Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Day 22 - 23 Phnom PenhThree weeks into the trip and we are one day ahead of our original plan.Almost every thing has gone to plan and the closest thing to an emergency was when I left my passport on the train at the Chinese/ Vietnam border.At this point we were going to spend 3 days exploring the Mekong delta before heading to Cambodia, however the prospect of 3 days on a boat chugging around in the heat does not appeal.We are spending at least a couple of night in most destinations which is good in terms of pace but we decide that we will head straight to Cambodia early so we can spend can bank these days and spend them at the beach after we have visited Phnom Penh. We arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, after a six hour coach trip from Ho Chi Minh City where we had flown to the evening before, arriving late to stay the night in a concrete cell of a bedroom.To our relief the journey to Phnom Penh was very efficient with a brief stop at the border for our bags and passports to be processed.The in-coach entertainment included karaoke and Rambo First Blood which strangely I seem to remember always being played on coach journeys whenever I had previously travelled in Asia after Uni.With the advent of paved roads, travelling in Cambodia is now a lot easier, however it is obvious that Cambodia is painfully poor and still recovering after the Khmer Rouge murdered 1/3 of the population less than 30 years ago.Phnom Penh is a small and pretty city on the banks of the Mekong.The pace in Phnom Penh is notably less busy than the other cities we have been to so far - lots of mopeds and more bicycles. The people are very friendly and they have a wicked sense of humour and enjoy taking the mick out of everything including my moped riding skills.We check into The Pavilion Hotel which is right in the centre and is an oasis of colonial calm with a lovely little swimming pool.We spend the rest of the day walking around the Royal Palace and immediate neighbourhood before retiring for a beer and food at the hotel bar.On our second day we need to move to the sister hotel of the Pavilion just down the road.The plan today is to ride 14km out of town to the see the Killing Fields where over 50,000 people were murdered and buried in mass graves by Pol Pot.It is really hot and after a few wrong turns we make it.It really is a sobering place to be.In the middle is a tower which houses 8,000 skulls stacked in a glass cabinet with remnants of the victims clothes scattered at the bottom.Having the pool at our hotel is a blessing in the heat so we spend the rest of the day lounging by the pool before heading out for dinner and a drink at the bar next door. Cambodia is famous for its Khmer food; however I have to admit it seems very similar to Thai and Vietnamese food.Nevertheless, all the spring rolls, spicy soups and rice dishes are great - all washed down with an Angkor beer.The local bar turns out to be the local expat hang out (expat in terms of people who left to go travelling eight years ago and did not get much further than Phnom Penh).The bar is run by a long haired California drop out who is just living the life which basically involves smoking a copious amount of pot which can be bought openly at the bar.
- comments