Phnom Penh Nom Nom

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Sarah: All went well arriving in Phnom Penh from Singapore and a tuk tuk was duly employed on our arrival to get us to our hostel. It took about 30 minutes and it was a great way to take in all the sights, sounds and smells of the city with only the breeze (when we were in motion) for air conditioning. The humidity was a lot lower compared to Singapore, which was a relief, but the temperature was still up in the mid 30s. Not for the faint hearted! The roads were dusty and full of large trucks, 4x4s, tuk tuks, scooters and push bikes. There are many scooters that have a whole food stall attached to the side, and it's quite a sight to see these manoeuvring through the hectic traffic!

The hostel was really welcoming and one of the nicest ones we've stayed in. The shower was powerful, the room was large, clean and light and (thankfully) the air conditioning was cold! We spent the most of the first afternoon doing some planning for our time in Cambodia, waiting out the heavy rain that started shortly after we arrived. The rain did not last long and so we headed out for a wander around to get our bearings, see some sights and ultimately, get fed. We had to get back in to the habit of crossing roads not by waiting for gaps or green men but walking out in to several lanes of crazy traffic. Similar to our experience a few years ago in Vietnam, so long as you keep walking at a steady pace, the traffic tends to flow around you, but it's not without its stresses when you start out!

Although the rain had stopped the clouds looked really threatening and were putting on the most spectacular lightning show in the distance as we made our way to the river. After walking past several monuments, palaces, outdoor aerobics classes and football games on the side of the road we made it to the night market. I was amazed by the number of stalls selling cartoon character pyjamas - however, the next day I noticed that a lot of women wear these as casual day wear.... After winding our way through the clothing stalls we made it to the food section. There were scores of stalls surrounding a central area that was covered in mats with people eating and drinking whatever they had picked up from the stalls. Not quite yet dinner time for us, but we couldn't resist a few dumplings and spring rolls to keep the wolf from the door!

The clouds carried out their threats and the rain started to come down again as we were leaving the market. It wasn't as heavy as earlier on in the afternoon, but still warranted getting off the streets pretty sharpish. We sat under an awning with drinks watching the amazing lightning show and whacky races style driving! We didn't venture much further for dinner, settling on a French/Asian restaurant and going with the local dishes of luk lak (beefy dish) and pork and cashews, both of which were simple yet tasty. After dinner we caught a tuk tuk back to our hostel (we'd managed to walk a fair old distance!) and enjoyed a coffee (first real Nescafé in a while, it was good!) and a read in the common area before hitting the hay.

For Sunday we had arranged a tuk tuk for 8am to take us to the Killing Fields near Phnom Penh where thousands of Cambodians were killed during the time in power of the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s. It was understandably a very harrowing trip, but I think really necessary to help understand Cambodians and their very recent and tragic history. We were provided with an excellent audio tour that included contributions from survivors and guards. It was very moving and the tour ended at the monument built in memory of the victims and contains almost 8000 skulls that were dug up from the mass graves. The stories of the executions are truly horrific and I think it is so shocking that this all happened so relatively recently, affected so many families and that the Khmer Rouge were recognised by the UN as leaders of Cambodia, even after they had been driven underground in Cambodia. This was followed by a trip to S-21, an old school that was converted in to a prison for intellectuals and opposers to the Khmer Rouge where prisoners were tortured and made to confess to crimes they hadn't committed. I won't dwell on this any longer but let's just say a strong and sweet iced coffee was very welcome to try and lift the spirits.

After lunch we ventured out to the Royal Palace in the centre of the city. The palaces and temples were very impressive but the heat of the afternoon and the trauma of the morning made for a fairly hasty exit after we'd taken a few snaps. We made a quick trip back to the hostel to shower before heading back to the night market to make a whole meal of the stalls there, rather than just the starter of the previous night! We headed for the BBQ stall and with the help of the market holder, picked out some skewers to be cooked up for our dinner. These included some classic meat and veg mixed skewers and also some small squid that had been marinated in chilli and garlic. We avoided the 'chicken ass' and 'chicken gizzards'... The stall next door provided us with a fantastically refreshing papaya salad with loads of peanuts and just the right amount of spice. We picked our way through the BBQ food, agreeing unanimously that the beautifully soft squid was the star of the show. After dinner we found a rooftop bar overlooking the river, amusing the staff with our newly learnt Khmer language skills and watching the bats and traffic below. The tuk tuk home was the best yet, looking like a cross between something from the Jetsons and an old person's bathtub. Back at the hostel we kept an eye on the rats the size of draft excluders that pottered around the front courtyard and the cricket that was hanging out next to Nick as we watched the England football match.

Having fit in most of the touristy things the previous day, Monday was a bit of a rest day. However, the evening had a bit more excitement in store in the form of a local food tour. During the day we sorted out some bus tickets and wandered through the central market, being unable to resist a portion of squid similar to the dish from the night before. We also took a walk to Wat Phnom, which is a temple on a small man-made hill in the north of the city. Around 5pm we were picked up by our foodie guide and set off in a couple of tuk tuks with our five fellow foodie tourists. We started with drinks at the highest bar (22nd floor) in Phnom Penh with great views of the city and beyond all around. After that it was back in the tuk tuks to a market to start our backwards dinner, as we were starting with fruits and desserts. We tried several new fruits, all of which were delicious and mostly variations on lychees. The puddings that we tried included a tapioca and banana pudding (tasted like condensed milk and not banana-ey at all so I managed to eat it despite my strong dislike of that yellow monstrosity). The second was a mixture of sweetened green lentils, crushed ice and more condensed milk. Most people found the sweet green lentils a bit weird but this one was much more up my street than the previous offering! After pud, our guide picked up a bag of pork meat and a bag of pork scratchings - ultimate pub snacks perfect for munching on whilst wandering through the rest of the market. After our sweet and then meaty treats it was on to the less familiar in the form of insect tasting... The larger crickets and grasshoppers were nicely crunchy and relatively inoffensive (apart from when antennae or legs tickle your lips or get stuck in your teeth). The deep fried frogs were also a winner. The less appealing offerings were the ants (they had a bit of a furry, earthy texture), the silk worm larvae which sort of popped in your mouth and the chicken feet. We did try everything on offer though!&& The end of the tour took us to a local BBQ restaurant where there was also a bit of karaoke going on. Here we had more familiar fare such as pork and pineapple, more squid, chicken curry, various steamed veg and rice with a couple of oddities such as beef with ants (finding ants in your rice and not really knowing if they should or shouldn't be there is a bit off putting) and BBQ whole frogs. The beer flowed freely and we had a great evening.

Afterwards our tour guide joined us for a few more beers at a pub that he recommended that most of the group (including us) had already been to. It's not in the guidebooks but just a good cheap pub with good music and atmosphere. They have a canister of laughing gas behind the bar and sell balloons for people to inhale. Whilst not partaking ourselves we did find some amusement watching an old boy take about 10 balloons one after the other, leaving the limp balloon in his mouth at the end of each with a vacant look on his face before signalling for another! Our tour guide also told us about the cocktails on the menu that contained 'happy milk'. These were apparently infused with, shall we say, some 'herbal enhancements' for extra fun. Out of curiosity, Nick and a couple of others got a round of happy milk cocktails before we went our separate ways. We were skeptical about the strength of the cocktails however, whilst making the coffees back at home, Nick decided he was definitely feeling the effects.... We've learnt that they also have 'happy pizza' which has a similar special seasoning.... Phnom Penh was a great place to spend a few days; the people are all really friendly and there is a really nice buzz about the place (no pun intended).

It is now Tuesday and we have travelled north on a six hour bus journey to a town called Battambang. The bus journey was fine but did include an hour of Cambodian radio that played what I think were modern Cambodian pop songs but sounded more like Vic Reeves singing in the club style, a video of what appeared to be an amateur dramatics comedy that had our fellow passengers (and us, despite not understanding a word) laughing out loud, followed by some karaoke ballad videos that all sounded the same. We've been out for a late lunch of noodles and now I think it's time to head out again to continue our own personal food tour of SE Asia!

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