Phnom Penh

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This should perhaps have been in the lastentry but it links in with this one. An early start took us to the ferry landing for the boat trip to Phnom Penh.  Being used to the car ferries from UK to France, it was a real culture shock to see this one.  A camp of workers living in shacks made of tin, wood or anything else to hand leads the coch over very rough ground to the ferry terminal, if it can be called that.  The standard of living of these people is very, very, low but Elaine pointed out that one shack contained 2 pool tables!  The embarkation point is a wooden platform to which the boat was parked (or moored as I was once told by a very upset Naval Officer in Hong Kong).The path to the embarkatiion point was two planks of wood tied together with string, which bounced as you very precariously edged your way to the safety of the boat deck.  Luggage was handled by people from the camp and it was not unusual to see men carrying two suitcases and a ruck sack quickly manoeuvering themselves along these planks onto the boat!  A bit like an economy air flight with rows of seats and very little else this boat was to take us the 308 miles to Phnom Penh. The views of the river and the river bank were quite interesting, with parts of the river so wide you can't see the banks either side which, according to my science teacher, makes the river at least 12 miles wide as the curvature of the earth makes the horizon, at sea level, 6 miles away in any direction (who said this wouldn't be educational?).  Passing fleets of fishing boats, river side kampongs and sights of kids playing in the water, I admit I still nodded off for a while, though Denise and Elaine took the opportunity of going onto the very small deck for a better view (and a ciggy).  In just over 5 hours, the boat parked, sorry, moored against the jetty of the Phnom Penh terminal.  Bags collected and Tuk Tuk drivers chosen, we made our way to the Indochine 2 Hotel, just off the river bank.  This hotel is located on the edge of backpacker land and is located centrally for lmost anywhere you wish to go in this fascinating city.

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Phnom Pen is a city with 2 missing generations.  There are no old people at all living there and it was very difficult to see anyone over the age of 40, but more of that later.  One of the capitals of French Indo China, the city has a mixture of French and Cambodian styles of architecture and they seem to blend into each other quite well.  A visit to the King's Palace brought this out as the grounds holds both types of buildings.  A word of advice to visitors visiting the Palace.  Apparently, His Highness becomes upset if visitors show their knees and, as I was wearing shorts shorts that ended halfway up my thighs - control yourselves ladies - I had to hire a pair of Thai-like traveller pants which ended about 3 inches above my ankles and, even for me, were ever so baggy.  It wouldn't have been so bad if the laughter was coming only from Denise and Elaine but when the Danish and the Japanese joined in as well......!

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No matter what your dietary preferences are, Cambodian restaurants can cope with it.  I can't remember eating such lovely food, even when I wasn't certain what it was!  I was hoping to lose weight on this adventure but I may have to book 2 seats for journey home.

Elaine took us to places in Phnom Penh which every single visitor must visit, in my opinion, these visits should be in order.

The first was to the Tuol Sleng Prison which, until Pol Pot took control of the country, was a school.  This mad despot turned this school into a prison code named S-21 in which over 9,000 people, men, woman and children, some of whom were of other nationalities including French, Canadians and british, were detained, tortured and killed, all in the name of an extreme form of Political ideal.  The first room holds displays of some of the prisoners and those of men and women were harrowing enough but when I saw the displays of the children, some of whom were the same ages as Johs, Carys and Theo, our Grandchildren, I had to go out and compose myself.  I saw several people, men and women, openly and unashamedly, weeping. Other rooms showed the conditions the prisoners were held in and tortured. A harrowing experience, but tourism should be more than laying in the sun drinking tequilas or taking part in some extrem sports activities.  Tourism should also be educational and this location certainly is that.

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The second location was to the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre, about 7 kms outside the city.  It is a bit like a Cambodian version of War Graves and the central memorial which houses ten platforms, each of which holds 100 skulls of visctims of Tuol Sleng, may seem macabre but is a constant reminded of the evil that man can do to other men (meant in a generic sense).  If memorials like this were not maintained, then people will forget.  If we do that, we will continue to make the same mistakes.

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The poverty of the Cambodian people is apparent and the number of children in the street was as much as Siem reap.  However, very few were begging.  They were selling little things like chewing gum or offering to polish shoes or weigh yourself with the scales carried by them.  Despite their poverty, they have retained a sense of pride and it made me think back to parts of UK were the State keeps the local social parasites in council housing and benefits.  Anyway, enough of that.  I'll now climb down from my moral high horse and continue the blog.

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Next stop Ho Chi Minh City.