Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Before getting to Cambodia, in a literary sense, I just wanted to go back to Thailand again.  Gary and I returned to Bangkok a second time just for a couple of days since we had a flight to catch to Phnom Penh from Bangkok.  (We marked our 4 months away in Bangkok.)  The first time in Bangkok for New Year’s, a couple of weeks prior, was spent in a resort hotel, pretty much away from the street and night life so we couldn’t walk anywhere and didn’t see much besides temples.  This time around we stayed right in the midst of “it”.  When we got out of their transit system from the airport and walked a short way to our hotel the area was busy mainly with transportation people, i.e. taxis, tuk tuks, and the best transport for a single person, motor bike taxis, but otherwise the area was quite unassuming.  We checked in and went for a late lunch just down the street.  Went back to the hotel for a rest and when we woke up it was dark outside.  When I looked out of our window from the 18th floor it looked like we were in a whole different area altogether.  The streets had completely transformed:  the transportation people were no longer there; there were twinkly lights everywhere, and loud music; and the street outside our hotel had become a “food court”.  It was pretty incredible.  I would describe Bangkok as New York city on steroids (I thought NYC was already on steroids!).

And then further, not much further, there was the prostitution industry (we like to call it the red light district), pretty much everywhere.  Gary and I spent a lot of time discussing this topic and came at it with very judgmental Western eyes.  But as we continued to discuss it (we had already started the discussion in northern Thailand) we started to have a slightly different view.  Rather than get into it in too much detail, I’ve included an article by a travel blogger who lived in Thailand at one point, and I thought that he made some excellent points:  http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/why-sex-tourism-in-thailand-is-not-as-black-and-white-as-you-think/.  Have a read if you’re interested in the topic.

So, after having to get yet another Cambodian entry visa, this time in Phnom Penh, we spent 4 days there.  Although it is Cambodia’s busy capital, it is still small in the Asian sense, at approximately 2 million people.  I’ll state here that I’d started feeling tired and weary of traveling within Southeast Asia by this point and was feeling especially this way once arriving in Phnom Penh.  But once we started doing things within in the city I felt quite differently about things.

We started out in a resort further out from the centre of town but realized we really wanted to be in the centre of it all and thus changed hotels.  Our hotel overlooked the Tongle Sap River, a temple and the busy street below.  It’s a crazy city with a very lively night life and tuk tuks everywhere.  One unfortunate thing about Cambodia is that they like trading in US$ and at the current rate of the CAN$ it’s not as cheap as it should be for us in a Southeast Asian country.  But nonetheless we can’t (and shouldn’t really) complain.

On our first full day in PP we visited Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.  A very moving experience.  I fought back tears for much of the 2-hour self-guided tour.  At the end there were two of the survivors, one had been an artist in the prison and the other a machinist who fixed small equipment such as typewriters.  Those that had a skill in the prison were slightly more likely to survive since they were needed (as is most often the case in a war).  Although they too would have been executed later, these were two of the lucky to escape.  It was quite amazing seeing them there, sharing their stories.  Their expressions appeared to be kind and forgiving.  Later in the day Gary and I spoke about a trip to the Killing Fields but we both agreed that we just couldn’t after what we’d already heard and seen.

The next day we crossed the street from our hotel to Wat Ounalom temple and although not the most spectacular temple it was certainly a spiritual visit for us, and also connected us to our great tuk tuk driver/guide, Khun (I will talk about this shortly).  Before we entered the temple grounds he tried to sell us a tour as most drivers will.  We told him we would think about it but wanted to visit the temple first.  He told us the temple was closed but to look around, which we did.  The temple was indeed closed but we came upon an elderly man, whom I will call the guardian of the temple and he motioned to us to follow him.  He led us to the door of one of the small temples and unlocked the door for us.  It was a very small space with a statue of Buddha.  He entered and motioned for us to do the same.  We sat and he showed us what to do, and then proceeded to give us a blessing.  In our case it involved our “guardian” whisking water on us and then scooping some water into our hands so that we could rub on our faces.  We both thought it was so very kind of him to allow us in, so to speak.  We then decided that we would do the tour with the tuk tuk driver, and this turned out to be another spiritual piece of our day as well, though in a different way.  Our driver was very articulate which is one reason we decided to go with him, since it’s difficult to get a feel for the country if you can’t ask questions and talk to the people.  He was very candid with us about the political situation in Cambodia and when he noticed our interest he shared many things with us.  Another emotional time in this city.  Here was someone who had a number of family members including his father killed during the Khmer Rouge regime (he was about 10 years old during the time).   Although he was marred by the past and frustrated with the current government, he was still so positive.  I asked him how he kept his spirits up and he smiled and said that he was hopeful of a better future for his kids and their generation.  And although there was a lot of corruption, there were also some people  doing really good things.  He spoke a lot about the corruption of the country (this is a country that you still need to be careful who you talk to about this), and the corruption is obvious – you are either very rich or very poor.  The young begging children tell it all.  And although Khun was one of the more fortunate ones – he owns his own tuk tuk and he has been asked to work for the government on numerous occasions but has chosen on principle not to – he still lives one hour from the city and works a very long day.  One of the fun things we saw outside one of the temples we visited were groups of people playing Cambodian shuttlecock.  There were a couple of people in different groups that were quite amazing – you can view one in this YouTube video (he’s 69 years old now):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Mo2kwUPog.

The next day we met Khun again and went to visit Phnom Chisor Temple, about 1 1/2 hours outside the city.  Okay, so we were the only tourists crazy enough (again!) to take a tuk tuk that far.  We went through an extensive section of road that had major road work going on and if you thought Toronto had problems with that you should have seen the layer of red dust we had covering us (if you’ve ever done dry walling, you can probably imagine).  Do you know how sticky that dust is?  I’m not sure I’ll be wearing my white t-shirt again.  Our driver stopped early on to buy masks for us and thank goodness for that.   The good thing was that on the way back we really got to see the rural way of life through the back roads.  It was all quite an adventurous experience.  And very amazing, dust and all.

We’re flying to Vientiane, Laos tomorrow (January 19th) where we will obtain our visa for travel into Myanmar (formerly Burma) after spending a bit of time in Laos.  See you in Laos.

View from our room (temple to R, river to L)

Night view outside our hotel, Phnom Penh

A blessing at Wat Ounalom, just outside our hotel

Our tuk tuk driver/guide, heading towards Wat Phnom

Central Market, exterior, Phnom Penh

Central Market interior, Phnom Penh

Playing Cambodian shuttlecock (great back & hip extension and rotation!)

Love these guys!

Support for temple during restoration

Piggy bank store

Banana blossom salad and other yummy Khmer food – loved Cambodian food!

Red dust on the road to Phnom Chisor Temple

Masks to protect against red dust

View from the bottom of Phnom Chisor (on the hill)

View from the top (400 and some odd steps up)

Rural life

Rural life

Rural life