Pronounced 'pNom Pen'

Trip Start Apr 09, 2008

115

Trip End Apr 19, 2009

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Flag of Cambodia Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The journey across the border was interesting. A member of the bus crew insisted on taking everyones passport with the offer of getting us though imegration hassle free in exchange for a small fee. I mean apart from that being illegal and expensive it sounded like a great idea. I insisted on going through customs on my own. When we arrived at the Vietnamese border he handed all the passports out again only to take them away again imediately. I really felt like taking these Vietnamese people to a real border to show them how it should work. Finally reunited with my passport I was left at the cambodian check point with a Japanese guy and the man from the bus. The bus drove off and left us making me more than a little nervous. Anyway I managed to get through customs which included a free health check (the doctor didnt even look at me, I mean no eye contact at all) I was offered a free moto taxi (sans helmet) to a restaurant where I was reunited with the bus people, much to my relief. The road to phnom penh is lined with temples, every small village seems to have a wat. Each more beautiful than the last. The villages themselves are often on stilts and surrounded by rice fields. With the occasional water buffalo or farmer looking interestedly at the passing bus full of white people. The arrival in Phnom Penh was subtle, I didnt really notice the change from villages to large town to city. We stopped in the dark, surrounded by taxi drivers shouting for a fare.

Palace

We found a guest house that was reasonably priced, with a shared bathroom and settled in there. We found a really nice restaurant full of Cambodian people and tried to decifer cambodian eating habits and menu options. Food is served in the centre of the table and everyone shares. For me this is great, it suits me, eating lots of diferent foods. I had curried fish wrapped in a banana leaf, delicious. Cambodian food is not nearly as famous as its neihbour thailand but I think it is just as good

The next morning I intended to change to a diferent hotel, something more central where I was more likely to meet new people. So I walked into the town centre, near to the imperial palace and tried out a hostel with dorm rooms. It seemed alright, the bathroom was a little scummy but it was so cheap I was happy. I met my friends again in a book shop and we went to see the imperial palace and accociated temples. It is really stunning, it arcitecturally blows anything in Vietnam out of the water. There is a wierd combination of styles from diferent periods, french colonial to gold covered budist temples and intricate murals. After we went to a history museum that was more of an art history museum with a variety of budda and other statues. In the evening we went to a wat, had a couple of beers at the road side and then ate "tapas" cambodian food at a teaching school for street children. It was a really great way to try the variety of Cambodian dishes and everything was superb. (friends restaurant if you're interested).

Monkey and life in the park

That night I got back to my hotel with four or more beers inside me needing to sleep. Unfortuantely I got almost none. I was surrounded by mosquitos and the bathroom and shower were dirtier than I remembered. I couldnt use either without feeling dirtier than when I went in. I also managed to pick up some sort of flu, I was torn between thinking it was the malaria tablets, actual malaria or just a cold gone mad.

The next morning I left in a hurry, grumpy from lack of sleep, to take a taxi to a hotel overlooking the city centre lake . Recomended for the backpacker atmosphere and the views. It was great I found a nice expensive room (eight dollars a night) and relaxed. I then went out and visted the highest point in the city, a wat (temple) on a hill surrounded by a small park with semi-tame monkies and elephants to ride on. Just nice to spend some time sitting and taking in cambodian life. Next I visted the central market, the biggest market I have seen so far. The building formed a cross with the centre with something like a 50 foot high ceiling and selling jewelry and electronic goods. The four arms of the cross contained toys and gadgets, clothes, meat and veg and flowers and plants respectively with everything inbetween sold in the spaces between the arms. I bought one coffee pot and then headed home to meet some friends for an indian meal in the tourist hot spot alley by the lake. That night my fever got worse, I was feeling hot and cold and weak while coughing uncontrollably.

Stark

I woke still feeling quite awful but after breakfast I felt ok and had some energy to go out. I took a long walk accross town because often the best way to see a city is just to walk around not seeing anything but seeing everything at the same time. The way shops are presented, the motorbikes parked on the pavement, the complete disregard of road traffic laws. Everything. After walking most of the morning I went to the massacre museum. A old school that was used during the pol pot/ khmer rouge regime reign over cambodia as a place of torture and imprisonment. Reading some of the descriptions and seeing the pictures and then walking into a room with just a bed and some metal torture device can be quite hard. It is amazing to imagine these things happening so recently and yet the world allowing it to continue, even supporting the regime over those that tried to replace it.

The next day I went with my friends to see The Killing Fields. A place where the Khmer Rouge killed thousands of people and buried them in mass graves. Now there is just a mermorial and some nice green park. With the occasional notice describing the activities that occoured. It is hard, I mean almost impossible to imagine those things really happening. But they did. After I had a nice afternoon in bars and restaurants with my friends because it was our last night together, I was feeling ill again by the end and went to bed early.

I had a crazy idea that I could do some volunteer work, if any country I visit needs volunteers it would be cambodia. Teaching english in some school or orphanage where speaking english can make the diference between minimum wage or making enough money to feed a family. But that evening I felt worse again. I decided the pills were probably to blame because I took one every afternoon and every evening I felt ill so I decided to stop taking them. The next day I felt worse than ever I didnt go anywhere I just stayed in the hostel. Used the internet a little, watched tv and ate some healthy food to try to get my strength up. I completely rulled out voluteering and dicided that i should probably hurry up and travel a bit more before I run out of time. I booked a bus out of town heading to Siem riep to take in some temples.

The next morning I took the bus to Siem Riep, by the way I felt imediately better, I still had the cough but the fever never came back I havent taken an anti malarial tablet since.