Advertisement
Published: June 22nd 2012
Edit Blog Post
After taking the night train back to Bangkok from Chiang Mai, and 1 nights stayover near the airport it was time to leave Thailand after a great 45 days. We had a flight booked for Phnom Penh that we had organised before leaving Australia. It was nice to be enroute to a new country, we loved our time in Thailand but after a bit over a month it was definately time for a change.
We had booked our stay at Mad Monkey Hostel, a quieter area of the city, and after a taxi ride from the aiport we arrived ready to book in and relax in the downstairs bar. A few well earned drinks, a great meal and some interaction with the local kids trying to sell everything and anything, and also a chat with one of the owners and we were ready to call it a night.
Our first full day in the city and we decided to go for a stroll to first of all get our bearings and also discover what this city had to offer. We happened to pick the hottest part of the day to do this, so after about an hour or so
strolling along the riverside we made the decision to turn back and escape the heat.
We were tempted to join a pub crawl but instead we made the desicion to have an early night and get up at 4.00am and make our way to the Australian Embassy for the ANZAC Day dawn service. An early morning tuk tuk ride woke us up and soon enough we were walking though the metal detectors ready for the ceremony to begin.
It really was mind blowing to walk in and see just how many people had made the effort to get up and come to the service, old and young. It was short and sweet, but was so good to be apart of in a foreign country. We were then invited to the Cambodiana Hotel for a nice breakfast, i'm sure over the years our taxes have gone part way to feeding us on this morning.
We walked off breakfast back to the hostel and spotted an Aussie bar with a fair bit of activity going on, we decided to catch a bit more sleep and go back later to investigate. By the time we came back at midday the
place was in full swing, we were given a quick run down on how it worked - "You give us $5.00 and you can drink and eat as much as you want". This sounded pretty straight forward to us so we got amongst it for the rest of the afternoon.
The bar thought of everything - live Australian music, AFL on the big screen and of course 2up. Just when we thought we would call it a night we got dragged by a group of aussie's to an Australian run hotel/resort for a swim and more drinking, all in all a great Anzac day.
We woke up the next day a bit worse for wear, but we had previously booked a half day tour to see the Tuol Sleng S21 prison and Killing Fields. This tour was a real eye opener into the raw history of a country who are still feeling the effects in the present day. We got to meet 1 of the last 2 survivors from the prison and listened to many stories of survival and death at the killing fields, a pretty sombre day.
Our last day in Phnom Pehn was spent going
through the National Museum and Royal Palace followed by dinner along the river. The following morning we said goodbye to the Mad Monkey Hostel and jumped on a mini bus with our next destination to be Siem Reap and the magical Angkor Wat.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.118s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 14; qc: 58; dbt: 0.0595s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb