can't walk two feet without being hassled or offered any number of tours, drugs or prostitutes. The hardest thing to get used to is the tons of street kids that are begging or trying to sell pirated books. Most of these kids work for an adult that takes the money, so giving money only encourages the use of children as begging tools. There is no easy way to handle the situation. Its sad and emotionally taxing.


So its hard to get a feel of average people in Phnom Penh until you get out of the main area. I took a motorbike about 15km outside of town to the Choeung Ek Kiliing Fields, but took a wrong turn somewhere and got caught in the rain. The dirt roads flood almost immediately when it rains and a boy signalled me over to his garage-like shack to get me and the bike out of the rain. He and his little sister did not speak english and the Khmer language isway too difficult for me to say anything other than "hello", "thank you", etc. So we just smiled and used gestures to communicate. They were so nice to me, giving me a plastic chair under their tarp. Eventually they got a neighborhood kid that spoke some english to come over and give me directions. The rain started to let up and the little girl went and got me a poncho.


The more I explored Phnom Penh, the more I would find great little spots like parks or temples. Wat Phnom is a temple on a hill with a park surrounding it encircled by major road interchange. Lots of families were hanging out when I got there, then an elephant shows up. As I walked down from the temple, a monkey darted out in front of me, and I realized there were several just hanging out at the park.

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