We took a short 4 hour minibus from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh and our lives flashed before our eyes more than once. This driver seemed to have a death wish and was over taking at the most ridiculous times on the road. He would beep his horn to basically say 'I am coming through whether you like it or not so move out of my way'. I couldn't help but watch the road but it really set in the 'if you dont die, you win' theory once again. I shouldn't really moan as this was actually the first journey that has got to its destination on time.
We arrived at a random station on the outskirts of Phnom Penh and were again greated by a group of Tuk Tuk drivers who were eager to get your business. Stupidly, we hadnt really researched Phnom Penh as we assumed that the same as Siem Reap and Bangkok, there would be a central backpacker hotspot that you would be taken to upon arrival. We were wrong...
We had the name of one hostel given to us by Lisa's brother so we decided to try this. Not one of the Tuk Tuk drivers here understood what we were saying. They couldnt even understand when we asked them to just take us to any hostel/guesthouse/hotel/anywhere we could sleep as it was getting late and we could do our research that night for somewhere to stay the following nights. One finally said they would take us to the riverfront. Sod it, we thought and got in...
The place we stayed was pretty rubbish, we payed over the odds to sleep in a room above the restaurant that was not sound proof. We stayed for one night and ended up at 19 Happy House and ended up making it home for the next 6 days. This place was your typical backpacker hostel, complete with cheap beer on tap, English dvd's and an absolute lad who worked there (whos only job seemed to be to sweet talk the customers and ply them with weed). He spent the entire time we were there telling us how sexy we all were and when I was sat on my own whispered "hey, sexy lady. I want to show you around the city on my Tuk Tuk tomorrow girl". Believe me, it took all my willpower to say no, a hard offer to refuse!!
First on our agenda was a night out. The owner recommended a club not far from our hotel so we had a few too many drinks and headed to the Heart of Darkness, which was actually pretty good. They played some absolute tunes and we made some Cambodian friends who swiftly asked us to Facebook friend them - can't get away from it!!
Choeung Ek, more commonly known as the killing fields is a site that the Khmer Rouge used to kill thousands of Cambodians in the 1970's. It is now a memorial but some harrowing sites are still there. A number of mass graves and a killing tree, used to kill babies were among the worst. I suggest using the audio guides that can be provided to really get the right information from a visit here. It is deeply depressing and hard to stomach that this was taking place less than 40 years ago and for 3 years no one seemed to notice that millions of people were being killed. It is a very quiet place and the tour here ends with visiting the new stupa that has been built as a memorial, all the skulls and bones of bodies found at Choeung Ek are displayed here for people to pay their respects.
After our time here, we made the journey to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, formally the S-21 'security office' used as a prison to house and torture anyone the Khmer Rouge saw as a threat before they would take them to Choeung Ek to be killed. There are mug shots of every person that entered the prison displayed and some of the cells are still there too. Its horrible to walk around as it has an eerie feeling about it, and you get a sense that there are a lot of souls still there. Only 7 survivors left S-21 in the 3 years it was open.
Although it was a tough day, I recommend that you go here if you visit Cambodia. Although it is very cliché, you leave there questioning humanity but also feeling extremely lucky to have been born and raised in Britain.
Apart from this, we have seen the various markets that the capital had to offer, even visiting a huge mall where they have a lot of 'designer' clothes and accessories. We also took a tour of the city, and our Tuk Tuk driver did his best to give us a history lesson on the way round until we got to the Grand Palace (we actually made it in this one). It was a little underwhelming as they had a lot of work going on in the buildings and you couldn't go inside but we ended up being a tourist attraction ourselves once inside the gates! We have learnt that we will be stared at wherever we go and this day was no exception... A group tour was looking over at us at every opportunity and when myself and Leanne were having our picture taken, they approached us and asked if they could have a picture with us. We said yes and at this point there were only a few of them. The next thing we know, it seemed like the whole class had run up to be in it. So here we are, me and Leanne as foreign exchange students and a few more from our very cultured day.
We had quite a bit of time to kill in Phnom Penh so ended up going to the cinema and also went for some pizza, nothing too much to say about that apart from a short while after eating it, Lisa bought this balloon and we were happy (sorry mum).
With another 5 days until our visa will let us go to Vietnam, we decided that we had seen all thay Phnom Penh could offer and have made a last minute trip down to Kampot. Kampot comes with our first large mixed dorm so lets see if we can meet some fun people here.
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