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Published: January 22nd 2010
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We got the bus from Siem Reap to the capital Phnom Penh through the flat green Cambodian countryside. We struggled to find a guesthouse in the centre of town as our 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices were all full but we eventually found a nice place to the south of the City with all mod cons (Basac Guest House).
We spent the next couple of days wandering the hot dusty city streets and taking in the sights and smells (some good, some very bad!). We visited the beautiful National Museum building and saw the statues and artefacts saved from excavated temples, including the real Leper King statue from Angkor Thom. We visited Wat Phrom temple on a hill and the wonderful Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda with it's 5000+ silver floor tiles, which was FULL of gold and diamond treasures . We ate at some great restaurants on the riverfront and enjoyed many a Happy Hour. Like in other poor countries we've been to, begging in tourist areas is a fact of life and we found the kids selling books and postcards as petulent as the ones in India (you know, say politely you don't want to buy their books/postcards
and then you get the finger or choice words in response!).
We visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide museum to learn about Pol Pot, the Khymer Rouge and the terrible things they did to the Cambodian people during the 1970s. The museum is housed in an old inner city school that the Khymer Rouge turned into a prison and interrogation centre known as S21. Twenty thousand innocent men, women and children were detained and tortered here before being taken away to the infamous Killing Fields to be murdered. The buildings have been left in the same state as they was found when the Khymer Rouge were overthrown by the Vietnamese after their 4 year rein of terror. It was a truely horrible place with torture rooms, tiny detention cells, chains, shackles and razor wire fences. The names and photos of many of the victims were displayed, which was particually heartbreaking to see. It was honestly the most sad place we have ever been to.
We wanted an break from the city so got the bus to Kratie, a little town on the Mekong river to the north east of Phnom Penh. We found a cute family run guest house
(Sun Set Guest House) with nice cheap rooms, cheap because the local junor school was next door so we got a lively wake up call at 7am when the kids got to lessons. The lady owner was so sweet and treated us like her children, bringing us treats back from the bakery or fruit market and constantly asking us if we were hungry. She did a mean Amok curry too! First day we hired bicycles and rode up the river to Kampi village. Here we visited the shallow rapids, which were amoung hundreds of little sand dune islands in the Mekong, accessable by a rickety wooden foot bridge. We did a bit of paddling and exploring and ate our sticky rice lunch before going to get a boat ride to try and spot the famous and rare Irrawaddy Dolphins that live in the Mekong. We were lucky that the local dolphins were feeling sociable that afternoon and we saw a pod of 5 swim around our boat for pretty much the whole hour we were on the water. It was very cool. The seats on our old bikes were very unforgiving and we were glad to give them back after
our knackering 32km round trip!
The following day we hired a scooter and took it on the local ferry, past the floating Vietnamese settlement, to the other side of the river to check out the villages there. The road was just a dirt track but the bike could handle it. We past many wooden houses and villages and must have waved and said hello to a million kids! The village roads were busy with toddlers, puppies, chickens, piglets and buffalo that we had to navigate around. We got another ferry (just a small wooden motor boat) back and were sad to leave Kratie the next morning.
Back in Phnom Penh, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and it was cold and pouring with rain. After checking into a hotel by the Central Market (Kushion Hotel), we treated ourselves to happy hour drinks at the colonial style Foreigners Correspondents Club (FCC) bar, with views over the river. We spent the next couple of days hiding from the rain by cafe squatting, drinking tea and shopping at the Russian Market. Some street stall snacks were 'interesting'........including deep fried baby birds, insects and huge black spiders! One street
stall lady ironically had a tarantula as a pet, which sat patiently on her t-shirt while she sold it's deep fried friends. They looked absolutely rank, so we passed!
3am Live Manchester Carling Cup Derby - Man City 2 - Man United 1...........enough said 😊
We desparately wanted to see the sun again so we got a bus down south to Sihanoukville to check out the beach........
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Brad
non-member comment
CITY!
CLAP CLAP!!! Another great blog guys and glad Dee got to see the match! I love seeing all the palaces... so amazing! I'm always happy when the next blog comes out so that I get to see you both again. Looks like such an amazing time... Safe Travels and God Bless... Bxxx