Around the middle of the afternoon, the bus arrived in Phnom Penh where we were greeted by about 50 guys offering their taxi or tuk tuk services. I took a few minutes for everyone to get off as these touts had literally swarmed the bus. I was seated up the back, so I was one of the last off. While I was waiting, I had a chat through the open window with one of the touts outside.

"Where are you going? Let me take you there. Real cheap. $2 - any hotel. I know good hotels. You like ladies? I know good ladies too. I can get you ladies and hotel. Ok? Good? Ok?" etc...

I finally got off the bus and picked up my bag. The tout I had talked to had worked his way through the crowd and met me on the other side of the bus.

"Come on. Let's go to hotel and ladies!"

"No thanks", I said.

"Come on. I know a good hotel. Real cheap!"

"Sorry, I'm ok", I said. "But that woman over there told me she's looking for a hotel and taxi", I said, pointing to another woman who had got off the bus.

"Oh, thanks man!", the guy said, running off to the woman I pointed at (if you're reading this, sorry...). I can't believe that actually worked.

As I worked my way out of the crowd, I noticed that the Japanese stalker family (see my last post) had organised a taxi and were leaving for wherever they were headed.

Anyway, I knew my hotel was about 15 minutes walk away and I'd spent all day on the bus so I felt like a walk. Phnom Penh is quite easy to navigate around. There aren't many tall buildings and most of the streets are parallel, so as long as you know which direction is which, it's pretty hard to get lost.

The city itself is pretty exotic. There is a lot of French architecture, so at times it feels like you're walking through a dirty part of Paris, but it also has a distinct colonial feel. It's a little more modern than Siem Riep, but it has a slightly rougher atmosphere. While Siem Riep felt perfectly safe, Phnom Penh made me a little more wary of keeping my money and valuables safe. Particularly at night, when I was wandering around the streets in the dark, I felt it was better that I didn't take my camera with me. Oh yeah, at night Phnom Penh is a very dark city. There are very few street lights, and even in the main bar and restaurant areas most of the lighting comes from inside the shops and restaurants.



So, I headed off towards my hotel, getting a feel for the Phnom Penh street life. Along the way I saw the only really modern building in town (the US embassy compound), the only hill in town (which has a temple on top of it) and did my best to avoid getting hit by crazy bike and car drivers. I had a bit of an 'oh, oh, i think I made a big mistake...' moment when I arrived at my hotel only to find it wasn't my hotel (I was booked into the Cara Hotel, but had been walking towards the Sara Hotel), but was relieved to find that I hadn't made a mistake and the Cara Hotel was actually another 100m up the road.

I arrived at the hotel ready to check in, but had to wait while the group before me checked in. The group before me was... the Japanese stalker family. Somehow they had known where I would be staying and had decided to follow me. Sly bastards...

I unpacked, had a quick shower and decided to talk a walk around the city. Before I left the hotel I talked to the lady at the front desk about getting a Vietnamese visa (actually, this was the main reason I was staying in Phnom Penh). She said she could get it done, and could have it ready for my by the next evening. Perfect. I explained that I didn't have a passport photo (I'd used my last one in Siem Riep), and she said that was fine.

"Are you sure I don't need one?"

"Yeah, it's fine."

"Really? I don't need a photo?"

"It's fine. No problem."

So, I went back to my room to get my passport for her to copy. I handed over the $40 or so and signed a form.

"So, where is your photo?"

"What?"

"You need a photo."

"Huh? You said I don't need a photo."

"Oh no. You need a photo."

Hmm. She called up the travel agent who was going to get the visa and the agent said that it would cost an extra 2 bucks without a photo.

I left the hotel and wandered around the town. There's really not that much to see in PP, but one interesting place was the main market in the middle of town. It is set up in a big domed building that kind of reminds me of a train station without the trains. The most interesting thing about it for me was that it had a kind of Russian feel. I've never been to Russia, so I don't know what Russian markets are really like, but the feeling I get from what I've seen in photos and books is the same feeling I had when I went to this place. It was a big building, but big in a kind of over the top way, and it was decorated but at the same time felt stark. Strangely, even thought it was very hot both outside and inside it had a kind of cold feeling. That's kind of what I imagine Russia to be like - big, stark and cold.



After wandering around the centre of town for a while I decided to drop in at what is, as far as I can tell, the only shopping centre in town. You know how in most cities there is one shopping centre that only the richest of the rich can afford to shop at. Well, this was it. And yet, it was the sort of shopping centre that would probably be considered the 'dirty, poor people's shopping centre' in other cities like Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur. I guess that gives you an idea of how poor Cambodia is.

I was hungry, and as I was getting tired of rice/noodle style dishes I decided to get a meal at 'the' Cambodian fast food chain on the top floor. The burger that I got had a picture of a chicken on the wrapper, but inside it was fish. It tasted ok though.

After the meal I decided to head back to the hotel. As I left the shopping centre I almost walked striaght into a group of tourists heading into the shopping centre. Among the group was... the Japanese stalker family. Again! How did they find me?

Back at the hotel I had a nap and at around 8:30pm I started getting hungry. I was tired, really tired, but managed to drag myself out of bed and go down to the hotel restaurant. It turns out the restaurant was a Japanese restaurant, and Japanese food was literally the last thing in the world I wanted to eat. I mean, I live there, so why would I go to Cambodia and eat Japanese food. However, I was hungry and tired, so I caved in and had a bowl of noodles. Unsurprisingly, the only other group in the restaurant was the Japanese stalker family.

After dinner I did a little planning for the next day. I only had one full day in PP, as I had booked a bus to Vietnam the morning after next. I wanted to visit PPs two main attractions, the killing fields and the prison museum, but the killing fields were a fair way out of town and I was suffering from a bit of a mid-trip motivational slump. I decided to sleep on it and see how I felt the next day. That night, despite the rain outside and the disco music playing from the club next door, I had a pretty good night sleep.

The next morning I woke up, had breakfast in the restaurant (where I was again seated next to the Japanese stalker family - yes, it was starting to get ridiculous...) and thought about what I wanted to do that day. I wanted to see the killing fields, but I was still suffering from a bit of a couldn't be bothered attitude, so I decided to pack my camera and book and head out without a plan. I ended up walking for about 45 mins from the north part of town (where my hotel was), right through the middle of town, past the palace and down to the riverside.

While I was having a break by the riverside a tuk tuk drive came up and started a conversation with me. He did all the usual things, where are you from, where are you going, I really want to study English, I can take you around town for a good price etc.

He seemed like a nice guy, and the great weather and morning walk had helped get rid of my motivation problem, so I hired him to take me to the killing fields and then on to the prison museum. I jumped in the back of his tuk tuk and we took off. Along the way he pointed out a few places and gave a bit of a tour guide speech, but I was just happy to sit in the back of the tuk tuk and enjoy the great weather and watch the world pass by. It was about half an hour to the killing fields, and it was a great ride. I got to see lots of PP, and lots of Cambodians going about their daily business. I managed to take some random photos along the way.





We arrived at the killing fields and the driver dropped me off and went to wait with the other drivers. I bought a ticket and walked around the fields. I'm not really sure what to say about that place. It's a solemn place. Lots of people were massacred there and there are lots of displays detailing the history of what happened. I had already read about what happened so I knew what to expect, but it was still worth a visit. I guess the most surprising thing about the place was that it really isn't that big. I expected the 'Killing Fields' to be... well... fields. Really, it's more of a killing paddock. You can walk around the whole place in just a few minutes. There isn't really much more I can say, so I'll show some pictures.

There is a big structure filled with skulls of the victims.


If you look closely you can see the axe and hammer marks in the skulls from when the victims were killed.

There are signs all over the place describing various aspects of the massacre.


These depressions in the ground were the mass graves.



Read the signs...


After the walking around the fields I went back find my tuk tuk driver.

"What's next?", he asked. "Wanna go shoot some guns?".

Near the killing fields there is a gun range where you can try shooting various types of guns. The Lonely Planet talks about it, though it does say that it is a kind of inconsiderate thing to do after visiting the killing fields. Although Lonely Planet does generally tend to take a self-righteous (ie. lame) view of travel experiences like this, I have to admit, as much as I wanted to go fire a bazooka or two, it just didn't seem to be the right thing to do after visiting the fields. So, I surpressed my natural masculine desire to shoot things (it could wait until Vietnam) and went off to the Tuol Sleng Prison Museum instead.

The musuem was back in town, so it took about half an hour to get there. We arrived, and I told my driver I wouldn't need him anymore. He gave me his card and told me to ask for him if I was ever back in town.

The prison was originally a school that was taken over by the Khmer Rouge and used to house political prisoners before they were sent off to be killed. You can walk through most parts of the museum/prison and see what it was like back when it was being used. Most of the rooms are untouched, and there are lots of displays detailing the atrocities. Like the killing fields, there isn't really much I can say, so I'll post some photos.

This is one of the cells. You can still see dried blood on the floor of many cells.


This is a photo taken of a dead prisoner when the prison was liberated.



Some roughly constructed cells.


This is by far the most moving part of the museum. The Khmer Rouge took pictures of all the people who were sent off to be executed. There are noticeboards filled with pictures of the executed men and women. This noticeboard has pictures of some of the children that were sent to be executed. You have to wonder what these kids did to deserve being executed.

After the museum I walked to the nearby 'Russian Market' (a different one to the one I talked about before). It was a large covered, sprawling market with extremely narrow passage ways and it was hot. Very hot. I couldn't imagine working in there day after day. It kind of reminded me of when I went into my grandparents shed as child. It was hot, dark and filled with lots of weird stuff. Oh yeah, I ran into the Japanese stalker family there too.

I had lunch across the road and then headed back to my hotel (which was an hour or so walk away). By the time I got there I was hot and tired, so I rested for the rest of the afternoon. In the evening I picked up my passport and Vietnam visa at the front desk, then went out to get something to eat. I ended up walking to the waterfront area, which is the main restaurant/backpacker area. It's much quieter than backpacker areas in other cities, but there is also a wild (and seedy) atmosphere in the air. It's the kind of place where if you wanted to sample some drugs or try out a bit of child prostiution, you probably wouldn't have to look too hard. I ended up at a backpacker bar/restaurant and had a meal of meat pie and chips (damn it was good...). I love pies and you just can't get anything like them in Japan. I do cook them sometimes, but having one cooked for you is completely different.

After dinner I went back to the hotel and crashed. In the morning a shuttle bus came to pick me up. The Japanese stalker family was checking out at the same time too, but, amazingly, thet weren't coming with me to Vietnam. After being on the same bus, the same hotel, meeting in the same restaurants and randomly running into each other about 3 or 4 times around town, I finally rid myself of the stalker family. Now that I think about it, they probably went back to Japan and told their friends about 'the stalker white-guy' that followed them around Cambodia.

On the shuttle bus I had a chat with a girl who was doing pretty much the same trip as me (Malaysia to Vietnam). Turns out she was a Pom who is living and working in Melbourne. Small world, eh? The shuttle bus took us to the main bus to Vietnam. The bus conductor took all our passports as we boarded, checked for visas, then the bus left. After a couple of hours and a river crossing on a ferry we arrived at the border town.


The bus dropped everyone off to have lunch while the conductor organised out passage through the border. Many people weren't interested in eating at the place we were dropped off, so lots of people were just hanging around the bus looking bored. Once again I ignored the 'don't eat mysterious fruit in SE Asia' rule and got some great pineapple at a little stall across the road. The family running the stall seemed surprised and amused that I was eating at their stall and not the restaurant the bus stopped at. I walked around the border town a little, but I wasn't really sure how long we'd be there so I couldn't walk too far. One thing I did notice was that there were a couple of small casinos being built (or maybe they had already been built - it's kind of hard to tell in Cambodia). I guess there are lots of Vietnamese who come over the border for a spot of gambling.

The entry/exit was all surprisngly well organised. After lunch we were taken to the exit control where everyone was told to get off the bus. Once everyone was off, the control officer, who had stamped everyone's passports while we were eating, called everyone's name one by one. He checked that our face matched the passport photo, and then one by one we got back on the bus. Next was Vietnam entry control. Everyone got off the bus again with their gear and waited while our passports were approved and stamped, then one by one we were called out and put back on the bus. All in all it was pretty smooth, and before I knew it we were in Vietnam.

Where I live, neatly summarised in one picture: