Tuk tuk, taxi, where you go, wanna shoot rifle? Just another day in Phnom Penh

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11.07.06
We had a bit of a lay in this morning until 9am. The 4 of us then headed off for a day of shopping!
First stop was Psar Tuol Tom Pong, the russian market. It was ok, we bought another christmas pressie and a little something for ourselves, but the pathways are so narrow and it's so hot in there that after an hour or 2 we had to get out into some fresh air.
As it had been a long walk to the market we treated ourselves to a tuk tuk ride to Psar O Russei, another market where they sold mainly electrical goods but also they had the food section. There were lots of live chickens, ducks and geese. I say live, they were very deffinitely not doing so well.
Time for lunch again then a tuk tuk to Movie Street. This is like a dvd shop, but you hire a dvd and then go to your own private viewing booth to watch it! Sounds dodgy yes, but we couldn't see any of those movies. We chose the Boogy man, took in our drinks and sweets and watched it in a large air conditioned room on a leather couch, quite nice.

We then went to check out the Independence monument, it was ok and then headed back.
That night the 4 of us went for dinner and a couple of drinks. We got talking to one of the many children that try and sell you flowers and books. We had read that they were pimped by a guy sat on a moto at the other end of the street. She was 12 and lovely so Andy and I gave her a little bit of money and tried to tell her to keep it for herself and not to give it to 'Mamma'' but we thought he was probably watching anyway.
At the end of the night we decided to walk back. Now if Andy and I had been on our own we certainly wouldn't have, it was VERY dark and a little scary.
As we walking back through some dogy looking places we saw hundreds of rats!! I jumped on Andy's back as one ran straight infront of our feet!
On the way back we saw all the moto drivers and tuk tuk drivers sleeping on their bikes, they have no homes in Phnom Penh. There were also children asleep on the pavement and on one street there were a lot of ladies hanging about. It gave us a different feel to the city, quite sad, it made us look at the annoying tuk tuk and moto drivers in a different light.


Jon and Kylie left this morning to Sihanoukville so we got up late and headed to the riverside for brunch. We walked to the Palace but we were told that it was shut until 2pm by an official guard. Of course we didn't believe them so we walked around to the main entrance and asked another guard, who said the same thing, so we went on the internet for a bit to wait for it to open. However whilst on the computer it poured with rain (as it does most days, it's the wet season) so we never made it to the palace.
As we were now on our own in the city we decided we would stay in tonight. So we went back via the supermarket for a couple of pot noodles which we ate in our room watching movies.

This city is crazy. Every minute you get asked for a tul tuk, where you go? The traffic goes in any direction it wants to, you have to look left and right no matter what. When you do cross you can't wait for a gap you just have to walk slowly and let the bikes dodge you!
Even with all the little downfalls we really like this city, we are quite surprised.

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Photos

Street life
Spot the lady in her pj's!