'Pol Pot's Phnom Penh'

Residents in the middle of a lake...
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8th Nov

5:15am start; quan must have it in for us, though as tour leader, he has to be up himself an hour before to wake us up, on the 5th attempt...

Full of life, though the scars of the Pol Pot regime are importantly though reluctantly remembered and retold by a generation still directly affected...

Board bus after 'brekky' to the Tonle Sap pier for a 5hr speedboat ride onward bound to Phnom Penh via the largest 'lake', more like Sea, in Asia! Sat, being well advised, at the front so that one could stretch my legs under the stairs and slept a decent 3 hrs and ventured into some windy wet weather on deck to see some incredible settlements which have cropped up in the middle of no-where - literally. these huts on stilts were miles from dry land let alone civilisation; the residents were as much excited to see us wizz pass even though the wake would shake their homes, for the next half an hour.

Please! keep the touts at bay
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Entered Phnom Penh with much anticipation due to its glorious as well as more recently horrific history. As expected, eager touts were squeezed up against the railings, unlike unrealised greyhounds, so that we had a chance to get our luggage off without hassle. Then they were unleashed, but unlike the other expacks, we had the perfect excuse of being on a tour and in an ac van, we were whisked off to a decent hotel near Central Market called 'Pacific Hotel' with posh carpet and lovely rooms, reminiscent of the ones i stayed in in last year's luxury trip to China.

The stunning royal palace
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Lunch was at this lovely chinese noodle shop, where i was interrogated by the group on anything chinese and half of what i said was bullshit, and to their credit, they knew so. Went to a smelly market with eels in buckets and 'fresh meat' on display and all manner of foul smells forced us into the clothing section where i bought a pair of good looking fake Ray bans for 4 dollars, though using them in sunlight should cause blindness. Wat Phnom was the next attraction on offer. Important to the city as a crossroads for religious events, i have seen grander examples in Thailand, and so had the group, and thus we left distinctly unsatisfied even though we had seen a half naked monk doing gymnastics on the temple roof beam. Stopped for a weak cappucino on the riverside before the rains were unleashed. After internet, we met for dinner at 'Friend's restaurant' which is a sort of Jamie Oliver's kitchen but for Cambodian street kids, learning the art of cooking/serving and it was top quality nosh sprinkled with pukka service...

IS that guy in the shades and red hair FAMOUS?
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Went back to the coffee place for some better 'Angkor Beer' 2pint bottles and played some silly drinking games though non as weird as what Quan was coming up with. It remains a secret between Jeff and Quan to 1) how they did it and 2) the actual point or fun of it.

9th Nov

Brekky @ 8.30am. After an unstructered day yesterday, time for a city tour with a guide methinks. First stop was the impressive Royal Palace and as today happened to be Independence Day (from the French 1953), it came as a shock to both us and the 'tour guide' that it would be closed lol. however, hanging around for a while, we caught a rare glimpse of the king himself within a motorcade entering the compound and the palace was open thereafter. Haven't even seen Queen Liz yet?! Beautiful distinctly Cambodian palaces coupled with strange pointing and giggling from the hundreds of school children on public holiday; i was told later that they thought i was some pop star sporting red hair and the brand new shades from yesterday, thus i accepted a photo call within the palace compound.

A "torture" classroom at S21
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Next was the national museum with a Robotic museum guide and we were all feeling distinctly tired and uninterested though i tried my best to keep up. With my 'background' in Hinduism from my visit to KL's Batu caves, i was able to contribute some questions on the ancient Hindu statues that were mostly damaged but still on display here. Disappointly, i was expecting more contemporary history, as i was hotly interested in the recent regime and its defeat.

A beautiful black bean ginger chicken lunch later, and we had reachedToul Sleng S21 museum, the premier interrogation site for the Khmer Rouge located within a high school. Spine chillingly like the high schools my parents attended in HK, the classrooms were converted into torture theatres and numerous inhumanely small cells; as we soon learnt, there was little humanity in the Khmer rouge in their bizarre quest to return the people of Cambodia to Year zero, and in almost unrivalled mass genocide, murdered millions of the educated men women and children to leave a starving but malleable population. If they had survived the insect-in-glass torture here they were sent to the 'Killing Fields' which we visited next @ Cheung Ek. Mass hollow graves apparent still with bones sticking out of the grounds, as graves dug by the victims no bigger than your dining table, would hold a writhing 400 murdered and buried alive if you werent fortunate enough to have died by the blow to the back of the head with a spade. Chilling stacks of 9000 skulls left me feeling really uncomfortable and remnants of a tree against which children, grabbed by the feet, were swung head first to death and chucked in the pond located adjacent. WHY? Your own people? 2 million in 4yrs. This afternoon has left a necessary lump in our throats as with the land mine victims still suffering from the regime. We salute the brave people to have come through this and embrace the slow but positive re-birth.

A dumping "pit" in the stomach churning "Killing field"
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I have decided to stay longer in this fascinating country so will leave the group 2moro asthey leave by bus to Vietnam to continue their tour.  Our final dinner together is another Chinese meal where we get our own function room and we decide to sample some genuine Cambodian club scene. First stop on the now trusted advice of Quan drew us to 'Martini Bar' though we quickly found out that 1) he hadnt been here before and 2) it was a pick up joint for Cambodian and Vietnamese whores by these leechy sunburnt westerners. eww, downed the overpriced can of anchor (lost in translation as i asked for Angkor) beer and left promptly to the main bonafide nightclub: Sparks. OO the fun. hundreds of cambodian lads sitting down watching the ladies dance, though none of us wanted to get involved either. when we finally dragged our arses in, the music changed from stuff we knew to some incomprehensible nursery-rhyme esque techno that made us return to our seats not knowing the pre-rehersed dance moves. After a while, this all stopped and a stage was dragged out for a FASHION show of the best dressed lads. How novel and hilarious, though it got boring after half an hour of River Island parading kids.

A tower of an unfathomable number of skulls.
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Jeez, found out on the last night, that Jeff went to my secondary school albeit class of 1964! what a small world, and bigup to the Old-Dartfordian! Went to bed as they, not I, had another mammoth journey 2moro.

10th Nov

Get up as early anyway as the others to eat brekky and say our rushed goodbyes, though im not alone for very long as im invited to sit with a neighbouring table of oriental Aussies, Esso, Sim and Jason, all medics! Very friendly bunch and we chat until i finish eating. I sleep for a few hours before packing to leave to Capitol (sic) guesthouse which i scouted out yetserday and for 10 bucks, i get a double twin with sat TV, air con, and bathroom, more than i need but all that was left. I then buy my ticket to Sihanoukville for 2moro and feeling lazy i just internet and shop for snacks...in the supermarket, i am spotted by chance by Jason and agree to have dinner and drinks later meeting back at pacific hotel with the other Perthians. cool.

Had dinner at the hawker market at the top of the shopping center with the 3 docs and as the portions were small, i had to have 2 dinners. went to the same bar as the previous 2 nights, though after one drink, there's a power cut for the whole strip, which initially was funny trying to drink in the dark, but then it got really hot lacking any fan or a/c assisted thermoregulation. So we called it a night and i went back to pack and sleep.