Our first day in Phnom Penh is spent getting our bearings. We locate the main post office and post the package of beads & souvenirs to Canada (thanks Mom & Dad, for acting as our safety deposit box!). Across the road from the post office we encounter the city's solution to recycling: an old woman with a handcart collecting plastic and drinks cans as she passes. Part of a coherent recycling strategy? We also come across Wat Phnom, the temple that stands on a hill in the centre of the city. It looks intriguing but, upon seeing yet another sign advertising special (read "high") tourist prices, we decided to enjoy it from the roadside.
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| Picturesque post office |
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| Naga near Wat Phnom |
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| Royal palace |
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| Stupa of Wat Phnom |
We continue on to the riverside, which is described in our guide as a romantic walk. We should point out here that a main road runs right alongside the river and it's a deadly game of 'Frogger' to get across it, like most roads in the city. It actually takes Chris so long to cross that Lisa has time to photograph a passing boat & some fisherman, and befriend a local fellow. Hardly romantic! However, we did meet some characters, including the persistent DVD-selling kids, a selection of Westerners that looked like old rockers and a chatty drinks vendor who hailed from Siem Riep. Walking further alomg the river, we encounter a large 'Dairy Queen' (our thoughts turn to an American friend....hello Smith!), a Buddhist shrine where they are selling small live birds for some unfathomable purpose, and a gathering of international flags, although no-one can tell us their significance.
We have just enough time to enjoy a steaming bowl of our Cambodian favourite, amok, before heading to a CouchSurfing gathering organised by local CS'er Michael. Over some cocktails, we meet lots of locals and a few people who are passing through like us: Matheiu (new guy in town, a law intern), Irish John & his partner (whose name we have forgotten, sorry!, she has been here 6 months and John's just come to join her), Shannon & Silvia (visiting from Italy, about to become CS hosts there), William & Kenny (Vietnamese locals), plus a crowd of French visitors - so many that we revert to speaking French for part of the time! We even draft in a few non CS'ers who happen to be in the bar enjoying happy hour. Talk eventually turns to heading to a dance club, but Chris is feeling a bit poorly so he decides to head back to the hotel. The rest of us crowd into a couple of tuk-tuks, and with William (on his motorcycle) hanging on to the side we swerve in & out of the crazy riverside traffic. We pull up to a mini-mart and invade the place, snapping up beers, a bottle of vodka & the local equivalent of Red Bull before moving to the chairs & tables outside (something tells me they're accustomed to long-term visitors). There are 15 of us sat outside chatting to kids and checking out ladyboys (from the special club next door), when a couple of guys who are passing by greet Lisa by name....but who else does she know in Phnom Penh? It's only while writing this that she realises it must have been the Portuguese brothers. Must really take one of those courses in recognising people, how embarrassing!
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| Some treatments just don't translate |
With slightly lighter hearts, we continue on to the National Museum for a spot of Khmer history. Many Buddhas are therein, along with paintings of Hanuman (the Monkey King), and the biggest sedan chair we've ever seen. On the way back to our place we pick up a bottle of Angkhor Dark (a tasty version of the local tipple) and a Maredsous (for something comforting and familiar). We then stop briefly at a gallery-cum-cafe run by some Americans that is tidying up after a July 4th barbeque.
We take a meandering route back past the royal palace, where the road is mysteriously closed. It's quite impressive with architectural features reminiscent of temples we've seen through out the old Indo-China. We march past the big Dairy Queen to re-emerge on the riverfront. There are many activities taking place there: football games, some kind of sponsored aerobics, lots of older people taking gentle constitutional walks accompanied by hand-clapping (in front, behind, in front, behind ...), and one fellow speed-walking backwards.
Chris isn't feeling very spry, so he sets off for the hotel for some quiet time while Lisa searches for a boat party she'd read about on Couchsurfing. As always while walking on the riverside, she makes a few friends, including a really lovely local fellow whose sister is a nurse in Toronto. People here are really interested in chatting to visitors, getting their impressions of Cambodia, and practising their language skills.
Finally she manages to reach the boat pier, just in time to notice a few familiar faces leaving the area in a small group - people from last night's party. But there's only a few minutes until the boat is due to depart so she doesn't have time to ask them why they aren't coming aboard. She rushes down to the dock and searches the 4 boats which are parked there, but the occupants all look very Vietnamese whereas this should be a mixed crowd (and in costume - the theme is "F", although Lisa hasn't had time to dress up....she did plan to attach some fruit to our mosquito net and call it "fruit salad"!). Finally she has to admit that the boat party isn't happening and heads back into town in search of the others. She meets a few locals who've seen them (group of white folks, one with a feather headdress - fairly distinctive!) but never manages to locate them. Oh well, it's back to the hotel for a quick cheese sandwich and to kick back with Chris over our tasty beers.
The next morning Lisa attempts to sort out the credit card issue. We haven't managed to find an international phone card nor anywhere that specialises in international calls. Knowing how long this call is likely to take, we decide to attempt it via Skype - we noticed that they now offer a "call phones" service for a good price. We add some credit to our Skype account and dial...no problem! Well, except that our connection is awful and the poor lady on the other end of the phone can barely make out what Lisa is saying. A lot of shouting, repeating, speaking very slowly, and copious amounts of patience on each end...but the outcome is that there doesn't appear to be any problem with the card! She assures us that it should work and there's nothing else to say. We later surmise that there were just too many zeroes in the amount due - since it was in Vietnamese dong, the amount was about 9,000,000 ;-) Luckily she turns out to be correct - the card seems to be fine again, although we do buy our flight tickets from the travel agency so we don't cause the problem to resurface.
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| Central Market by night |
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| Self-made soup |
That night we take a walk toward the Central Market building. It's a huge, art deco style pile that, from above, looks a little like an alien spacecraft. While trying to get a decent night-time photo of the market we begin to hear some music. We follow it to a nearby shopping centre where there is a concert going on outside. It seems to be some kind of promotional or marketing event with a Cambodian boy-band performing in front of a huge Vaseline banner. The 'Vaseline Boys' maybe? Look out for them as part of the Asian invasion along with 'Gangham Style'. We proceed into the mall, up to the top floor and have some 'do it yourself' soup in a Japanese chain restaurant. Rather tasty even if we didn't fully understand how it worked to begin with.
The next day is our last in Cambodia and we decide its time to broach some of the country's more recent, darker history. Our hotel organises a driver for us (sounds extravagant but it was combined with transport to the airport later that day) to take us to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Phnom Penh Killing fields. The genocide museum used to be a school in a residential district of Phnom Penh but it became known as 'Security Prison 21'. This was a secret prison the Khmer Rouge used to house and interrogate political prisoners and members of their own party. There are exhibitions of photos of the thousands who went through here, many never to leave. One of the blocks has been kept in the same state as when the prison was liberated; wooden or brick cells only a few feet on a side; warnings on the wall to keep silent and not raise your eyes, and occasionally a bedframe or radiator with chain and manacle attached. It was uneasy seeing the organised way in which this had all been conducted.
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| View from within 'B Block' at Tuol Sleng |
This had such a powerful effect that we decided that going to the Killing Fields would be too much and decided to ask our driver to take us somewhere to eat our DIY lunch. He drives us across the river to an old monastery area. We eat surrounded by Buddhist monuments, a friendly pack of dogs and monks' laundry. On the river we see moored boats that seemed to be people's homes and next to our picnic spot we can hear a party at what looks like a rather grand restaurant. We also met some children on bikes who were happy to take our picture.
On this note it's time to get to the airport for our flight to South Korea. The flight isn't until after 11pm but we feel that we should get there with plenty of spare time. In fact, we get there so early that we have loads of time to wait around after check-in. We buy some food supplies, do some reading and suddenly, around 10, all of the shops close and we are all told to hurry up and get through to the gates, where we wait again for some time before finally boarding. We have a stop of about 1 hour in Vientiane, the capital of Laos so does that mean we've also 'done' Laos? Probably not. Seoul, here we come.
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