And so to the 19th we left by bus to reach the capital Phnom Penh, the countryside reminding us of Africa a dry flat barren land stretching out in the distance.
The city has to be one of the craziest places I have ever been too, we were thinking of hiring mopeds but after trying to walk around this madhouse we have decided against it.
Traffic is just like Rome but 10 times worse!! Nik says it reminds her of Beijing but madder!
Our guesthouse is ok cheap and the bathroom is not of the banyan Tree standard sorry Sis. Infact the bathroom needs condemning and we spend the minimal amount of time in there. But its $3 a night and their restaurant floats on the river which is cool!
Yesterday was to be visiting day the Killing Fields and the museum of that time. After bargaining with a TukTuk driver we set off hearing a chorus of voices from the other drivers telling us ours was no good! All was going well
until we crashed; to be fair it wasn't our drivers fault a moped swerved infront of him and there with no chance of avoiding was a girl on a bike who we duly ran over. She was okish we took her to a hospital who we presume patched her up.
Then with some trepidation we were back on the road in the manic environment that is the capitol. You really have to see it to believe it!
We did arrive at the killing fields to be met by a very large police prescence who told our driver it was closed, next we found out the museum was also closed it just wasnt our day. In
the end we went around the Royal Palace and it was pretty cool
.
Then in deseperate need of a hair cut found a guy on the street with his trusty chair and a very bizarre set of clippers!
I sat down duly to the amusement of not only the locals but westerners too and became the subject of tourists taking photos of me! Nik was very amused and I was some what emabrrased! By the end of the day a refreshing jug of beer was needed.
Today everywhere was open the Killing Fields scene of at least 9000 executions and the Tuol Sleng Museum where over 20000 were tortured and incarcerated before being killed.
Tough to see to be honest its pretty
graphic in places and hard to believe it happened in our lifetime, a pretty emotional day to say the least....
The next few days see us leave our bathroom of choice and head for the south coast and then onto Vietnam. Cambodia has been incredible and cant wait for what is next round the corner. (Not our TukTuk driver
hopefully....)
South to the Capital - Phnom Penh
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
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