Day 44 – Flashpackers!
Another bus, another day!
A fond farewell to Seim Reap and onto a new adventure to Cambodia’s capital – Phnom Penh.
This is a long un – 6 hours.
But we enjoy them. Comfy with ‘sugary’ refreshments.
Chance for Pete to work and me to ‘people watch’ through the countryside.
Getting to love our Giant Ibis journey’s!
Service station. Not a patch on Scotch Corner!
We spot the Tonle Sap River, we’ll be overlooking this from our hotel for the next 2 days or more.
We get dropped off, and it’s a 10 minute walk to our hotel – Ohana Phnom Penh Palace Hotel.
Great location. Nice breakfast.
We have a rooftop infinity whirlpool and brush off the journey there for an hour before heading into PP.
We’ve decided we are now officially “flashpackers“!
It turns out we are on the edge of one of the red light districts, which also happens to be one of the main tourist areas with the Riverfront, Grand Palace, Night Market and a major temple all within a short walk.
Game of two halves tonight.
First of all we go for food in the night market.. big, big mistake.
Worst food I’ve ever tasted! ????Pete’s crab salad has a half-cooked full crab that has been torn into bits.
It’s all lukewarm and brown looking.
Mine wasn’t much better!
We don’t eat any of it.
We instead hit Trip Advisor and head to a Vegan Dosa restaurant, our second favourite meal here so far!
Pani Puri and Dosa are things we need in our life back home. ????
End the night on our balcony, watching the ‘hostesses’ calling to men from the bar across the street.
Day 45 – The Killing Fields
Up early to spend the day learning about the tragic times with the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot.
Another bucket list ‘to-do’ visit, but also filled with a little trepidation.
First though is an interesting tuk-tuk ride.
We start off at the S-21 Prison which is now the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide, and then head to the Killing Fields.
It’s really graphic and horrendous – what we do as humans!!??!
The S-21 Prison is where people were tortured and made to confess to crimes against the new regime before being sent to the Killing Fields.
It used to be a school, before Khmer Rouge took it over.
School rooms knocked through and makeshift cells, each 2 ft across added
There were rooms and rooms of these faces.
Hanging torture equipment, previously known as the High school rope gym!
Lest We ForgetOnly a handful of people made it out alive.
After a very somber tour of the museum, we head off to the Killing Fields.
The mood doesn’t get any better.
Most victims had their head chopped off and left in shallow gravesEven now they are still unearthing graves.
Anywhere from 1-3million people died at the hands of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
From there, we escape the heat and the smog into a large mall.
Pete has his first-ever sushi!
We booked a 90min cruise for the evening to see where the 4 rivers meet, including the Mekong.
Beer and fruit included!
Great sunset too.
Beer companies are a major player in CambodiaTold about land being sold off to Malays and Singaporeans, local people kicked out.
This is starting to be a sad theme here for the Khymer people.
After a nice little boat trip we head back to our hotel.
To minimise risk we eat at the hotel, looking out over the city from the rooftop bar.
Our view – this is the best way to see PP, from the roof!
Too busy, dusty and hate to say, seedy for us.
We opt not to stay another night and hastily book the bus and hotel for our next destination – Kampot.
Not to say Phnom Penh isn’t worth coming to.
The history here has to be witnessed to be believed, and will rank as one of the most memorable times we had on the trip.
