Phnom Penh

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Geo: 11.5588, 104.917

Phnom Penh is a beautiful place and I instantly take to it, first impressions I'm struck by the lack of multi storey buildings, instead it is all very low level only around 5 storey's high. I am swept into the city along the main boulevard at rush hour which is a complete buzz and keeps the momentum going to end a long day on the bike. The roads are very clean looking, multi lanes going both directions and Police directing traffic as well as traffic lights, it's the most organised I have seen in a long time although it doesn't stop the crazy driving of the tuk tuk's and motorbikes alike that weave in and out around you, but I follow suit and end up getting a telling off myself… oops! It's funny I can stand in traffic holding onto the tuk tuk's for balance which saves me fighting for leg room.


I'm thankful to directions provided by my friend Kenny to get me to my guesthouse near the river and right in the middle of an old market which is a hive of activity, the hostel is heaving and I've no sooner stopped at the door when fellow cyclist Kevin (from Belfast) greets me who is on his own epic adventure and has cycled (and shipped) here from London! He's quite an inspiring guy and is promoting his EP 'Across the Border' raising funds for an Irish charity Depaul, playing his guitar and gigs on the way. I go to one of his gigs with Lizzy into a posh part of town and I'm glad I did, Kevin obviously has a talent and I wish him every success.

I'm staying at Velkommen Backpackers which is a really friendly place and great for meeting new friends, I met back up with my friend Kenny who showed me around for a few days giving me plenty of advice of where to go, and I enjoy hanging out with him although I'm led astray a few times with afternoon cocktails and a wee day in the casino! He's living and working here for a spell so I often go down to one of the pub streets to meet up but it's always a late night with me chapping the door of the hostel to get back in around 5am. He's a venture here with friends called Tipsy Tuk Tuk's which is a great idea, they organize tuk tuk transport to 5 or 6 bars every other Friday night, you get free beer on the way to pubs, then you get x amount of free shots. I went along taking 21 others from the hostel with me and had a fantastic fun filled night, seeing loads of Phnom Penh and places you wouldn't go on your own into the bargain, bars, a burlesque show and clubs.

The hostel also run a sunset cruise along the river every Thursday night which takes you from Tonle Sap, over to where it merges with the Mekong River and to the many floating villages. It's a good deal, for only $5 you get your cruise for a couple of hours, taking in sunset plus a couple of drinks of your choice onboard or back at the hostel. These floating villages are normally inhabited by Vietnamese as they are not allowed to build on the land in Cambodia and are very interesting to see, not only how they are built but the lives they lead with wee tots running about floating walkways, and even only briefly watching them my heart is in my mouth. A ferry crosses from here into the city which is crammed full of motorbikes on every crossing and looks very similar to my boat from Phu Quoc Island!

I cycle round several days and visit most of the main attractions, I love all the palaces, temples and monuments, the buildings are really beautiful. One of my highlights is visiting the National Museum with Richie which has a fantastic collection of ceramics along with other historical items mainly from the Angkor Wat area. He has a fountain of knowledge for all sorts and is great company, we become firm friends spending our days together just hanging out and having fun and I hope to meet him again in Chang Mai where he now lives and works.

The market is right on the doorstep of the hostel and from the balcony it's a great place to people watch which I end up spending a lot of time doing. It's funny I find that I can now stay in the one place for longer than 5 minutes which I could never do at home, although sometimes I do have to go down and experience the hustle and bustle of the market myself, do some haggling while buying some fruit or trying to get odd jobs done. I absolutely love the markets, everywhere I've been they are a real highlight for me, I love all the meat being hung with not a fridge in sight but all this meat is freshly slaughtered with much of it (i.e. chicken's) being slaughtered on purchase and everything being cooked up in front of you. I'm not a vegetarian and doubt I ever will be, if anywhere would have put me off meat it would have been Vietnam, that's definite. I love all the fish and seafood (although not the smell) and the fresh fruit and vegetables, the colors, smells, spices... the whole shebang, it's an onslaught on the senses!

I visited the Central Market area several times, with the main market being all clothes, foot ware, watches, jewelry etc. but I preferred the surrounding area that was full of motorbike shops for spares and repairs, new stickers or seat covers, anything to add a bit of individuality to the same millions of motorbikes supplied here. Not many tourist visit this area but I kick around a few hours looking for someone to do some repair work on my panniers but unfortunately I have no luck, they're not broken I just wanted them altered, they'll need to do as they are.

Down on the riverside every day they have classes ranging from what looks like Zumba to Marshal Arts with hundreds of people participating. The music blasts out while they exercise for hours at a time and it's fascinating to watch. Many of the tourists take part which is funny to see, trying to copy their moves but none of them last long before giving up. One of the main guys I see every night stuts his stuff and poses for loads of photographs but I could never get a decent shot of him so there's none included, he was funny though and obviously loved being followed by hundreds of mainly women behind him. All the locals stay out the heat of the day instead coming out when it starts to get cooler, maybe I should follow their example.

Despite Phnom Penh being a highlight for the nightlife and for making lots of new friends, it was also a nice place to just relax, I could get extremely comfortable here and enjoy the staff and tuk tuk drivers at the hostel who are all good fun and I will miss, but time to move on and I'm looking forward to seeing Angkor Wat and the numerous temples in Siem Reap.

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Comments

[Clare]

The captain left me in charge, I was starting to panic when I was heading out into the path of a dredger but got it back on track..phew . I had around 30 people on board who didn't know I was steering...