Siem Reap to Phnom Pehn - the boom boom road
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2007
1
9
26
Trip End
Nov 20, 2007
Phnom Penh,
Cambodia
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
So, we left our backpacker's in Siem Reap at about 8am this morning - a luxury minibus. Well, luxury compared to how we arrived, anyway! The journey was pretty uneventful and I managed some sleep because no one sat in the back seat. 3 seats to myself to strech out and snooze - joy! I enjoyed watching the world go by - paddy fields galore, homes on stilts, stunning landscapes. Aong the way we took a cuople of toilet breaks and at the second one I got freaked out. They were selling crispy spiders. Not just you regular common or garden spider but bloody gigantic hairy ones the size of my palm! And even worse, the seller offered me a bucket of live spiders - ewwwwwww! As if!
Phnom Pehn is one fcuked city in my opinion, but not in a bad way. The traffic is insane, going in every direction imaginable: cars, buses, tuk tuks, cyclos, pedal bikes, motorbikes, people - aaarrrggghhh! Even crossing the road is an adventure. Me, I'm just running in the wake of the locals as and when they're nuts enough to cross.
So we're checked in to a phenomenally nice hotel, way above my usual backpacker's standard. I have a room with a view (of a busy boulevard) and a bath, not a shitty shower that soaks the loo. Got my gear unloaded in the room and then joined my now smaller bunch of fellow travellers for lunch. We went to a riverside restaurant and had some god Khmer food. The Tonle Sap river here in Phnom Penh is big and busy with lots of boats and even some dragon boats zooming along practising for an upcoming festival.
After lunch I shared a tuk tuk with Jools and John to Wat Phnom, a temple. We made a mad dash because we wanted to ride on the elephant but we got there minutes too late. Shame. However, I hung around and watched poor old Nelly (or maybe Nelson) get a bath which was fun. After that, I climbed the small hill, maybe 30 metres, to the temple which was very pretty. There are so many beggars around, though, and it makes me feel uncomfortable. I want to help but giving money isn't helping. And anyway, there are so many, I'd never have enough dollars to make people happy. So I try and ignore the pleas. One small boy, maybe four years old, ran after me holding a newborn, begging for money. It broke my heart that these kids are in this position. he was angry when I didn't give him a dollar and let out an enormous piercing wail. Another family of heavily pregnant mommie, not quite year old baby, grandma and monkey (which was cuddlign the baby whilst both were sleeping) just sat in the sun and looked sad. It's hard being here knowing that to them I'm so rich but there are surely more effective long-term ways to help than giving dollars.
I went next to a big shopping mall where I'd heard that I could buy iPods. For those of you reading this who don't know, idiot girl here packed the batteries and charger, but forgot her iPod. part of this trip for me was about listening to the music I love but rarely get the chance to in my role as full-time parent. I was gutted when I realised how stupid I'd been on the way to the airport, but such is life. Anyway, I found a good store and 15 minutes later and $227 lighter, I emerged into the rush hour with a brand new blue iPod Nano, and very nice it looks. Then it was a mad dash across town in insane traffic to find the Boom Boom Room, a place where you go through a menu of albums then pay for them to be loaded on to your iPod.
Getting there was an adventure. The tuk tuk driver had a vague idea where he was going but not a definite idea. he got me to the right area but then drove down loads of increasingly small alleys and eventually dropped me off, pointing down an even narrower alley. I walked down it, decided it was definitely not the place I needed to be, and made a quick decision to walk back the way I came, looking as happy and confident as I could. I walked along and a Western guy approched me with a flyer for his bar. I asked directions and felt like an idiot because the Boom Boom Room was only another 10 metres on. Had a nice chat, anyway.
The Boom Boom Room is cool. The Aussie guy, Ash, who was running the place was great and stuck the brand new Nano on to charge while I read the menu. I picke dout about 25 albums and got them loaded on. I'll probably go back tomorrow to get more downloaded, but I was short of time this arvo so just picked a couple of essentials. Another tuk tuk trip to the hotel and oh joy, my driver this time really had no clue where he was going. Her stopped off along the way to ask another driver who hit him round the head and I presume told him he was stupid and gave him directions. So, a fun trip back in rush hour to my fancy hotel.
The hotel is fun to use. You have a key card to make the lift work and to open you room and get power into it, but there are different ways of inserting it to make things happen. I spent a good five minutes trying to figure this out in the lift but it didn't work, no matter which way I inserted it. In the end I gave up and asked for help, only to discover that the power box thingy inside the lift had been unlocked and didn't work. The lovely porter fixed it and off I went to my room ready to plug in the new Nano.
Well, that's about it for now. I'm going to go take a luxury bath then go out and forage for food in this mad city.
