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Published: July 26th 2009
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After the grandeur of Angkor Wat, we set out for the capitol of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. One look at a guidebook and you might think we were headed for the kind of place you push heavy furniture against the hotel room door and just wait for the next bus out of town. However, we were pleasantly surprised that we were neither robbed nor injured during our brief stay.
After the 5 hour bus journey from Siem Reap (with a Michael Jackson video on repeat....they seem more upset by his death than Americans!), we arrived in PP during a rain shower. While we have generally shunned TukTuk drivers during our trip, this time we decided to give it a shot since we had no idea where we should go. Choosing a guesthouse from our guidebook, our driver, Andtree, took us to the backpacker area by the lake. We immediately understood why the guidebooks caution backbackers about this city. The Lake Backpacker area is a collection of super cheap guesthouses ($2/night), seedy bars, cheap cafes, and a large collection of sinister looking people waiting for darkness on a alley with high walls and no lights. After checking out a $5 and a
$3 room, we decided to take our driver's advise and stay by the River instead.
Once out of the ghetto, PP started to look much less scary. We checked in to our $8/night hotel room on the roof with a view of the river, and headed out to grab some lunch. During lunch we ran into one of our favorite group members from our tour, Adam, whom we had last seen in Bangkok. A couple of beers were in order before heading out to take care of our Vietnam visa.
The real reason for going to PP was to get a Vietnam visa for half the price and one tenth of the time as it takes in the US. We walked in to a travel agency, gave them our passports, and the next day we were good to go. Just $35 instead of $65 plus postage in the US. Not sure how they make any money off of us, but we have stopped trying to apply logic to anything over here.
During our first evening, we hit the Foreign Correspondent's Club to get a taste of PP's Westerner scene and watch the storms rolling in. Then we
retreated to our roof top patio and munched on our cookies we bought to support the large numbers of orphans in PP.
The next day was our only full day in PP, so it was chock full of sight seeing. We began with the S-21 genocide museum. S-21 was PP High School until Pol Pot's revolutionary forces turned it into a prison, torture, and death factory. Incredibly sobering as it has been left exactly as they found it......rooms with nothing but the bed and the photo of the body they found tortured to death on it. For something that happened relatively recently, we learn next to nothing about it in US public schools. Horrendous.
After that bit of sunshine, we headed to the Royal Palace for a nice juxtaposition of the terrible with the spectacular. The royal palace still houses the king, so many portions we closed to visitors, but we were able to take some great pictures and see the throne room. On the same grounds was the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Of course, no photos were allowed, but we saw our first solid gold Buddha that was encrusted with over 250 carats of diamonds. The
entire floor was covered in silver tiles so it was pretty impressive.
Afterwards, we had a delicious Bangladeshi meal and turned in for a bit of rest before our 6 hour boat journey to Vietnam in the morning.
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Aunt Carolyn
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your trip
Oh WOW, Sarah. What incredible photos, which really do not do justice. You and Pat are on an adventure of a lifetime. I hope you got home safely. I can't wait to hear more. love, Aunt Carolyn