Trip to Phnom Pehn 6 - 9th October

Five blearied eyed Westerners were waiting downstairs at 5.50 am on the Morning of the 5th, bags backed, lunches in our bags, nibbles, water and cameras within easy reach, ready to be picked up by the bus which we thought was going to take us to the wharf ready for our boat trip down the Tonie Sap lake to Phnom Pehn.   Well in true Asian style, we didn't go to the wharf, we went to the other side of town and picked up some other tourists, then went back to where he picked us up and were taken to a Cafe where we were told that we had to buy food because there were none on the boat and oh by the way while you are here how about buying breakfast.  We stayed at the Cafe for almost 1 hour and then set off again passed by the street where we live and proceeded to go to the boat.  Where of course we were met by another group of people who were trying to sell us food for the boat trip.

The boat trip was over 6 hours and was really lovely, we passed through floating villages, kilometers of open sea and finally travelled up through the final part of the lake, to Phnom Pehn itself.  The lake actually flows eventually into the Mekong river.  We all stayed up on the deck and got burnt to a crisp.  Yes, I know, we should have known better!!

The normal thing happened when we got off the boat, we were surrounded by taxi and tuk tuk drivers all taking us to our hotel at the best prices.  Sure, we negotiated $1 each, piled into the taxi and off we went, about 2 streets and there we were right at our hotel on a trip which should have cost about $2 max.  Never mind, it seems that is the normal welcome to any new city.

We stayed at the Colonial Mansion which is a very old building and we had a two bedroom apartment booked for $75 per night.  It was in the process of being done up but our rooms  were nice and the swimming pool and rooftop spar was even nicer.

My first impression of Phnom Pehn is that it is much busier then Seim Reap, a lot of the buildings have not been repaired from the reign of terror, it is not all that dirty or smelly but I would say nothing like Saigon or Hanoi.  The traffic is as chaotic but certainly not as busy.  You are able to cross a road without having to say a prayer and shutting your eyes and hope that you make it.

Our first night was spent swimming, eating pizza, drinking and watching television.    We have not seen a TV set since arriving in Cambodia so we watched  everything,  TV in Chinese, TV in Singaporean, TV in Khmer and TV in English.  

We  planned to leave early the next morning to go sight seeing but I think we had a large number of differing opinions of 'early'.  We eventually left the apartments about 9am to go to the King's Palace. 

We decided that we would walk to where we had to go as it looked quite close on the map, but of course we had not gone but a few paces before we started debating the correctness of the directions.  We hailed a Tuk Tuk and about 10 minutes later arrived at our destination.  Glad we changed our mind about walking.



Silver Pagoda



The palace is the actual residence of the present King although of course we did not go to the areas where he lived.  The kings have alternated between Siem Reap and Phnom Pehn over the centuries and they currently reside there now.  During the reign of Pol Pot, the King was in residence in the palace.  We hired a lovely young man to be our guide for $10US and Annette had to buy a T-shirt as she was not appropriately dressed.  The Palace was very old and we were only allowed to stand near the bottom steps and then we were ushered on to the Silver Pagoda.  This was a fantastic temple with wonderful gardens around it.  We were not allowed to take photos as it was an actual operating temple.  The floor tiles were made of solid silver and there were 5,281 of them or so we were told.  There were 1652 Budda statues of varying sizes and materials.  They were emerald, marble, gold, silver, bronze and wood, it was a fantastic display.  Well worth the trip and it was made even better by having the guide.  We were able to ask a number of questions we had be wanting to know.  Why did Vietnam invade Cambodia and oust Pol Pot, because they wanted access to the mineral resources etc.



Entrance to King's Palace



 

We went to the to the Russian Markets straight from the King's Palace, it took us some time to travel there.  Yes, when we got there they were just like any other markets we had been to since arriving in Cambodia, the only difference is that these were under cover and packed so closed that you had to move sideways to move around.  There were a few things that we had not seen before and the intrepid shoppers managed to stay in the markers for about 3/4 hour, me I think I lasted about 10 minutes before I went outside to see if I could find somewhere to sit down and have lunch.  We all thought that the Russian Markets were because the would have looked like a Russian building but the truth was that it is so called because of its popularity among Russian expatriates during the 1980s. 

A lot of the cafe's, small food stalls were closed because of the holiday but we of course managed to find somewhere to eat but it took us over 1 hour to get our meals as all the cooks had gone home to there home Provinces and only 1 cook was left.

It had started raining during our meal but not all that heavy, Annette, Liz and Ryllis had decided that they would go to S21 Prison.   This prison, now a museum, is a horrifying reminder of the inhumanity and genocide that Cambodia suffered under Pol Pot's khmer Rouge regime in the 1970's

S-21 stands for Security Office 21, and was the premier security institution of the Cambodian Communist Party or Angkar, specifically designed for interrogating, torturing and killing anyone the Khmer Rouge considered to be anti-Angkar.

Sandra and I decided that we did not want to go there but would go to Wat Phnom where there were wild monkeys and elephants while the others went to the Prison.  We grabbed a Tuk Tuk but the rain just bucketed down and we then decided to go straight back to the apartments.  We were soaked and the poor driver was dripping wet.

Sandra and I spent the afternoon, making sure that we would not catch malaria by drinking Gin and Tonics.

The others came back and although horrified by the things they had seen were glad that they went.

That night we went down to the Quay where all the tourist hang out and had a very happy 'happy' hour drinking $2.50 cocktails and then followed lovely meal.  I had a fondue and a couple of the girls had steaks.  It was still raining but we walked to the large night markets and wandered around in the rain for awhile before going back to the apartments.

Friday saw Annette, Liz and Ryllis heading off to see the 'killing fields' with Rit the Tuk Tuk driver.  Sandra and I, once again decided that we did not want to go, so we went to look at the central markets which we found out were closed except the people selling flowers for Pchum Ben festivities.

 

We continued walking down to the Quay to go to the Museum but wandered down a back road through a very local market, Sandra was horrified to see pig's heads, meats and fishes that were being chopped up, all sorts of offal etc.  We continued to  followed the flow of people into one of the large Wat's (Temples) and it was just like a carnival inside the grounds and there were heaps of people offering  blessings to the souls of ancestors, relatives, and friends who have passed away.

It was very interesting, people carried in containers of rice which they put into bowls that were placed alternately with bowls in which money was placed. I think conservatively there were about 50 bowls which is a heap of rice and quite a bit of money even if only 100 Real were placed in each bowl.  There were a large number of monks standing around watching the proceedings.

 

After the temple, Sandra and I decided that breakfast was in order, so we found a nice place to eat and just as we were ordering the other 3 rang to tell us they had returned from their trip and were on their way to meet us.  The killing fields were about 45 minute trip one way and they had spent some time walking around.  Annette was quite upset, there is a tree there where the smashed the babies heads against to kill them.  God, I am glad I didn't go. 

Sandra and I spent time at the museum and then found a quilt shop and spent time looking at all the people enjoying their one day holiday.  It was lovely to see families out on picnics etc.

Later that afternoon we were back at the Quay booking places on a sunset cruise up the river to where the Mekong runs into the Tonle Sap.  It turns out that we were the only 5 people on this huge river cruiser, we went up on the top deck and spent an hour cruising up and back along the quay.  It was lovely to see the sun set, although the weather was still a bit cloudy and we couldn't see the sun but we all know what it would have looked liked if it was out.  Annette had bought barbecued corn on the cob from a street vendor, so we sat up there eating corn and wishing that we had remembered to bring along something other than water to drink.  Great time was had.

 

 

Eating was next on the agenda, we had the difficult task once again of choosing which of the great restaurants to choose.  Night markets were once again on the agenda, dancing at the casino was also suggested  but the oldies over ruled the youngsters and we went back to the apartments. 

Saturday morning was the time put aside for everything we wanted to do but had not yet done so.  We  first went to the Wat Phnom where the monkeys are and spent some time wandering around there, it was very early but there were still people in uniform standing around making the westerners pay $1us to walk around the grounds and the temple.  Sandra decided to climb the hill where there were no police and managed to wander around undetected for some time but she was eventually caught and had to pay up.

 


Our final trip was to the Central Markets which were now open and once again the ladies managed to purchase shoes, bags, radios and small gifts.  We then went back to the apartments, grabbed our bags and grabbed a Tuk Tuk to the bus depot where we climbed on board the Mekong Express back to Siem Reap.  The bus was classed as a limousine but not quite up to the expected standard, we paid $11US as the bus had a toilet, was  airconditioned and supplied food.  Not quite true, we were given a small pastry and a bottle of water but it was interesting as the bus had a hostess who give us instructions both in English and Khmer and she also had an assistant.  If you used your imagination, you could almost imagine that you were on a plane.  The trip took just over 6 hours and I think our highest speed was 60ks.  The road was really busy with people going back to Phnom Pehn after the holidays.  The bus had a great time dodging buses, bicycles, motor-cycles, push bikes, cattle, dogs and the occasional trucks.  We passed a number of people having picnics and a village having boat races.  The countryside is very like any where else in Asia, with the rice paddies, small huts in the middle of paddies, some houses very new and freshly painted and the other end of the scale of a few bits of wood and a thatched room.  The rain had caused a lot of water to be lying around.  We got into Siem Reap about 6.15pm, grabbed a Tuk Tuk and happily settled back into our rooms.

Sunday was spent washing cloths, doing lesson plans and of course the obligatory massage.

Back to the routine of school, lesson plans, wandering around finding new places to see, and hanging out for the next weekend.  The rain seems to have returned with a vengeance now and students are finding it difficult to come to lessons due to the rain and the flooded areas they have to travel to come here. 


Sandra and Annette in the Spa



 








Chris, Liz and Annette in the Tuk Tuk





Sandra, Liz and Annette on the bus home