Phnom Penh

Towards the end of August I decided to fly to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, with a few of my friends to meet up with Joe- an old college friend who was out traveling around S.E. Asia for a few weeks. Actually Joe had been out to Singapore once already last year to visit and that time we took a trip to Thailand to see Bangkok and Phuket. This time I think Joe was much more adventurous and he went off on his own quite a bit. Before we met up with him in Phnom Penh he had already been to Koh Samui, Thailand; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Siem Reap, Cambodia. As you can see in this picture below, he's a seasoned traveler, feeling at home in Asia.

Joe- blending in on the gritty streets of Phnom Penh. (note: with the guidebook in his left hand he's sure not to get lost)

This was the first time I'd been to Phnom Penh and really I've always had mix thoughts about visiting. It's reported as quite shocking even to those travelers who have seen Bangkok or Jakarta (as I had) because of it's unorganized, dirty, and crowded streets filled with beggars and cripples (from residual unexploded ordinance)- everywhere. Extreme poverty is something that can been seen all over the world and it's not easy to get used to, and it's almost unimaginable to see how people survive with almost nothing, living out their lives everyday in filth all in public view with hardly any privacy, something I've really taken for granted most of my life- just having somewhere to go (like a house) to go to get off the street. The city wasn't as bad as I had read about though and I thought some of the places I saw in India were much worse than this.

In my opinion Phnom Penh is not really not a tourist city in that there aren't many well known tourist attractions which I find somewhat strange since in the early 20th century before the Vietnam War and subsequent rule of the Khmer Rouge it was considered one of the most beautiful cities in S.E. Asia and known as the Paris of the East. During the war, the Khmer Rouge was an underestimated force even while fighting erupted and they littered the jungles with millions of land mines, many of which are still active. Following the American withdraw from Vietnam, and Cambodia, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge forces marched into the city in celebration. Shortly after, this the celebration ended and one of the known world's largest genocides began as he began the reassignment of everyone form the city to the country side where they were forced to work in the fields as slaves to establish his vision of an agrarian utopia. Almost anyone educated, anyone with glasses, or anyone found to listen to the radio or watch television were taken, tortured then killed. In total, nearly 2,000,000 people were executed by their fellow countrymen serving under the Khmer Rouge. Before this war, Cambodia had a flourishing pop music and culture scene- all of which was wiped out as all urban areas were evacuated. Even looking at the history of existing facts of what happened it's hard to believe or understand why this occurred. At some point momentum seems to have taken over and anyone serving in the military who opposed was also killed, few even knowing for sure why they were doing it but at the same time afraid to oppose for fear of being killed.

So now the state of Phnom Penh is a bit mixed. It's since been reoccupied by people and still growing into a busy city as people carve out livings from businesses but it's still establishing itself and maintains an undertone of a wild boom town. Booths to check your guns before entering bars or clubs weren't uncommon, neither was getting frisked (a real frisk by some serious looking dude, not like they do at the airport). Most of the recent tourism has been based on the Tuol Sleng genocide museum- a former school converted by the Khmer Rouge into a human processing center and torture site, trips to the killing fields where thousands were killed in the country side, or live shooting ranges where people could shoot anything from hand guns to tank cannons for a small price. I've heard the shooting ranges have more recently been toned down in attempts to curb Cambodia's image of a lawless place. I really had no desire to visit any of these places- not that I don't it's important to remember and respect what had happened but it's really depressing to see. Joe and my friend Patrick went to see the genocide museum and I think they both felt sick by the time they returned.
While it's hard to understand what had happened in Cambodia's past, it's also hard to understand other things that have been occurring more recently there as the billboards all over town and signs posted in most hotel rooms remind you that having sex with children is a punishable crime. Sex tourism, especially for underage children, had become common and more immediately attests to how sick, selfish and greedy people can be to take advantage of those in less fortunate situations than themselves- and it's the same greed causing men to sale their children into sexual slavery for money as the financiers and bankers who continued to get rich while knowing at some point their practices would collapse, sending us into the current world financial crisis. People can be very bad at times.

Despite not shooting any guns, visiting the genocide memorials or having sex with anyone including children I managed to have a memorable and mostly fun time during the two days we spent there. So- what else is there to do in a strange Asian city with some of the most dirty streets with some of the worst drivers around but to rent bikes and experience it. While Joe and Patrick went to see the genocide museum, Fal and I rented some bikes and took off to see the city.The bike ride route: We started somewhere near the city center and made a route to go south then come back up along a canal we saw on the map (turns out the canal looked much better on the map than in person). After heading up the canal we continued on to try to see the giant Beong Kak Lake... which though we heard was nice, I think it was better on the map as well since access to the lake shore was limited and we barely could even get a glimpse of the sun setting over it. Never-the-less we did get to see a lot of the city and experience riding in the traffic, soaking up the noise, dust and pollution. Phnom Penh drivers are noted to be very bad and the only rule of driving seemed to be "don't hit anything", and though the traffic also drives on the right side of the road (since it wasn't a British colony), you wouldn't necessarily notice it since say you had to go only a short distance you can just go ahead and drive on the left side rather than try to cross traffic- seriously there aren't any rules. Somehow it seems to work though and strangely I felt more comfortable on a bike in traffic there than I do in Singapore. The traffic is a mix of cars, trucks, pedestrians, bikes, scooters, tuk-tuks, and ox-drawn carts and stray dogs.
The canal had the most glassy... black water I've ever seen. Of course it takes a lot of pollution to make water like that. It really wasn't as nice as it looks in the picture... but as a source of flowing water it was of course a center of activity with housing and businesses built up around it the entire length.

the girl at the shop where we rented the bikes and her miniature designer dog the size of your hand. I was very surprised to see so many of this type of bred miniature dog around the city... somehow they seemed out of place but I guess people like what they like...

The Silver Pagoda in the royal palace complex, originally constructed with 5,000 silver tiles for the floor.

Touring the Central Market. This was pretty standard for a an Asian market. Though in the wet market I was surprised there were so many frogs and eels which must be fresh from the Mekong River.

Patrick enjoying some stuffed and skewered frogs cooked there at the market.

Later we saw just how fresh the frogs were... these were offered for sale- already skinned and beheaded... but not dead as they were still moving. I guess they must sale this many in one day... otherwise I have no idea why they would skin them all alive like that. Walking in these markets you get used to seeing beef, pork, poultry and fish butchered and laid out in the heat but this was more than slightly disturbing to me. At the top of the picture you can see the eels... yes they are alive as well.

Lots of shirts were available for purchase, too.

Our hotel was right along the Mekong River on Sisowath Quay. Around sunset, sitting at a cafe along the Riverside Boulevard on the Mekong, time really seems to slow down and it's easy to imagine what the city must have been like in it's prime so many years ago. There is still evidence of it in other parts of the city where some of the remaining French buildings are now being renovated, many of the turned into boutique hotels for the growing tourist influx.


Overlooking Riverside Boulevard to the Mekong from the hotel balcony at night and the next morning

An introspective looking tourist in a Phnom Penh cafe

Looking back on the trip there isn't any major thing we saw or activity we did that made the trip special or necessarily worth recommending others to go see the city. I would not normally recommend this trip as we did it- as the only destination, but I would definitely recommend it to see in addition to other sites in Cambodia- Siem Reap (and the temples near Angkor Wat) being by far the largest attraction. I think in general these kinds of trips have become my favorite since there is no agenda or itinerary- instead you can just go to live and explore for a few days with no pressure to finish everything or rush to see any one thing.

Also See Fal's pictures of Phnom Penh