As soon as we got into Cambodia it was quite a change. You could see it was a much poorer country and it was so dirty. There was plastic rubbish all over the roadsides and around people's houses. There were also sigh a for the Cambodia political parties every 100m or so! We got dropped off at our hotel by the coach driver which was great. The hotel was nice but Phenom Penh is really poor and dirty and the smelliest place we've been. Doesn't look much like a prosperous capital city.
In the late afternoon we went on a cyclo tour of the capital. Cyclos are a bit like bike powered wheelchairs. We got chosen by a driver (obviously choosing the lightest as first choice!) My driver was Piep and very nice.
We drove around the city getting started at, but it was great fun. Getting so close to the crazy traffic was entertaining! People going the wrong way, squeezing right up between other cars and scooters and lining up on mass at the traffic lights (for those who stop!) we drove past the prime ministers house which is a palace. He is notoriously corrupt and sits on millions instead of using the taxes for schools and healthcare and all the good things that Cambodia is missing. We then cycled down to the river which was crazy busy as it was the kings birthday celebrations in front of his glorious palace.
We had a drink overlooking the river at the FCC, the foreign correspondents club, which was famous for housing foreign journalists during the war. Cambodian beer is great!
The next day we spent the morning learning about the mass genocide that happened in the country under the Pol Pot regime. We visited Toul Sleng Prison which was a former school turned torture prison for anyone suspected of being against the government. It was chilling. We saw te rooms and beds and photos of the inmates, and also of the young prison guards. PolPot used young people for this as he did not trust older people and they were easier to turn to his way of thinking.
It was jaw dropping. We then went to visit some killing fields outside of the city which was where the executions of the inmates would happen and where they would put them in mass graves. It was horrific. There was a monument which was full of the skulls of people who they uncovered. It was really not nice to see and I think that they should not have the actual skulls and bones on display, but use copies. This would still give impact but also allow the remains to be cremated as with the religion. It was horrific. Didn't feel right to take photos. This was the only photo I took which shows a site of a mass burial where people have put brackets around the edge. These are from religious ceremonies.
Definitely a sombering morning. In the afternoon I tried to visit the royal palace but got denied by my uncovered shoulders and the other girls legs out. Of well, spent the afternoon in costa coffee on the river! Very strange city in that some things are very expensive, like the costa coffee, but there is so much poverty, I'm not sure who goes there. Can't be enough tourists to sustain the American chains. But we were greeting with a very unexpected "welcome to costa coffee" in unison by the staff! But amazing to have a great western tasting coffee for a change! Walking back to our hotel, I felt incredibley white and foreign for the first time on this trip. Very few tourists in Pheom Penh, but all he Cambodians have amazing English! The best in Asia so far. So many little street kids trying to sell you stuff with great English.
In the evening we went to a tour guides house for a traditional dinner. It wa to help fund a free English school he runs for the local children. We took a tuk tuk and went through some really poor areas to get to his house. Dinner was great. We sat on the floor and his daughter chatted to us. Her English was amazing and she told us jow she was studying to be a tour guide.
At the end of the meal we were offered to try some tarantula rice wine. Yuk! Was rice wine with live tarantulas poked in to drown. Supposedly a great medicine for all sorts of ailments, but no thanks!
Pheom Penh was very stinky and poor, and a bit scary, but was amazing to visit and there must be so much more to explore! But were off to Siem Reap on a long bus ride
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