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Published: August 7th 2007
on the way to PP
On one of the car ferries!Monday 26th March
We arrived late in the afternoon after our long but very interesting car trip from Koh Kong to Phnom Penh. We were picked up on time at 10.30am, said our goodbyes to the wonderful staff at Otto's and headed off. Our driver seemed nice and could speak no english. We had paid $85 usd for the trip which we had been told covered everything including the 4 car ferry river crossings we would have to make.
The roads on the journey were a mix of superb and shocking- a lot of parts were being made and were really just muddy tracks. (we were prepared for the worst) The scenery was lovely the whole way. Lots of little villages, dogs and pigs everywhere, chickens, cows, ducks and of course children. There is now one less dog in Cambodia after our trip :-(
We arrived at our first river crossing with no idea of what to expect. They are starting to build big bridges over the rivers but until then, ferries are the only way to cross. Very primative ferry - sort of a large wooden raft with a truck engine attached to the side. We got
out of the car whilst the driver drove it on as for some strange (?) reason, it didn't feel to safe to be in the car. At least if we were standing on the raft, if it sunk, we could swim. They are very small ferries which only hold around 6 to 8 vehicles.
As we started crossing, our driver said we need to pay for the ferry crossings ourselves, which was 100 baht each (They use USD, thai baht and cambodian riels here). Gav said no, as we were told they had already been included in the price. Anyway, he kept politely insisting, so we decided to pay this one until we could call Ottos on our mobile and see what was meant to be happening, even though we knew we were again being scammed. As soon as we could, we tried calling but could not get through. In the end, Gav just pretended to talk to Otto. Nothing more was said on the matter, but our driver quite happily paid for the rest. We noticed he also only had to pay a couple of thousand riels which is about 20 baht.
By the time we arrived
at the 3rd crossing, it had started to pour with rain and our car had to wait inline for the ferry for about 30 minutes. We finally boarded the most primative ferry of all - a raft attached to the top of 3 small boats....How the?
The rain had really muddied up the exit and we were sure there was no way our car would make it off the ferry. It was very steep and covered in thick orange slushy mud. Some people put two wooden planks down for us to drive up, but it still left a metre or two of steep mud to get up. Well, my eyes were closed tightly shut, but somehow we made it. We both clapped as we , and our driver, were quite amazed that it had worked.
So after 4 crossings, long delays in the downpours, 1 dead dog, a carwash stop, petrol stop etc, we arrived in PP (Phnom Penh) 7 hours later at 5.30pm.
So far we love it here - not quite how I imagined it to be. To us it is more like Nepal than Thailand - cows everywhere, garbage, pigs, tons of motorbikes, &
lovely people. We got dropped off at California 2 Guesthouse which we had picked from the LP guide and did our normal routine of having a beer and then Gav setting off to find a suitable guesthouse. (Californias rooms were too musty)
We ended up staying at the Royal Guesthouse on St 154, about 500 mts from the river. USD15 for a large triple room, air-co, cabel tv, fridge and hot water. It is a great room but does get very noisy with loud music at night until around 11pm - sort of Hindi/Bollywood style music which I don't mind anyway!
For dinner we went to Khmer Borane restaurant, which specializes in local Khmer food. We had Beef Lok Lak which is diced beef with lemon pepper dipping sauce (yum, chewy but still tender), Fish in Palm Sugar which was ok but would not get again - Gav did not like at all, and beautiful fresh rice paper rolls. Mia had also had a large pancake earlier so she was ok!
After dinner on the way back, I went and had a look at the restaurant Veiyo Tonle on the riverfront. This is the restaurant that Scott
& Raych told us about that is connected to the New Cambodian Children's Life Association and orphange. They visited here and the orphange a year or so ago and had given us a heap of toys, books and photos they had taken of the kids to take with us to give to the kids. I made a booking at the restaurant for the next night so we could watch the kids come and dance and made arrangements to visit the orphanage the day after.
Slept in the next morning and got to brekky about 11am. Ordered Mia soft boiled eggs - a bit surprised when they arrived on a plate, minus the shells and just basically running and dripping everywhere - not too appetising, and needless to say they did not get eaten (quite raw).
From here we headed off in a moto-remorque (a sort of tuk tuk pulled by motorbike) for a day of visting the Tuol Sleng genocide museum (former Khmer Rouge S-21 prison) and then the Killing fields.
I am not going to go too much into the history of what happened back in the 70's as I'm sure most of you would already
Car trip to PP
Trying to get off the ferry in the sludge know(the movie 'The Killing Fields' is a must see if you have not already seen it.) We also picked up an excellent book here which really puts so much into context called 'First they Killed my Father') The S-21 prison was a high school before the Khmer Rouge regime took it over as a prison. Of the 12,000 or so prisoners who were kept here, only 7 survived. The others either died whilst being held there, or were taken to the killing fields where they were executed and buried in mass graves.
The victims in the prison were taken from all parts of the country and from all walks of life. They were from different nationalities and included Vietnamese, Laotions, Thai, Indians, Pakistanis, British, Americans, Canadians, New Zealand and Australians, but the majority were Cambodians. The civilian prisoners composed of workers, farmers, engineers, technicians, intellectuals, professionals, teachers, students and even ministers and diplomats. Moreover, whole families of the prisoners, from bottom on up, including their newly born babies, were taken there en masse to be exterminated.
The day was thought provoking and sad, but I believe it is something we had to do to respect the lives that
were lost in this country during the genocide.
The killing fields themselves look so peaceful and beautiful, it was so hard to believe something so tragic could have taken place there. I had thought that I may have ended up in tears today, but it was as if my body shut down a little (or a lot), and couldn't soak it all in. There were butterflys everywhere and it made it a little easier to cope with the day.
We didn't take Mia into the killing fields, but she did see the tower of skulls from a distance and wanted to know everything. We explained that many people had died here a very very long time ago, and tried to explain little bits and pieces without scaring her. I would like to bring her back here when she is older and can understand.
Monday 26th - PM
Later that night we went for dinner to watch the children from the orphanage dance. They were fantastic and we all had a great night. We were also sitting near the footpath as so befriended quite a lot of children selling books on the street. They are so gorgeous
and we mucked about with them for ages. They are so friendly and once you get past the stage of saying no to buying yet another book/postcard - they tend to forget the sales side and just open up and become kids. They love to chat, play and just hang around mingling. I think the kids are what really makes this place so special.
Tuesday 27th March
Up early at 7.30am so we could go to the orphange. We bought a 50kg bag of rice to bring as well. (Kerrie - thank-you!!!) Once there we watched the kids finish a lesson, and then they all came over to play. We recognised them all from the dancing the night before and I think they had been looking forward to seeing Mia again! We handed out the photos that Raych & Scott had taken, which they thought was a hoot. They haven't changed much from what we could see - just gotten a little bigger! They loved all the toys and books, especially the jigsaw puzzles. We stayed for a couple of hours and played and chatted whilst Gav also started teaching a couple of the boys some computer skills.
It is a great orphange, the kids are really happy and healthy, which is great to see.
We walked back along the streets through the local markets which were interesting but also a little sickening. Lots of raw meat and fish lying around - the smell was not the greatest! By the time we got back to the room for a rest, I was actually feeling a bit off. It didn't last too long, and I can only put it down to smelling foul meat for the 10 minutes or so of the market! Just as we were about to lay down and rest, the power went out - which means no air-co, no fan. Add to this near 40c heat and it's not a pleasant way to rest. Mia was great and decided that she would get out the iceblocks and cool us down with them - I think we have her well trained!
We had dinner at a place called 'Friends'. It is a restaurant that teaches former street kids hospitality skills and a lot of them apparently go on to work in some of PP's best restaurants. Great food, great service and we will
definately go back!
Also, thanks to Raych and Scott for letting usd know about the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) happy hour....cocktails...yum!
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Scott
non-member comment
Now that brings back memories
Hi Guys, wow the kids havent changed and I am pleased you had a good time, PP is a great city, wild west meets the riviera. FCC is a must for any who vist PP and there is one in Siem Reip, meekong horizons the way to go Great to hear from you ciao one very jealous Scott