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Published: December 21st 2011
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Horror Museum
Pol Pot died of natural causes. Now the U.N. is spending millions to bring his underlings, now in their 80's, to trial. Many of the Kmer Rouge are serving in the present government. I needed to go for visa-run and a fellow I knew from Managua was visiting Cambodia. Seemed like a good excuse to visit Phnom Pehn.
As it turned out by the time I arrived he had returned to Central America. Nevertheless, while looking for him in one of the seedier bars I bumped into a friend from Chiang MaI. Small world!
In my view, central Phnom Pehn, is not much different than 10 years ago. See the video from The Capitol Guest House in my last year's Cambodian blog (March 1, 2011).
There are basic hotels from $5, comfortable hotels for $8 and those with a/c, fridge for $12. The Circuit Hotel is about $18 for a new and modern room.
Traffic police stop motocycle drivers for things like having the motorcycle's light on during the day. The fine is usually negotiable.
There are no coins in the Cambodian money system. The highest denomination is 10,000 riel which is equivalent to $2.50 US. The smallest is a 100 riel note ie. 2½ cents.
Sihanoukville Advertiser offers survival hints like, "When withdrawing money from an ATM take care to check for counterfeit bills, particularly
$100 notes".
Giving money to children should be discouraged. As long as they make some money they will be kept out of school.
There is transport which goes from Cambodia to Bangkok for backpackers mainly but you have to wait at the Thai border for awhile and it goes to Khao San Road area. I wanted to go to the Bangkok train station so I took the bus as far as the border, walked across and looked for a bus. Because it was Sunday the buses were pretty booked. I knew there was a train at 2:00 pm so I got on a crowded truck at the border which was going to the local train station (see photo). The six hour train ride cost 48 baht ($1.60) but once I got to Bangkok I found out that the same Sunday crowd had booked all the sleepers on the train going to Chiang Mai. A lot of foreigners were taking the third class seats for the all night ride. Did that, won't do it again. I saw a train going over half way to Chiang Mai and it had sleepers. I took it to Den Chai, the summit between
Entertainment
This is not the seediest bar in Phnom Penh Bangkok and Chiang Mai. It was sooo cold when I got off the train, but the train to Chiang Mai hadn't yet arrived so I bought a ticket and on the train saw all the pittiful backpackers who had slept on the third class benches all night. Four hours later I was in Chiang Mai.
Good to be home.
See my
earlier blog , things are the same as last year.
SIHANOUKVILLE has flocks of Russians, both as entrepreneurs and tourists. The "Airport Restaurant", on Victory Beach has its menu in English and Cyrillic Characters. Breakfast options include European Breakfast, American Breaklfast or a " Ukranian Breakfast: 2 fried eggs with onion and lard".
From Sihanoukville I wanted to go to Kampot. There's a bus from Phnom Penh to Kampot but no bus between Sihanouville and Kampot. To get to Kampot you have to take a communal taxi or if you're lucky a minibus. A space in the taxi cost $5 for the relatively short ride. Meanwhile for the 5 hour ride to Phnom Penh it was $4. I got a space in the rear seat of a compact taxi along with 3 others. One of us
Fresh Fish
Waiting in the hot sun for a buyer always had to lean forward because only three peoples shoulders could fit against the back seat. The front seat also had 4 people. Two in the passenger seat , a driver and another passenger between the driver and the door.
NOTES RE: South East Asia:
from Bangkok Post, PHNOM PENH, March 16, 2011 (AFP) - Male foreigners over the age of 50 have been outlawed from marrying Cambodian women in the country under new rules. Is this protecting the men or the women???
May 20, 2011:
PHUKET: -- Tourists being beaten, cheated and cursed were among the top problems plaguing the island’s critical tourism industry,
“Foreign mafia are mostly Russian and German. They open bars and charge much higher prices than their competitors.
Thaivisa.com News, Dec 10, 2011: Sanyo decision to close its flood damaged plant in Thailand, follows that of Maxon Systems, a South Korean electronics firm, which recently decided to move one of its operations
to Cambodia to avoid the planned rise in the Thai minimum wage to Bt300 ($10) per day in April, as well as uncertainty over future floods.
Wednesday Jan 11, 1012: The Cambodian Daily. Three
Cambodian government officials were charged with beating, pistol-whipping and abduction of a judge were quietly releasd on bail. "We do not know which judge approved their bail".
same newspaper: The 32 year old younger brother of the owner of Cambodian Commercial Bank shot and killed one of four young guys standing in front of his house. He got angry "when they looked at his face".
But there seems to be justice in Cambodia. The Kmer Rouge Trial against the regime's top four surviving leaders opened in June 2011, thirty years after their genocide crimes. However, at least 4 staffers walked out because of "judges scuttling the investigators".
Associated Press: June 2012, Workers at a large Phnom Penh garment factory (for Levi's, Gap et al) owned by Singapore group have gone on strike. They demand increase pay to $61US per month for 8 hour days, 6 days a week.
See my visit to Cambodia last year by either scrolling through the blogs until you get to March 1, 2010 OR click on
http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-478413.html
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Pat
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Travels
What a great way to keep track of your travels, John!! I enjoyed the articles and the photos with the comments under each one - some are very interesting, like the fees for different operations and the sign at the entrance to a "finer" restaurant.