Phnom Penh 30/3/12 - 3/4/12

Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia and was our last stop before we reached Vietnam. We got off to a good start as soon as the bus arrived in the city! We jumped off and managed to locate our bags through the usual chaos of tuk tuk drivers. 


I found my bag and then spotted that a tuk tuk driver had Jenna's bag and was talking to her. Turns out he'd been pretty forceful in insisting that he should take us to our hotel. I told him that we wanted to go to our hotel, via the Vietnamese embassy, as we needed to apply for a visa. I then asked him how much it would cost. He replied that it was too busy to discuss the price by the bus and that we should discuss the price by his tuk tuk and so off he walked with Jenna's bag (1-0 tuk tuk man). I followed and put my bag on the floor next to his tuk tuk and asked for the price again. He then picked up my bag and put it in his tuk tuk (2-0 tuk tuk man). He came up with some ridiculous price. I didn't like the way he was going on so I went to take my bag out and to get another tuk tuk. He then halved his price (2-1). He then said that he had a friend who could get us a cheap Vietnam visa, I said no thank you. He then said the embassy would be closed for the weekend, so we really should get the visa from him. I knew it wasn't as I'd done my research before we'd got there so I told him to stop with his pitch and to get going (2-2). He got a little ruder and told us that we shouldn't go to our hotel as it was very expensive, we should go to his friend's hotel which was very cheap. We politely declined and set off (3-2 to James & Jenna!) Every time he made a suggestion, I'd say 'no, listen, we want to....' and he'd then reply 'No, YOU listen to me!'. And so it went on....!


We made it to the embassy and thankfully it was open! He said he'd wait outside with our bags while we went in, no chance! I went in first and left Jenna outside. Ten minutes and I was done. Jenna then went in and I waited outside. The driver then said that he'd talked to Jenna while I was inside and that she had agreed for him to be our driver for the entire next day! I knew Jenna wouldn't have and even if she had I wasn't going to spend an entire day with this guy, so I said that it wasn't going to happen. He started sulking again and told me that in Cambodia, this was how it worked, whoever picked the tourist up from the bus station drove them around for their entire stay! I stood firm! (4-2 J&J). Then Jenna came out and we were ready to go the hotel. The driver now decided that he didn't know where the hotel was, in fact he'd never heard of it and did I have an address?! Because if we didn't then he had a friend with a cheap hotel....! Twenty minutes ago you said it was too expensive and now you don't even know where it is?! I didn't have the address and for a moment it looked like he might be evening the scores up, but thankfully we found the street name in our guide book. The driver then said that he didn't think that hotel existed any more! We told him to get driving (5-2 J&J). We managed to find the road but we were unable to see the hotel. The driver told us to get out and we could find it on foot! We told him to carry on driving and eventually we found it! Even as we were unloading our bags he was telling us about his friend's hotel! The final score was in our favour, but he charged us quite a lot in the first place, so it was probably a score draw!


One of the main reasons for our visit to Phnom Penh was to see the S21 prison. This prison had been used by the Khmer Rouge to house political prisoners in the 1970's, before being led to their deaths as we wrote about in our last blog. Visiting the prison was quite an emotional experience, especially as it has been left in the same condition as when it was in use. There was even dry blood on the ceiling in one room which stored various torture equipment - very difficult to imagine. In one other room there were hundreds of photos of the prisoners who were locked up in the prison and who were then taken to nearby killing fields to be executed. The photo's looked like they had been taken yesterday which made it feel even more recent. Many of the children looked identical to the children we had been saying hello to every day on the streets.

The tuk tuk then took us out of the city to the nearby killing fields. We followed the same route which would have been taken by the estimated 17,000 prisoners on their way to their deaths. We were given headphones to listen to an audio tour as we made our way around the fields and it was really informative with some pretty hard hitting first hand accounts. All of the bones of the dead which have been found are stored in a memorial, but it's not uncommon for bones to work their way out of the soil following spells of bad weather and to be added to the imposing collection.

That evening we met up with the same Danish couple we had met in Battembung for dinner. They were really good company and we had a good laugh. Their English was ridiculously good, which always makes me feel about 2 foot tall when they say they only learnt it at school, whereas I lived in France for 4 years and only speak that language a fraction as well as they could speak English! As we were eating, a young Cambodian boy walked into the restaurant selling bracelets. He didn't speak English but we ended up asking him to sit at our table, then we bought him a coke and then he spent about an hour playing different games on Jenna's phone! I don't think the restaurant staff were too impressed.  The following day we were sat having lunch in a different restaurant and he walked in. He saw us and just said 'Angry Birds?' - which was one of the games he was playing! So Jenna got her phone out and we ordered another coke!

In the centre of Phnom Penh there was a large park area where many of the locals came to walk, jog, play football etc. It was good to see as we've found that very few people in the Asian cities we've visited do much exercise. I think the preferred national sport is standing around smoking and spitting! But watching the locals here was so funny. First of all they don't really wear suitable clothing! Back home you might wear trainers, shorts and a t-shirt. Here, there were women playing badmington in high heels, office workers going for a jog with just their ties removed! But the funniest was watching the various aerobics classes going on. It's a bit of a free for all and anyone seems to join in. In one class there was a tiny old man wearing a hat who was so out of time that we couldn't help but laugh! But at least he was giving a go!