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Phnom Penh
I found myself a dorm room in a hostel near the riverfront. Expensive for a dorm room at $9 a night, but lovely. Huge room, with big beds. Clean sheets each day, a nice en-suite bathroom, air conditioning, and cages for bags.
After taking a wander around the riverfront area, and dining at a nice little cafe, I explored some more of the city. I visited the royal palace (see pic above) and the national museum, which was filled with sculptures of Hindu gods and Buddhas. A taster of the rich cultural history of this country.
I returned to meet a couple of Aussie guys in the room. They were heading out for dinner after showers and I was happy to join them. We found a night market just back from the quay and indulged in some very local food. There was a square of stalls with food stacked up. You chose your food from a selction of spring rolls, skewered meats, fried breads, and veg. I also had some fried rice with chicken, which proved to be totally unneccesary as I ended up with a mountain of grub. In the middle of the square were mats on the floor and this is where everybody sat in a sort of evening picnic.
After dinner we strolled through the market. One of the Aussies, here on a 2 week vacation, bought a T-shirt at more than double the price I told him he should pay and then we headed back.
Day 2
For those who are unfamilier, a Tuk-Tuk, or Remork-moto, is described by lonely planet as 'a cute little canopied trailer hitched to the back of a motorbike for two people in comfort, or as many as you can pile on at night'. They are a little slow, but great. The following day I hired one and set out for the killing fields at Cheung Ek and then the old prison of Tuol Sleng (S21). It was a most interesting day, if a little morbid. I was suprised how little emotion I felt at the killing fields, perhaps because I already knew a lot about it, and perhaps because the sun was shining, the remains of the dead are now housed in a gleaming white 'stupa', which makes it feel less dour. However, the prison was truly harrowing. It was suprisingly empty of tourists and I found myself tip-toeing through dimly illuminated cells alone. Some of them still have blood stained floors. They also have exhibitions where you can see hundreds of the pictures that the Khmer Rouge took to catalogue their long list of victims, Nazi style. It was an ugly possibility to think that I might have just been staring at the battered skull of one of these frightened souls. The prison is an old school that the Khmer Rouge converted to keep and to torture their subjects before shipping them over to Cheung Ek to slaughter them. Chilling stuff.
Aside from immersing myself in the darker side of Cambodian history, I had visited the Thai embassy hoping to apply for a visa. I needed one longer than the 14 days they issue if you cross by land border. Unfortunately, I found the place closed for the weekend. With this problem in mind, I decided to move on to a place called Kampot, near the south coast, for a day and then come back to do the visa.
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