Phnom Penh – Where to, Gumshoe?

Phnom Penh (Day 122): A Rainy Royal Day and Three Markets

June 30, 2016

I think the fact that there isn’t much natural light in our room makes us sleep in. It seems like we’re the last people in the hotel to have breakfast. Today we both ordered Cambodian breakfast – fried rice and fried noodles. I think this hotel has the best breakfast we’ve had so far.

We’re both really happy with the service at this hotel. Everyone is super friendly and accommodating. For example, Tim collects banknotes and coins and wanted all the Cambodian Riel denominations. But this is actually harder than it seems because all the ATMs give out USD and the only change you get when paying are small denominations. Tim asked the guy at reception if the hotel had riel that he could exchange for (they convert 1 USD = 4,000 riel in Cambodia). The hotel didn’t have all the bills so the guy at reception got a tuk tuk driver to go to the bank and take out one of each Cambodian banknote for Tim. That was really nice and definitely something they didn’t have to do for us but they did. It made Tim’s search for all the bills really easy.

The same tuk tuk driver who went to the bank for Tim drove us to the Russian Market for $3 USD. The Russian Market has nothing Russian in it. There’s the Russian Market and also a Russian Boulevard because the Russians funded the construction of the road in Phnom Penh after the Vietnam liberated Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge.

The market was filled with everything from souvenirs to home tools to raw meat. We walked through the rows of vendors and were pleasantly surprised that we weren’t harassed to buy things even if we touched a t-shirt. It was definitely more relaxing than shopping at Ben Thanh in Saigon. I bought some tank tops similar to the neon pink owl top I bought in Thailand 3 years ago. I wear it a lot more than I thought I would so these are to replace it. I bargained on my own and was really proud of myself for getting 3 of them for $5 USD!

We were pretty full from our heavy breakfast and didn’t end up eating at the market. There seemed to be a lot of good food options in the market though. Around the outside of the market there were pineapple vendors who cut and sold mini pineapples that you could hold by the stem and munch on as you walked around the market. We shared one and it was tender and very sweet! We saw these small pineapples while in Vietnam and Laos, but didn’t try them there. The ones we saw in Laos were being cut while the pineapple was being swarmed by flies. These ones were fly free (from what we saw) so I felt better about eating it.

While walking around the outer part of the market, we saw a street vendor that sold sugar cane juice and smoothies. She had some seats under a tree so we decided to get some drinks here before heading to the Royal Palace. We ordered one sugar cane juice ($0.60 USD) and a mango smoothie ($1 USD). Across the street we saw a fried chicken stall that I noticed while on the tuk tuk yesterday. Tim is a fried chicken fiend and went across the street to get some chicken for us to eat. He’s the one who said he wasn’t hungry in the slightest (10 minutes before he saw fried chicken). He brought back 4 pieces for us to share. They looked good and were only $0.60 USD each! It tasted like KFC but with sweet chilli sauce. As we were finishing up our lunch it started getting really windy. Being in SE Asia for 3 weeks, I knew what that meant. As soon as I felt that gust of wind I told Tim that it was going to start pouring soon. Sure enough, I was right!

We took a tuk tuk to the Royal Palace ($2.50 USD) and as soon as we got there it started to pour. Like torrential downpour. We both took out our rain jackets and umbrellas. Wearing rain jackets with a t-shirt underneath in humid weather was not pleasant. I was also wearing Toms (canvas shoes) which was probably the worst shoes I could’ve worn today. My feet were soaked and I knew they would be that way for the remainder of the day.

The Royal Palace admission cost $6.50 USD each. The palace grounds are all very nicely groomed and it would’ve been a nice area to just walk around if it hadn’t been pouring. I guess the bright side is that it wasn’t scorching hot! We walked through the palace grounds and went into the “silver pagoda” where the floor is made out of sterling silver. We actually missed this at first because on the map it doesn’t say silver pagoda, it just says “emerald Buddha”. Yes, there’s an emerald Buddha in the silver pagoda, so we totally missed the silver floor when we walked in (Tim: It didn’t help that 90% of the floor was covered in rugs, so you had to look at the edges to notice the silver). You aren’t allowed to take pictures inside the palace buildings so I can’t show you what it looked like. Let’s just say the fact that we missed it the first time and had to go back is all you need to know. The palace is a nice place to visit but it was a bit underwhelming for the admission price.

We found a tuk tuk outside the palace that agreed (after bargaining of course) to take us to the Central Market, Riverside, and then back to our hotel later in the night for $9 USD. Central Market is a nicer looking market than the Russian Market but it felt like more of a maze since it’s more of a circular configuration. Again, the market had everything. They even had a whole row of tailors and nail stalls (lots of people were getting pedicures). I just bought a bulk bag (probably 30+) of hair ties for $1 USD. I didn’t bother bargaining because I was surprised at how cheap it was already.

We stayed at the Central Market for an hour wandering around each row of vendors. I liked the Russian Market better. There were more vendors at the Russian Market whose products looked more appealing to me. We went back to the front of the market where our driver was supposed to meet us at 5pm. He wasn’t there and we waited for another 10 minutes for him before we decided to just find another tuk tuk driver. We were surprised that he wasn’t there since we didn’t even pay him or give him a “deposit”.

The next tuk tuk driver took us to the Riverside Night Market for $3 USD. Today was the first day we took tuk tuks between all our sights and it was awesome! Usually we walk everywhere but Phnom Penh isn’t a very walker friendly city. Basically everyone takes tuk tuks and I can see why. When we got to the night market it was still fairly early and vendors were still setting up. We went across the street and walked along the riverside. We read that Japan had donated money in developing Phnom Penh’s riverside walk way by helping the city deal with their sewage system, building a dyke to prevent flooding, and making it more aesthetically pleasing by lining it with palm trees.

While we were walking along the river Tim saw a noodle stand that he wanted to try. We went up to the stand and ordered noodles to share. A local came to help and translated for us since the vendor didn’t speak any English. We’ve been in Cambodia for 3 days now and we’ve noticed that people here are very nice and helpful. So far Cambodia and Laos has the nicest people during our SE Asia portion of our trip.

(Tim: The main reason this stall got my attention was because it looked like the lady was wearing pajamas). The noodles were really good ($1.50 USD). They were basically instant noodles stir fried with beef and vegetables and a sweet and spicy sauce. Beside the noodle stand was a grilled corn stand that seemed very popular amongst the locals. We tried one corn on the cob and agreed that it was pretty darn good. The corn was grilled and then dipped in a sweet onion sauce. The corn was only $0.50 USD. The little girl helping her Dad spoke English and helped me out. There were two different kinds of corn – yellow and white corn. She asked which one I wanted and I asked her which one she liked. She picked yellow so I went with that.

We walked back to the night market and as we were walking the tuk tuk driver who ditched us at the Central Market saw us! He told us that there was so much traffic on the way back so he got there 10-15 minutes after 5pm. He said he would drive us back to our hotel, less the amount we paid the other tuk tuk driver. We agreed to meet him after we were done at the market.

There wasn’t too much going on at the night market. There were some clothing stalls but nothing caught our eye. Maybe we were marketed out at this point in the day. At the back of the market there are a few food stalls. We shared some fried noodles with chicken ($1.50 USD, seems to be the standard price) which were good but I think I liked the instant noodle ones better. I was more excited for dessert since we saw a coconut ice cream stall that looked delicious.

We shared a fresh coconut ice cream for dessert. They cut a fresh coconut in half and they scraped the flesh off the shell and then piled 3 scoops of coconut ice cream, peanuts, and pieces of palm flesh. It was delicious and only $1.25 USD!

After dessert we went back to the tuk tuk and went back to the hotel. I couldn’t wait to take off my wet TOMS – so gross. When we got back to our room, our bed was decorated and there were rose petals with a bath drawn in the washroom. The manager at the hotel thinks this is our honeymoon so that’s why they decorated our room.

We’re leaving for Siem Reap tomorrow and will be there for 4 days. Looking forward to seeing the famous Angkor Wat! I enjoyed our time in Phnom Penh. It took a little to warm up to the city but I actually really enjoyed it. Phnom Penh isn’t the prettiest city and is a little rough around the edges but the country and city have been through hell and back so it’s understandable. As mentioned earlier, we both think that Cambodian people are some of the friendliest people we have met so far on this trip. As a whole, considering all that they have been through, there doesn’t seem to be a chip on anyone’s shoulder in the same way that we felt in Vietnam. We also learned that it’s not pronounced “Nom-Pen” like how we thought it was, but it is pronounced “Pah-Nom-Pen”. Now we know better!

Steps today: 17,000

Phnom Penh (Day 121): A Somber Afternoon

June 29, 2016

Today was a very emotionally draining day, which is why I’m struggling to write today’s post. We visited the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center (aka “killing fields”) and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum – which made for a very somber Phnom Penh day.

Our morning started quite late. We had a really good breakfast at the hotel and then got ready to head out. We found a tuk tuk outside the hotel and negotiated a fare to take us to the killing fields and then to the museum afterwards. Our tuk tuk driver was an older man who agreed to take us around for $15 USD. It started to lightly rain as we made our way to the killing fields, which seemed appropriate for what we were about to see.

Choeung Ek is located about 45 minutes outside of Phnom Penh. The tuk tuk ride there was an adventure in itself and I quite enjoyed riding in one through the crazy Cambodian streets.

Once we arrived at Choeung Ek, we agreed to meet our driver in 2 hours. Admission to the grounds, which includes a really good audio guide, was $6 USD each. The audio guide leads you around the killing fields and then to the memorial stupa at the end. As this is now a memorial sight, it was peaceful and quiet while everyone walked around and listened to their headsets and reflected on what we just heard. It’s hard to imagine that 35 years ago, the very area we were walking on was the site of mass graves and horrific atrocities.

While walking through the grounds, you couldn’t help but get emotional hearing what happened during Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror. Tim will be better at explaining what we saw.

(Tim: Taking over for the rest of this post)

The killing fields were previously a Chinese Cemetery before the Khmer Rouge began using it as a execution site. Prisoners from Security Prison 21 (S-21) were brought to the killing fields for execution after signing confessions that were tortured out of them. S-21 would be our next stop after the killing fields, as the former prison was now the Genocide Museum.

The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, tried to create a closed off, agrarian socialist society. Pol Pot glorified the farmer, and soon after the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh and began their regime, they evacuated cities and made everyone move into the rural areas to work on farms (as slave labour basically). Anyone that posed a potential threat to the regime was imprisoned and executed… Anyone educated, anyone in a profession, religious leaders, anyone with glasses even (meant you were educated?), were subject to imprisonment and execution.

(Kait: The following pictures may be disturbing but I also think it’s important to see them.)

After spending a somber couple hours at the killing fields, we found our tuk tuk driver and were on our way back into town to the Genocide Museum.

Before going in, we took a short break to go find something for lunch. We started making our way down the street adjacent to the museum and saw a street food spot with an awning that had a picture of Luc lac beef. That was easy. Kait and I shared a Luc lac beef and a noodle soup. We also got a fruit smoothie (can’t go wrong). After lunch, we made our way to the museum.

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, S-21 during the Khmer Rouge regime, and a high school before that, was converted into a museum and memorial after the Khmer Rouge regime fell to the Vietnamese. Of the 20,000 or so prisoners that entered the prison, only 7 survived. (Tim: Apparently 7 is the most often quoted number but more recent studies show the number was probably closer to 20-30).

Walking around the museum, I was disturbed by the many similarities I noticed between what they did here, and what I saw at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Different countries, different ideologies, different contexts, but similar tragedies. Both took photos and extensive documentation of the prisoners. Both have stories of orders being given to destroy all the photos and documentation when liberators neared the sites, only to have the soldiers their evacuate before they had time to destroy all the evidence. Both had policies of transferring prisoners to the execution sites under false pretenses. Both were disturbingly efficient about killing people. Both started at a certain pace of execution, which dramatically (and tragically) increased near the fall of their regimes. Both had soldiers who said they were only following orders…

I find the extensive documentation particularly disturbing and odd, but a clip from the Audio Tour gave an explanation that I found somewhat plausible. By requiring and strictly adhering to rules that required detailed documentation, they took the act of genocide and mass murder, and made it procedural. It became something easier for a soldier to follow through on. They’re just following detailed instructions…

Both Auschwitz and S-21 had rooms filled with portrait photos of hundreds of prisoners. I found the portraits particularly moving. It’s haunting to see so many beautiful faces, young and old, male and female, knowing they were all imprisoned here, tortured, then executed. But I find it important to pay my respects and give them my attention.

While there isn’t conclusive evidence on the total number of people who died, estimates put it at 1.5-3 million people, with the best estimates putting it around 2 million people, or 1/4 of the entire Cambodian population at that time. It’s fascinating to me to see how countries come out of tragedies like this… Even as an outside observer (i.e. tourist), knowing the history is so recent, it’s almost too much for me to process. And yet, the people in Cambodia seem very forward looking and optimistic. I imagine the country has changed a lot in the last 20 years, and will continue to change. It makes me interested in revisiting the country in the future.

(Kait: Putting the pictures into this post and recounting what we saw yesterday still brings up a lot of emotions. Throughout the museum there were testimonials from many women who were forced to marry men under the Khmer Rouge regime. If they didn’t comply and reproduce they were both killed. Their stories were all very similar – they were all forced into loveless and abusive marriages. Looking at the ages of the women, they were all our parent’s age. It made me really sad and also very appreciative of our lives. All the victims who died under Khmer Rouge were extremely unlucky to be born during a horrific time and place. They suffered under no fault of their own and that’s what is really upsetting.)

After our somber afternoon, we made our way to Mok Mony, a restaurant recommended to us by Kait’s cousin, Chloe. Looking over the menu, we went with another Luc Lac beef and a marinated beef dish. For dessert, we got Mango Sticky Rice which was one of our favourite dishes in Thailand.

It was a long day, but I’m really glad we had a chance to visit the killing fields and the genocide museum. We learned a lot of about the recent history of Cambodia, and I think it helps to put a lot of things in context for us about the country. I’m looking forward to seeing more of Cambodia.

Steps Today: 11,000

Phnom Penh (Day 120): Chicken Wings and #35?

June 28, 2016

Today we flew to Phnom Penh! A new country for the next week. Our flight was at 11:50am, so we didn’t have much time to do much other than have breakfast and pack up. Tim went out to the main street to find a tuk tuk that would take us to the airport. We paid 50,000 LAK = $7.95 CAD to get to the airport.

The Vientiane international terminal is pretty small and old. There wasn’t much there in terms of restaurants or stores. The best food option was probably the Dairy Queen at the departure check in, but once you got past customs, there was not much available and everything was 4 x the price as it would be on the street. We spent some of our last kip at the departure gates on some ice cream bars.

Our flight to Phnom Penh was a code shared flight and operated by Vietnam Airlines. The final destination for the flight was Ho Chi Minh City. It seemed like the majority of passengers were going back to Vietnam. They served a small lunch and gave us drinks. The meal was a salad, Vietnamese deli (mystery) meat, and a piece of cake. The flight to Phnom Penh was an hour and 10 minutes, which went by pretty quickly.

We arrived at Phnom Penh’s airport and it was quite modern. Once we got down to the arrivals area, customs officers directed passengers who required visas to fill out visa application forms. We lined up and got our visas and paid $30 USD each (same rate for all countries if you’re entering on a tourist visa). Tim paid for both our visas and gave the custom’s officer $100 USD. The custom’s officer only gave him back $30 USD and Tim firmly asked for the other $10. You could tell from the officer’s expression that he didn’t accidentally forget the extra $10. Welcome to Cambodia! We purposely flew into Phnom Penh over Siem Reap because we read that the customs officers aren’t as corrupt as the ones in Siem Reap. For the most part we didn’t have any trouble and weren’t asked for bribes of any sort while getting our visa.

Once we got our bags we walked outside to where all the drivers with signs were waiting. We saw Tim’s name and went with the driver from the hotel. The hotel offered the same rate as what we read a taxi would cost from the airport so it was a no brainer to just be safe and book the car. Our hotel driver came and picked us up in a Lexus RX 300 (SUV) and we realized that particular Lexus is very common in Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh streets are very congested with scooters and a lot of SUVs! It was more reminiscent of Vietnam traffic and we knew while walking around we had to be on high alert again. Tim said we shouldn’t have gone to Laos until the end because it made us “soft”.

After about a 30 minute car ride through lots of traffic, we arrived at our hotel. We’re staying TEAV Boutique Hotel, which is a fairly modern boutique hotel in the middle of the city. We’re paying $45 USD/night, which is a bit discounted for the slow season. The staff came out and greeted us, checked us in while giving us cold cranberry juice and ice cold towels.

We were shown to our room and it was indeed very modern inside. Concrete floors, high ceilings and it smelled like lemongrass oils (the kind you smell when you got to a spa in SE Asia or a Thai spa in Vancouver..so good!). We settled in and planned to just walk around our surrounding area called the “BKK” district of Phnom Penh. BKK is where the majority of hotels are located as well as many restaurants.

We walked to the Independence Monument to take some pictures then made our way into the BKK. We were surprised to see so many foreign based restaurants and coffee shops. There are a lot of Korean and Japanese chains that we recognize. We have also noticed that in Laos and now in Cambodia, there are a lot of signs and plaques with Japanese flags on them thanking them for their contribution. Apparently Japan has invested a lot in Laos and Cambodia’s development (even buses in Vientiane say they were all donated by Japan).

While walking around BKK, we decided to go to Bon Chon for our very late lunch. Bon Chon is a Korean fried chicken restaurant that has locations all around the world. The first time I ever had Korean fried chicken was in New York, probably 10 years ago, and it was from Bon Chon. It was the only restaurant back then to serve it and I was hooked. It was the best fried chicken I’ve ever had and every time I went to visit my sister we always got it delivered. So it definitely bring back a lot of good memories. I wished Vancouver had a Bon Chon. There’s some places downtown that serve Korean fried chicken but it’s not the same.

We ordered garlic fries and a medium combo to share. Prices in Phnom Penh are all in USD. If change is under $1 USD, they give Cambodian Riel back. It’s a bit confusing and I’m not sure why they have to use both. Seeing as prices are quoted in USD, food in Cambodia is probably going to be more expensive compared to Laos and Vietnam. But I suppose going to Bon Chon for our first meal wasn’t exactly a good representation of what prices are like in Phnom Penh.

I haven’t had Bon Chon for a while and it was pretty darn good. It was very juicy and the skin was so crunchy. Being a nicer restaurant in Phnom Penh, the service was really good. It was definitely not a cheap meal by Cambodian standards and since we’ve been in SE Asia for a few week, I felt a bit guilty for having such an expensive meal. Our lunch was $15 USD (how things quickly change from being in Australia).

After Bon Chon, we walked towards a large mall called Aeon Mall (which is a Japanese branded mall). We walked for about 20 minutes and finally got there. It doesn’t seem like many people walk in Phnom Penh. There weren’t many tourists or locals walking. I guess everyone is in a tuk tuk.

Aeon Mall Phnom Penh is huge and it’s really nice. The mall is celebrating its 2 year anniversary so it explains why it looks so new and pristine. There’s a large department store with a supermarket on the bottom level (Japanese style), a movie theatre, a great selection of restaurants, and a bunch of pretty good clothing stores (like Mango from Spain).

We walked around the mall to see what options we had for a light dinner and ended up eating at Pepper Lunch. It’s a casual Japanese restaurant that has locations all around Asia and North America (including Vancouver). Pepper Lunch seemed like a very popular place amongst locals. We shared a beef and egg on rice combo. It was pretty good. The Pepper Lunch in Richmond has been opened for a couple of years now and I haven’t even been to that one yet!

After Pepper Lunch, we went downstairs to the supermarket to browse around. Tim bought a few Cambodian beers and I got a bag of green basil Lays chips. Prices are still fairly cheap, just not as cheap as Vietnam. We walked back to the hotel to plan out our day tomorrow, catch up on blogging, and watch TV shows (Tim couldn’t wait to watch Game of Thrones).

We’re in for an emotionally heavy day tomorrow as we plan on visiting the killing fields and learning more about Khmer Rouge.

Steps today: 15,000