Arrival into Phnom Penh and "Short Stay Rooms"!!
Trip Start
Jun 11, 2008
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54
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Trip End
May 14, 2009
Phnom Penh,
Cambodia
Thursday, July 24, 2008
It was a 5 hour journey, including two 15 minute stops on an air con bus. The journey was surprisingly smooth and we reached Phnom Penh at about 1pm.
We had worked out that it was only a 5 minute walk to our guesthouse so we burst our way through the hoards of Tuk Tuk drivers and made our escape.
It was only a 5 minute walk as well. We were stopping at the Walkabout Hotel - Oh dear! This must be a Cambodian translation for Shag Palace! The bar itself looked pretty good, but we were introduced to the usual goings on when we went to check in. The sign at the counter said "We do not employ the sex workers and therefore do not accept any responsibility" - oh dear. Then a guy came to the counter and asked for a "short time room", got given a key, grabbed his excited young Asian hooker and took her up for a couple of hours of sad old man bashing
Toilets on the way to Phnom Penh
! Nice. We were going to stop here 2 nights, but thankfully, due to bus timetables, we could only stop 2. Such a shame - not.We actually weren't in the hotel much, only to shower & sleep, and the rooms were clean and quite big, if you got an outside room. However, I would NOT recommend this hotel unless you are a sad desperate loser who's only satisfaction in life is to pay some naive young Asian girl to allow you to fumble all over her for 2 minutes - Brocko, you would love it here! - only kidding mate!
After dumping our bags, we took a walk to the riverside area. It looks quite nice round this area, although they are currently carrying out some improvements, so it appears a bit messy at the moment. We dropped in at the "On The Corner" bar for some lunch and walked up to Wat Phnom. This is linked to the creation of the name Phnom Pen. Lady Penh found 4 Buddha statues floating in the flood waters, so she took them to the top of a hill (which in Cambodian is "Phnom") and built a sanctuary/temple to house and worship them in (a "Wat"). So this became the Temple on the Hill - or Wat Phnom. Because of what she did, the hill was named after Lady Penh - hence Phnom Penh! Well it was something like that anyway. I had consumed a couple of happy hour Angkor Drafts!
After our historical adventures we went to see about getting a bus to Sihanoukvville on the 27th
Fields behind the toilets
. It appears that the Cambodian elections are taking place on this day so there are no buses running. As we are coming back to Phnom Penh for a couple of nights before we go to Vietnam, and with the state of our Whorehouse Hotel, we decided to book the 26th. This is a shame for one reason as we were going to meet Duncan & Kathy, who wee met in China, for a few beers on the 26th. They are on their way from Sihanoukvville to Phnom Penh on the same day. Never mind, we are still hoping to catch up with them in Sydney though.We have also booked our bus from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam for the 1st of August as that's when our visas are valid from.
I think we will be staying in Sihanoukvville for about 4 nights for a bit of beach time.
Later that afternoon we took a walk to the lakeside. This is definitely a backpackers area. It looks like a little shanty town area, but there are loads of little bars and restaurants - and they are dirt cheap. We have decided this is where we are going to stay for the 2 nights when we come back next week.
In the evening we headed off to a bar/restaurant called the Kandal Bar. We had pizza and sweet & sour chicken and I have to say it was excellent and I definitely recommend this place for food.
