Global Traveller: January 2011

Happy New Year and greetings from Phnom Penh!

My god its rough here, Im quite surprised by how rough it is. Im not really digging Cambodia, to be honest, I bloody hate it!

Partying hard on Koh Chang

Since my last blog, we had been partying non-stop on Koh Chang and that carried on with the build up to Christmas. Dave's DJing at Om Bar was a regular event for all of our stay on Lonely Beach with him DJing for 5 hours on one night. Needless to say we were pissed pretty much everyday. Our friends from Hong Kong arrived and we went mental for 4 days, almost got barred from one of the pubs and kept our neighbours up until 6am! Good times. Even our quiet nights were still messy.

I have had some of the best times during this period but the problem was that after 2 months of parties, socialising and generally being messy, it was taking its toll. On boxing day, we finally decided to leave the island and head to Bangkok a week earlier than planned so catch up on some rest, relaxation and also get back to civilisation! Our arrival in Bangkok was a great feeling, with McDonald's and Burger King everywhere and supermarket's on just about every corner. It was great to be back in the city.

We booked an apartment for our week stay in Bangkok, feeling the need to enjoy some of our home comforts after living in a hut on the edge of the jungle for 2 months. The apartment was beautiful and had everything we needed for a weeks rest.

A few days before New Year's eve, Dave came down with Flu, the crap thing was it was exactly a year to the day that he was last ill! He has been pretty much indoors since then unable to stand the heat outside. For New Year's eve, we stayed in and had a quiet one, but we didn't feel too bad about that because we had just partied for 2 months prior, so missing one night was no big deal.

National Museum, Phnom Penh

We reluctantly left for Phnom Penh on the 2nd January. With Dave being so ill, travelling was the last thing we should have been doing but we had to leave then as that was the last day on our visa for Thailand. Needless to say the day was tough for him, and the coughing and sneezing on the bus, train and plane was met with some funny looks from fellow passengers not wanting to catch his bug!

We arrived in Phnom Penh and on the drive to the hotel, the place kind of looked like Hanoi in Vietnam, very shabby, chaotic traffic and equally chaotic driving. Just before out hotel we drove past some slums and piles and piles of stinking rubbish dumped in the street. Not the best first impressions of a city but given that it is a poor nation, it is to be expected.

On our first night, we ventured up the road to find a shop to grab a few bits to keep us going until the morning. The experience was quite unnerving with people staring at you, looking, chatting about you blatantly in their own language and kids running all around you. The unnerving feeling was probably also due to the fact that we had been pretty comfortable with our surroundings for the last 2 months and all of a sudden we were back in a strange city, a bit out of practice!

The following day, we went out to see the sights in the centre of Phnom Penh. There wasn't really much to see for a city, so we headed for the National Museum and the Royal Palace. The Museum housed a number of statues taken from Angkor Wat, a world famous religious site in the north of Cambodia. After the museum we queued for an hour to get into the Royal Palace, only to be refused at the payment kiosk because Dave had a vest on! Fuck them, if they don't want our $12 dollars then tough shit! So our day of sightseeing wasn't much of a success really, plus there was a beggar at the entrance to the palace, waving his stump at us for money. I wondered how he could take the money off us if all he had was a stump?

After reading about the city on the internet to find out what there was to see, we also read about the crime in Phnom Penh and brick attacks on westerners in the tourist area. It is good to be educated, but sometimes you can scare yourself reading stuff like this. Lets just say we were on our guard when we went out for the first few days but then you realise its just like any other city, you just have to be vigilant and aware of whats going on around you.

Sight seeing

A few days later we visited the Genocide museum, a place of torture and detention during the Khmer Rouge period. This prison only closed in 1979 which is quite sobering to think this was less than 40 years ago. Inside the museum were thousands of pictures of all the prisoners, most alive, some dead. Most were held at the prison to be tortured before being executed and taken to the killing fields just outside Cambodia. It was a pretty grim trip to be be honest, but one that I felt was worth it out of respect to all those that died there.

On the way back to the hotel from the prison, we ventured past a canal running right through the middle of the streets. It was pure raw sewage. The smell was putrid, almost staining your nose and clothes. And on top of the bridge that crossed the sewage was a street food seller!!?? Lets just say I wouldn't be buying anything from that stall. Pretty disgusting. Then there is the contrast, all the important buildings in the city are beautiful and styled in traditional Cambodian architecture. It is an amazing contrast to see; where you have the poor all around, raw sewage in the streets and rising above all that are these beautiful buildings and monuments.

All in all Phnom Penh has been an odd place, one that I'm glad I have visited but one I won't be coming back to. We are off back to Thailand as we have a second visa to use and my Nan is also flying out to meet us as we spend 3 weeks on Koh Lanta in southern Thailand. She is bringing english chocolate with her! I can't bloody wait to get my hands on that. After that its off to Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, SIngapore and eventually over to Australia.

Did I mention is costs $50 dollars to leave Cambodia? Another reason I shan't be returning here (I hope I don't sound bitter!)

Now it's time to get back to beach life.

Bye for now!