Ana_Cambodia (Phnom Penh)

Day 60 – Day 62 (March 15-17)
Only 6 hours to Phnom Penh. I was mentally prepared to lower my standards. Everyone that I’ve talked to said they didn’t care for Cambodia. Very hot, dusty and poor. I could see all three right when we crossed the border. The border crossing went smoothly. We actually had a bus attendant to collect the passport for us and get our visas. So it wasn’t too bad. The bus had AC and the actually gave us sandwiches for breakfast with water. Fancy pants! Great service. Arrived in Phnom Penh in the middle of the day right at 1pm. The sun was beaming. As soon we got out we got bombarded with tuk tuk drivers wanted to take us into town. We hid out in the office until some of them actually left. I asked the bus attendant how much a ride should cost in town around $2US for both.

Tim was the one that looked for a hotel. The first one we had in mind “California2 Hotel” was full. I waited with the bags and had a coke. While I waited a cute girl was tying to sell copy of guidebooks. I kept telling her I had one already. But she stuck around and ended up talking to her for a little bit. She was cute and very smart for an eight year old.

Our room was nice for $18US had ac and TV. Can’t complaint. I’m really enjoying staying in our own room with ac. I need it to survive the heat. To my surprise the US dollars for everything. In the hotels, restaurants, stores all the prices are in USD. When we pulled out money it was all dollars. It’s funny that in Cambodia you can use our currency. Prices for food are a bit high compared to Vietnam and Laos. Even the local food a plate of noodles or fried rice is the same price as getting a chicken sandwich $3US. It’s still cheap compare to some places in the US. But is up there. At least so far the food has been really tasty. Tim got his hair cut real short. Like army short. It looks good. I like it. We didn’t do much the first day just begged and went for a walk along the river around sunset. It was a bit disturbed. I looked to my right and I saw nice rows of beautiful hotels with nice restaurant and I looked to my left and I saw kids with no shoes eating from the garbage. Also saw much more beggars and people with deformities. It was sad to see so big of a gap between the rich and the poor. Still more sad was to visit the Tuol Sleng Museum and Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. HORRIBLE! I couldn’t understand how one human being can be so cruel and torture so many people. At the Tuo Sleng Museum which is the actual prison were thousands and thousands of innocent people were tortured. It was a high school the Pol Pots turned into a prison. Walking to the different classrooms and just getting a glimpse of what actually happen and the how much people suffered it was disgusting. At times I wanted to throw up and even cry. Just to imagine it! Out of 20,000 people brought to this prison from doctors, to farmers to children and even their own people only 7 survive. They took photographs of every person captured and the tortures they did to them. It was gruesome! I couldn’t even look at all them. The mug shots of the people were striking. Just they way they were starring at the camera. Very deep and disturb looks. I kept taking breaks outside for some air. Couldn’t take seeing so much cruelty actually happened. To end the depressing day we made it to the killing field and saw the pits were thousands of people including children were thrown and executed.

We made back to the city right before sunset. We went to the room and watched TV for a little bit. Ended up eating Mexican for dinner. Wow! It was tasty. Not quite the same as Mexican food back home but pretty close. It makes it even tastier knowing we’re in Cambodia.

Today is our last day in the city. We’re leaving tomorrow to Siem Reap to see the famous Angkor wat. Earlier today we visited the royal palace. It was really nice. Very similar to the one in Bangkok. Only manage to walk for around an hour. The heat was melting us away. I don’t sweat but here I’m sweating like crazy even in the shade. I think is the humidity. They say Siem Reap is even hotter than here. I got a hair cut too. I like it. Now I can say I got a haircut in Cambodia. It sounds very exotic. While I was getting a haircut the previous king’s wife came in for a haircut too.

We’re here blogging away and waiting for the sun to go down. The last thing we’ll do here is go the Russian market. They say you can find cheap stuff. Not like we need more crap to take home. But might as well if is good and inexpensive.