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The night bus was pretty cool, it was a 'Hotel Bus' which meant we had tiny beds two in a row with a little curtain to draw in the isle. It also had wifi, plugs and a tv screen! Ruby, Julia and I were sorted as we are the perfect height for the asian sized beds, Kevin and Kenny however were bot so lucky! Especially Kenny being about 6ft5 tall!! we managed to sleep pretty well and we arrived in Phnom Penh at about 8ish. we were greeted by a tuk tuk driver, we hadnt booked anywhere but knew of a guesthouse that we wanted to stay. He smiled and nodded when we said the name but he ended up taking us to a different guesthouse, we realised that they obviously pay him to do that, it was a pretty gross place and i explained to the driver that we were disappointed that he took us to the wrong place (with a smile of course) he agreed to help us find a place for the same priced ride. The one we had researched was full, it was quite difficult trying to find rooms for the 5 of us but just as we seemed to be getting fed up we stopped at a lovely place called Khavi's Guesthouse. They had rooms for all of us and were really friendly. After a shower and breakfast we got chatting to a guy called Agogo who worked at the guesthouse and he said he would happily be our tour guide for the day with his tuk tuk. He showed us the map and the options of what to do and we were all on our way. We started at the Section 21 prison which was formerly a school that was converted under the Khumer Rouge ruling. It was extremely hard to take in the fresh and horrific history of the country. The prison was mainly left exactly how it was when the Khumer Rouge were overthrown. It was really effective and quite haunting. When the prison was abandoned photographers came in to document the findings, so in some of the cells were photos of the dead tortured prisoners exactly how they were found. The Khumer Rouge had also hired a photographer who documented every single prisoner who entered and these portraits of men, women and children just went on and on, it was really hard to get our heads round the extent of death and torture that had happened within such a small space. Out of 22000 people that entered the prison only 7 survived. Two of which went back to the prison every day to sell there stories, I found this strange to see these two elderly men still returning to the place where they suffered so much every day. The whole place was excellently documented and extremely informative. Although hard it was a good thing to do, to understand what people are capable of and realise what the country is still recovering from.
After the prison Agogo took us to a local market, we told him that we wanted to go to a non touristy market. It was crazy! He took us to his friends food stall and we had some delicious noodle soups and fresh spring rolls for next to no money. The market was a maze! The aisles were so narrow and there was everything you could think of there. The locals were all very friendly and we could tell they weren't used to tourists as when we tried to buy or haggle they had no idea what we were saying. The sign language was quite fun! After that Agogo took us to the main market, which was still fun to wander round but not as special as the local one. We did discover sugar cane drinks though, they are delicious! The stall has a metal roller that they crush these massive pieces of sugar cane through reducing the gap each time to get as much out as possible and then they squeeze lime in with it . . . Sooo gooood! Next was the temple which was stunning right in the centre up on a hill. We were starting to flag as we had been non stop all day since getting off the night bus. We asked Agogo if he new a good place for us to have some good local food and he took us to this amazing Cambodian bbq restaurant. It was really delicious! Between us we chose some different dishes and all shared. The most interesting was the bbq'd bee lavae! I must admit i wasn't a fan of eating bees (as I love them) but I'm not one to turn down different food if its there! As a complimentary desert we were given these sweet jelly type pods that were wrapped in banana leaves with a strange centre, I really enjoyed it but we had no idea what it was!
After all our exploring and eating we all had a well needed rest and after that it only seemed to be only Ruby and I who wanted to explore PP at night. It was lovely to have a night out together. Agogo took us to the main bar street (Street51) and we were a little disappointed, there didn't seem to be any bars there that we really wanted to go in, most of them had old western men with lots of young beautiful Cambodian women surrounding them. After a drink and a little research with the free wifi we headed to a bar round the corner a bit called Sharky's it was great fun with good music (very rare!) it was a mix of music from the 60's to the 80's and with half price cocktails and a pool table we were happy for the night :) The locals were definitely amused at how terrible we were at our games. Each one lasted about 45mins!
The next day we decided to explore out of the city. The day before I had been looking at postcards and saw one with a picture of a sun bear and looking at the back it said it was taken at an animal rescue park. Agogo told us it was about 1 hour in a tuk tuk out of town but good to do so we decided to go for it. The five of us could not all go in one tuk tuk this time as Agogo's bike was not that strong and we would be going off road. So we went in convoy through the dusty dusty roads heading out of the city. It was more like an hour and a half ride out of town stopping every so often to fill up Agogo's bike with water. We made it safe and sound though. The park seemed more for the cause rather than for tourists. It was massive!! Agogo dropped us off and pointed us in a general direction: we were soon met by a boy on his bike with loads of potatoes, he said it was to feed the animals I bought some thinking it was just the few that he had on his tray but he filled a massive bag full of them and then eagerly took us to the sun bears were where we could feed them! They were so cute! From what we could gather from the website and a tour guide who took us round (not really a tour guide but useful local all the same, who of course wanted paying at the end of the trip) the animals in the park had all been rescued from either being kept illegally and inhumanely or rescued from traps in the jungle.
We fed the sun ears by either throwing the potatoes over the fence or through the wire with a stick. They all looked really happy and had a massive area to roam.
Next we saw a couple of elephants, one of them had a broken leg from a landmine and it was all strapped up. He seemed happy though and was very excited about the potatoes that we had! The tiger was amazing, he definitely didn't want potatoes, he seemed to be eyeing us up for dinner. It was crazy how close we were to him, there was only a chain linked fence between us and him, we could have easily touched him (if we wanted to loose a few fingers in the process). He seemed well looked after and we were assured that he was fed well. Next was the stunning leopards, then huge pythons, loads of gibbons, a lot who were injured from traps in the jungle or had been kept as a domestic animal or for tourism. Ruby made friends with one of the gibbons and was stroking him through the fence! There were also monkeys roaming wild around the park and we fed them the potatoes by hand, the best were the cute baby monkeys where we had to break the potatoes up for them! There were lots more animals including byson, dholes (wild dogs), alligators and more! It was a really impressive place, the animals had so much space that it took us a good 4 hours to walk round the park. We seemed to be the only people who visited the park that day and it seems sad that more people don't know about the park as it is a good cause and could probably use some more money but then again selfishly it was nice having the place to ourselves!
After a long dusty ride back and such a hot day we were all desperate for a shower and starving hungry!
We went o a place called 'Friends' for dinner. It was advertised in the Lonley Planet as a great place to eat and for a good charity. It was the best food I have had all trip! The restaurant was beautiful and the food was delicious Cambodian style tapas. There were 6 of us for dinner as we had met a nice Australian girl from Khavi's called Taren. We all ordered 2 dishes each so the food just kept on coming and coming, I had not been that full for a long time!! The Friends charity is a fantastic cause, set up to help youths off the streets and teach them skills in hospitality. It is such a good charity and all the staff were amazing. After dinner we took everyone to Sharky's and after a drink we headed back for a well needed sleep!
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