Phnom Penh
It is a four hour drive from Saigon to Phnom Penh, but due to the two hour long queues to leave Vietnam at the border, and a bus that frequently overheated on the bumby roads of Cambodia, ours was a seven hour trip. Refusing to stay in our tour operators shabby looking guesthouse in the centre of town, we hired a tuk-tuk to take us to Boeng Kak, a lake in the north of the city and a popular backpacker 'hangout'. Our tuk-tuk driver clearly had a few friends near the lake and he made sure we visited their guesthouses first. We finally chose the Floating Island Guesthouse, an ironic name given that the half of the hallway was under water. It was nevertheless the friendliest guesthouse we had visited and it had a brilliant view of the lake from it's double deck balcony. Our room was a little basic to say the least, but any doubts were eliminated by the monkeys sitting on the rooftops outside of our window. Naturally we fed them some crossiant.
There were more monkeys at Wat Phnom, a monument and park near our guesthouse. These monkeys, however, definitely did not need feeding; we're sure that they are the fattest monkeys ever, probably from the combination of keen tourists and peanut and banana vendors. Just look at the Jabba the Hut monkey below - 'should I bother leaning forward to pick up some of that banana? well... I guess it can't do any harm.'
We took it fairly easy in Phnom Penh. This was partly because our guesthouse deck area was so comfortable (we spent an entire afternoon reading and playing chess - we know how to live!), but also that the sights we did see were so disturbing. We had wanted to get a tuk-tuk to the Killing Fields (see below) but a moto driver hanging out in our guesthouse (this was quite common, as they lay about next to the lake, playing pool and watching TV) convinced us to go on the back of his motorbike. Emily did not take too much persuading, as she now thinks this is the only way to travel (to quote Toad, apparently). It's lucky that Emily is small and I'm as skinny as a rake, because three people on one bike is a bit snug.
As part of the deal with the moto driver he took us to the Tuol Sleng Museum (formerly known as Security Prison 21 under the evil and terrifying regime of the Khmer Rouge). Here we watched a documentary about the atrocities that took place both at the prison and at the Killing Fields, where the inmates were taken to be executed. It is difficult to put into words just how strongly the prison affected us, and it was the same with the Choeung Ek Killing Fields, which we visited shortly after. This was literally a large field with the remains of the mass graves. Over 15,000 people were executed here over the period 1975-78. There is a stupa which houses over 8,000 skulls found during excavations. More skulls and bones could be found sticking out of the graves or arranged in piles around the graveyard.
On a more positive note, the moto ride to the fields and back was great fun, and given the state of the road (bumpy and full of potholes) it was definitely the best way to travel - we felt sorry for the fools in tuk-tuks as we weaved past them.
On our final day in Phnom Penh we did more culture and less death. We visited the National Museum which was full of Hindu artefacts and pieces of Angkorian sculpture but was slightly dull, for me at least. After lunch we attempted to visit the Royal Palace, realising once there that they have a dress code and Emily did not have covered shoulders. Rather than admit defeat we hired a moto to take us to the Russian Market across town, where we bought some cheap T-shirts. We arrived back at the Palace 20 minutes before last entry.
The Palace itself was big and gold. More interesting was the Silver Pagoda area which houses, amongst other religious artefacts, an emerald buddha seated on a ridiculously oversized gold throne. Another point of interest was the huge fresco running around the outer gallery of the central complex, which depicts the story of Seta, a tale from Hindu mythology (apparently).
Phnom Penh is not the prettiest of capital cities and there wasn't all that much to do, but we both left with a real fondness for it. I am sure this had something to do with what we had learnt about Cambodia's scarily recent past. I know that our experiences in the prison and the killing fields will never be forgotten, although Emily reassures me that, contrary to the Lonely Planet, it has not changed her forever.
Chris
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