Cambodia - Phnom Penh
18th July - To Phnom Penh
We had the option to catch a bus at 7am, but agreed on a lie in and instead caught the one at 12.30. It was one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made. I have never been so hot in my whole entire life, the bus had no windows and had broken air conditioning so it was literally like an oven. It was really full and the seats were plastic. With in seconds I was drenched with sweat dripping off the end of my nose and down my neck. My clothes were saturated. I actually don't think that I get this hot in a sauna. I was actually wringing out the cloth that I was using to mop my face and with in a couple of hours, my fingers and toes were all wrinkly, like when you have been in the bath or a swimming pool too long. I couldn't believe it, I was certainly too hot to read or even think, I spent the whole journey sitting forward in my seat panting like a dog and mopping my sweat. Can you imagine putting up with this for a six hour journey from Kampot to Phnom Penh? I hope that I will never have to experience something like that again.
When we arrived in Phnom Penh seeing the tuk tuk drivers gathered around the door made me so angry. I got off the bus as quickly as I could and shouted and swore at the tuk tuk drivers to get out of my way. I just couldn't control my anger, the conditions on the bus really had made me hot headed. The last thing I needed is hassle and people in my face trying to take me here there and everywhere. I couldn't control my bad language and even threatened to hit a few. Luckily they got the message pretty quickly, left me alone and we all boarded a tuk tuk and headed off to a guest house that the English couple I had met recommended. The cool air of the open tuk tuk was what I needed to calm me down and we arrived at TAT Guest House optimistic and excited.
The place was clean and friendly, but a little more expensive than we would have liked but we had heard such horror stories of the places by the river (with rats etc) we opted to stay there anyway. I was delighted t have a cold shower and then head out in to busy Phnom Penh. As I am sure you know Phnom Penh is Cambodia’s capital and is virtually flat, with hardly any high rise buildings (lets hope it stays that way)
We found somewhere to eat along the busy waterfront, throbbing with enterprise and energy. I had a rather dry Khmer chicken curry. After dinner we had a wonder around and looked at some amazing and grand looking palaces that we wanted to go back to the next day and also some rather sad scenes.
There is so much poverty everywhere you look. It is hard not to look at people over 30 and wonder what they experienced during the Khmer Rouge. Inevitably, people are still effected, and will be for generations. Some of the scars are even evident as I sat eating my meal: roadsides still pot-holed and strewn with rubble and many beautiful building are ruined beyond repair. There were kids selling books and victims from land mine accidents everywhere asking for money. Some people in this country really do have a tough time. I found it difficult to imagine the city evacuated just 30 odd years ago. It made me very sad, but also makes me realise just how lucky I am.
19th July - Kat's Birthday.
Had a really good day today, Kat turned 23 and wasn’t too happy about it so Jenna and I did our utmost to cheer her up. First of all we went to the 'Russian Market', it was fantastic, filled with the most beautiful things. A rich girl could go quite crazy in there, a poor girl could too to be honest because everything was so cheap and all sellers were keen to bargain down to fantastic prices. Kat and Jenna brought quite a few bits and bobs but I was determined to keep my purse in my bag and perhaps come back another day if there was something I really wanted (like a silk scarf, a sequined cushion, and embroidered bag or a few pictures or ornaments!)
Next on the agenda was all heading out for a "Blind Massage". Basically we had been advised numerous times to get one and we had been told that they were a lot less painful than the traditional Thai massage and it was all for a good cause, all the money goes to the masseuses and to training more blind people and giving them employment. We walked in and were given some blue pajama type things to get changed in to. I felt like I was in 'theater blues' that doctors wear. We then all got shown to a bed, side by side and a blind man clambered onto my back. Now if people say that the Thai massages are more painful I think that I might die from pain if I ever had one of those. He said that this was a 'soft' massage, I don't believe that for a second. He clicked every bone in my body, bent me in ways I never thought I could being and shoved his bony fingers and elbows into every joint he could. Jenna seemed ok with hers but Kat and I were constantly mouthing our pains to each other. After an hour of being slapped and chopped it was finally over. I must say I was slightly relieved but my body did feel good and I felt about two inches taller!
Following this it was time for more pampering, Kat had a lovely facial and Jenna had her whole body plucked of hairs, I spent the next two hours wondering up and down the street. It was then time to go home, for Kat to open her presents and get our glad-rags on!
That evening we went out to a place that we had been told about called 'Happy Herb Pizza' where basically you can get Pizzas with any toppings and a special sprinkling of 'Happy Herbs', much like the happy herbs that you get in your brownies in Amsterdam. It was delicious and we spent the rest of the evening giggling like school girls and drinking cocktails.
20th July - The Royal Palace.
Today we spent the day in the beautiful Royal Palce that we had seen on our first day. We arrived in out ankle length skirts with our sarongs around our shoulders to be told that we were not allowed to wear them. We then had to rent some hideous baggy white t.shirts. What a money making con!!! Despite my annoyance we walked around the 435 meter long and 421 meter wide palace, which was first built in 1434, in the very hot mid-day sun.
Most of it was sectioned off because the king and queen still live there, The whole building was surrounded by a high wall. Inside the buildings were magnificent, with many tiered roofs topped with towers (as a symbol of prosperity). The whole place was painted white (for Brahmanism) and yellow (for Buddhism). Inside, the throne hall had the most magnificent ceiling, although barriers prevented us from getting a closer look to the royal thrones. We also had a look around the Sihanouk museum, the pavilion of Napoleon and a room filled with artifacts, royal costumes (these people were tiny), Souvenirs and jewelry. In one of the main buildings was the famous 'Silver Pagoda' which I had read so much about and was so excited to see, but most of it was covered by carpets and rugs and when we all took a seat to cool down and look at our map to figure out where it was we didn't even notice when we were sitting on it (i couldn't believe it!) The Emerald Buddha was also in the center of this specific room, but it was tiny. Not the huge thing that it is made out to be, or indeed that I had seen in books and on postcards. What a con!
Once we had left the palace, the day was drawing to an end so we decided to go on a river boat cruise (which was supposed to be part of Kat's birthday treat from yesterday) The strange little German mean we had organised the cruse through the previous day led us to our own private boat. It was still light as we set off up the river. As we approached a floating village the sun began to set. The village was so interesting to see. The houses were totally surrounded by water, with no planks or path ways leading to other houses. The occupants had to use a boat to get anywhere and the housed certainly didn't look very sturdy. We sailed back down the river it was dark and we had the chance to enjoy the lights Phnom Penh and the river side.
That evening we went for a meal where we could also have the chance to watch a film about the genocide and the history of Cambodia. My meal looked and tasted exactly like a pot noodle, and the film was appalling, I could have made a better one from what I already knew from my guide book and reading 'survival of the killing fields'. Oh well.
21st July - The National Museum
This morning, in the pissing rain, we decided to go to Phnom Penh's National museum. I arrived at the impressive dark red sandstone building and was glad to get out of the rain. Inside was a collection of sculptures, relics and artifacts dating back from prehistoric times. A lot of the stuff had no real information about where it was found or even the year due to the face that the whole collection was abandoned in 1975 when the city was emptied by the Khmer Rouge then re opened in 2002. I was disappointed that the leper king had been moved to Berlin and also by the lack of information that I could read. After a couple of hours of plodding around trying to guess where things were from we decided to go to another market. The one we went to this time was the 'central market', it was good but nowhere near as interesting as the Russian market that we had been at a few days previously. The only thing I bought was a beautiful hand made bag with embroidery, silk and sequins on the side for just over a pound so I came away pretty happy.
That evening we decided to go to 'Sovanna Phum', which is a shadow puppets theater. We were very excited to see the traditional shadow puppets. e arrived very early thinking that we could find somewhere to have dinner near by, before the show started, but no such luck. We were in the middle of nowhere. After a while we found a little local place where they had no menus and no one spoke any English. There we enjoyed a 'hot pot' type dish where we cooked our own vegetables, noodles and meet in a big bowl of soup, it was ok but some of the ingredients looked very suspicious. We had a whole audience of local people watching us, and seemed amazed at how we tried to eat the food given to us. We then made our way back to the theater.
The show was a Khmer adaptation of the Indian epic 'Ramayana'. It was beautiful; all the fantastic costumes, masks, women dancers, fantastic musicians and of course the puppets. The show was only an hour long and by the end of it I was desperate for more. Luckily we were allowed to go behind the scenes and meet the performers (who had been training since they were about 10 years old) and they showed us how to do some traditional 'Apsara' dancing and how to maneuver the huge leather shadow puppets.
22nd July - Choeung Ek Genocide Center and Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.
Today was a very emotional day. It started of fine, whereby I went down early for breakfast and got chatting to a lovely Irish girl called Sarah, she was travelling alone due to her boyfriend having to go back to Ireland to see his sick father. I thought she was very brave and invited her along with us to go to visit the genocide museum and S21.
Our tuk-tuk driver, Sarem arrived and we all headed off to the 'Genocidal Center', which is basically hundreds of mass graves. There was a huge Memorial Charnel full of sculls and a few other bones and even clothes and shoes. It seemed so unreal to see it and to believe that just 30 years ago these were breathing living people. Some of the sculls were tiny and that of little children. We then walked around the site where all the mass graves were. There we so many of them and there were still bones sticking out for the earth. When we looked beneath our feet; we could see teeth and shreds of remaining clothing. It was really too much for me to take. It felt so wrong walking around there knowing the mass genocide that had occurred only 30 years ago. My eyes filled with tears and I went to get a drink. I got a disgusting can of something, which I took one sip of and nearly threw up. I gave it to a little begging child by my side and she was delighted.
The next stop was S21 (otherwise known as Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum). It was actually quite near to the theater that we had been to the night before. I couldn't decide whether to go in or not. I had read a lot about the place in my 'Survival of the Killing Fields' book, which used to be a school. I decided to go in and just leave if it got too much. Well needless to say I didn't get too far. I made it through the torture rooms in the first building whereby there were the original begs with a picture above them with how they were found (dead prisoner still attached) but now they just had all the torture implements laid out on them. There was blood still splattered on the ceiling. I tried my best to desensitize my self and not look to closely at the picture, but I was already feeling nauseous. I then went outside to see the gallows (which used to be a goal post) and then went into the second building which was over 11,000 mug shots of all the people that were killed in S21. I looked at about 20 pictures of abused looking women with short hair, and then I came across the children. They were so young and looked absolutely petrified. That was enough for me, looking at innocent kids who had had their picture taken just before they knew they were going to die. I could see the misery and fear in their eyes. I burst into tears and spent the rest of the afternoon in the gardens under a try trying to think about other things. It really was too much for me, it is far to recent and far to real. I don't think that it was a good idea to have read my book before coming here. For the next three hours I waited for Jenna, Kat, Sarah and Sarem to look around the rest of the museum. They said that it was pretty horrific and even had real pictures of many of the prisoners after they had been tortured to death. I was so glad that I came out when I did. There was also an artists exhibit. Whereby a man who had survived the prison had painted some scenes of what he experienced and what he saw happening to others. There were tortures that most people couldn't even imagine. The Khmer Rouge really were sick people. Jenna told me that there was also a room with pictures of the prison guards who had been 'forced' to perform their tortures and how they lived now. There were burns and graffiti all over their pictures (understandably). When I joined the rest of the group we all watched a video about the man who had done the paintings about his experiences and also an interviewed former Khmer Rouge guard. It was had to watch as the guard seemed to proudly state how he had killed people and he also laughed about it too (although I think it was probably a nervous laugh) I was very glad to leave the place and I would advise only hardy people with a strong stomach to ever visit the place.
Opposite was a place called 'The Boddhi Tree' which was a beautiful little oasis and the perfect antidote to go in and sit and try to forget about all the horrors that we had seen earlier. We all enjoyed some unusual yogurt shakes (called lassi's) and shared a plate of spring rolls. We then headed off to the riverside, where Sarem took us to one of his favourite bars called 'Elsewhere', with its lavish gardens that overlook the river whereby we enjoyed another drink and watched the sunset. It was nice to try forget all the horrors i had seen and be grateful that it was all in the past.
That evening the five of us met up again and went to the famous 'friends' restaurant for dinner. It was a place whereby they take kids off the street and train them up into excellent chefs. We enjoyed a splendid tapas style feast, but it was a much needed pleasant end to our sad and emotional day. On they way home Sarem let Kat and I drive his Tuk-tuk. It was so much fun and he said that we were probably the first tuk-tuk driver in Cambodia. I was only glad I didn't crash, but actually found it easier to drive and control than a motorbike.
23rd July - The Russian market and the afternoon by the pool.
Again we went back to the highly tempting 'Russian Market'. I wanted: bed throws, pashminas, cushions, puppets, ornaments, cushion covers, jewelry and clothes, but only came away with a green silk scarf (which cost me about 60 pence) and a lovely traditional painting on canvas, done by street kids, of Ankor Wot with an elephant in front (which she took out of the frame so that I could roll it up and put it in my bag. I don't even own my own house, but at numerous times through out the morning I found my imagination wondering off and picturing my 'future house' filled with all these beautiful things. It really was incredibly difficult to restrain myself yet again. I will certainly have to come back one day when I actually have a house, and kit it out with all this amazing and incredibly cheap décor.
That afternoon Kat went back to bed with a bad back, Sarah had things to organise so Sarem took Jenna and I to the local swimming pool. The sun wasn't shining but it was a warm dry day so the three of us had fun swimming some lengths and splashing about in the water. We were back in time to watch the nightly showing of the "killing Fields" (which is nothing to do with the book that I have been reading) but equally as upsetting, then Sarah, Kat and I (along with a strange German boy, who invited himself along) went back to 'Happy Herb Pizza' for another fun night, while Sarem took Jenna for 'motorbike practice' :)
24th July - The Heart of Darkness.
Today was rather uneventful, I actually managed to get a much needed lie in, then we spent the day in town plodding around and using the internet etc.
In the evening Serem took us to a lovely place by the river for dinner. It was so beautiful and seemed so posh but was unbelievably cheap. It is so useful having a local guy to show us round. We then went to a bar owned by two English guys. One from Birmingham, and the other from Barnsley. We got lots of free drinks and before we knew it we all were a little tipsy. We all headed to a club called 'The Heart of Darkness', all I can say is that the music was crap, but it was very 'interesting' Before long Kat, Jen and Sarem sensibly went home leaving Sarah and I with all the locals dancing our little socks off. I ended up playing a game of pool with a group of Cambodian Prostitutes. They were so tiny but pretty funny. Eventually got home by about 4.30. We travel to ‘Siem Reap’ tomorrow morning, I am so excited , however I am really not looking forward to waking up.
- Posted by emily1183 on 29/07/2007.
- emily1183's site
Please sign in or join etribes to add comments.
