It's been too long since my last post...lot's happening in my life, some of which is not really suitable to publish!! I will update the travel blog and finish off Cambodia and do Laos!

Come back soon - more to follow in about a week!

If you have been reading up on my trip through Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, please call back in a week or so. Sebastian has been staying with me and those of you who know me will know that I am devoting my time to him while he is with me! Thanks!

The Bus Ride to Kep

It was time to leave Phnom Penh for a few days. We had been pleasantly surprised by Phnom Penh especially after some of things we had read and heard from other people.It is amazing that a city that suffered so much under terrible conditions for so long could be so vibrant.

We had, as most people do, booked the bus for our next destination at one of the many local tourist travel agencies. We were off to Kep on the coast for a few days. There was only one bus company running on that route and the picture of a shiny new looking bus of the Phnom Penh Sorya Transport Co. on the agency wall was re-assuring. Given that our last experience on a bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh was more than reasonable, we were quietly confident that all would be well on bus ride number 2...hahahaha. The $11 (I think it was that - I lost the ropey bits of paper) round trip cost of the ticket for the nearly 300km journey was more than reasonable and even included pick up from the hotel in a minibus! 

All started well but then doubts emerged as we looked at the ropey pieces of paper that were our tickets. We were dropped off (more like 'dumped') at the chaotic bus station and someone vaguely pointed to the equally chaotic ticket office. We had been told to exchange our ropey looking tickets at the ticket office and to confirm our ride back to PP from Kep. 

Not much talking was done but the ropey bits of paper were exchanged for equally looking ropey bits of paper which were carefully stashed in my money belt. We then pushed our way through the throng of people towards bus 72. It was nowhere near as shiny as the bus in the picture at the travel agency! The sight of someone we found out later was the driver, scrambling around in a compartment loaded with batteries and muttering, was not reassuring. We found out a few minutes later he was in the nerve centre of the less than sophisticated air-conditioning system for the bus. It was a very hot and humid afternoon, the thought of no A/C for the 5 hour journey started to get very unpleasant indeed. I put the bags in an very dusty and well used luggage compartment and hoped that the bags would not fall out through the floor or get soaking wet if we went through a lot of puddles!

We clambered on the bus and sat in our allocated seats which were right above the front wheels which only added to the sense of cramped space for me with my long legs! The bus had obviously seen a bit of action and the signage in Korean around the bus was a pretty obvious clue as to where the bus started off it's illustrious career. It is hard to imagine that it would be economical to ship clapped out buses from Korea to Cambodia for a second life!

We set off about 15 minutes after the scheduled time only to drive for 10 seconds to park across the road! The driver and some of the passengers got off - it was all a bit confusing. We stayed in our seats and began to wonder if we should have forked out $50 for a private car to take us to Kep instead. A few minutes later the bus driver and most of the passengers who got off re-appeared. The driver struggled to get the bus into reverse gear (he had parked to close to a car in front of us) but he finally managed and just as we were finally getting ready to go fro a real, there was a knocking on the door. A tall and very hot back-packer guy (read: very sweaty - he was only "reasonable" looking) wanted to get back on. The driver had told him the wrong time to get back on the bus. We were to later nick-name the young tall back-packer "head-boy" because we imagined he had been one at school, he had that way about him!

We weaved our way out of Phnom Penh amongst the myriad of motorcycles and tuk-tuks. Our driver was a "Knight of the Road" and proceeded to blast his very loud and completely serviceable horn at every opportunity, especially after he had sneaked up on some unsuspecting motorcyclist! The road condition deteriorated badly and quickly even before we had left Phonom Penh and this set the scene for the next 5 hours. Never will I complain about roadworks on British motorways. The Cambodians were trying to upgrade the road while drivers in vehicles of all shapes and sizes ploughed their way right through the roadworks. At times, it looked like the road had disappeared but our driver who obviously drove this route every day, knew every pothole and bump in the nearly non-existent road! 

We tried to watch the world go by, but it was hot, bumpy and almost impossible to read a book. The A/C was just blowing the hot air about, but I guess it was better than nothing. After the first hour, we were more than beginning to see the funny side. The bus we were on was doing it's job, getting us ever closer to Kep and had not yet broken down. The driver seemed to be at one with his bus and he coaxed it along very successfully. The views out of the surprisingly clean windows was an absolute delight. Hundreds of cyclists were scared senseless by our horn hooting driver and some of them ended up in the ditch by the side of the road. Size really does matter in Cambodia and the bus driver knew it only too well! There were though occasions when even he yielded to even bigger and even dodgier looking lorries. There was a momentary lack of concentration by the driver and we narrowly escaped running into the back of pick-up truck that was parked in the middle of the road - the smell of burning rubber and overheated brakes stayed with us for quite a few miles. The driver of course had seen it all before and laughed off this minor incident!

After about 2 hours we stopped for a break in a dusty town. The place was much cleaner than the one we had experienced a few days earlier on the Vietnam/Cambodian border but I was not tempted by any of the food on offer, having a can of Sprite instead!

After about 20 minutes we got back on the bus and the driver and his assistant drove on without seemingly checking to see if everyone was on board! We headed off down an ever improving road towards some gloomy looking storm clouds - would our bags be safe in the compartment beneath us!? The rain started and it cannot have pleased the driver as the windscreen wipers on the bus had not been replaced in ages - using them actually made his visibility worse. He continued, undeterred by this only slightly irritating inconvenience. At least the rain helped cool things down inside the bus!

About 30km from Kep, there was much passenger/bus driver interaction as passengers negotiated their preferred dropping off points. One man agreed his drop off point and then got distracted at the rear of the bus by some young ladies. He missed his stop by about 10 minutes before he realised that he had. The bus stopped next to acres and acres of rice paddies. What looked like pretty relaxed discussions between the driver, the passenger and other 'helpful' passengers ensued. In the time that they took to decide how to resolve this situation, the driver could have turned the bus around, dropped of the guy and continued on our way. But no, the negotiations (it looked negotiating) continued to the point that "Head-boy" could not stand and this tall 24'ish guy started being all head-boyish about the situation. He was of course ignored and went back to his seat with a shrug or two of his broad shoulders. By this point in the journey, we were not upset at all and we wished the man well when a tuk-tuk the drivers assistant had managed to track down appeared. We all waved at him when we finally set off again for Kep. 

The rain had stopped as we approached Kep although the clouds still looked dark and menacing but as it was early evening, that was hardly surprising I suppose! We were met at the bus stop by a number of tuk tuk drivers. We failed to use our now preferred method of picking the best looking driver and ended up with a fairly pushy (and not that good-looking) guy. We had spent 5 hours on the bus and all we wanted was to get to the hotel. We negotiated the fare and set off in a clapped out tukt tuk. Other passengers who got into their tuk tuks after us went flying past us and waved at us happy in knowing we had picked the lemon. Even when the bus passed us on it's way to Kampot the driver blasted his horn and most of the passengers waved and laughed as we crawled up the hill in out 150cc tuk tuk! We left the main road and headed along a dirt road. The rain of early had turned the road into a slippery mess of mud and it was not surprising when the driver indicated he could not take us and our bags to the top of the hill to our hotel. So we got out and watched as our bags were driven up the hill - the driver never came back to collect us and we clambered the last 200 yards up the hill to the hotel. At last we had made it although the driver did not offer us any discount for having to walk the last bit of the ride! He then had the balls to ask if we wanted him to drive us around the next day! We spent the next 3 days trying to avoid him but not always successfully - Kep was not a big place!

Killing Fields Memorial - Phnom Penh

Out of a list of the top 10 things to do in Phnom Penh (as listed in the local city guide), we did 9. The one thing we did not do was to visit the Killing Fields memorial site outside of Phnom Penh. This the site that every single tuk tuk driver asks if you want to visit - all the time, every minute of daylight hours. Their constant touting of this was actually the most disappointing aspect of what was a nice place to visit. This constant asking worried me. Worried me in the sense that such a sacred place would be pushed so hard as a tourist destination. Imagine my horror when I learned that several years ago the site was 'sold' to a Japanese company who now run the place as a tourist attraction and presumably at a profit. Can you imagine the outrage if Auschwitz was run as a commercially operated tourist attraction??! I can understand that the Cambodian government might not be able to maintain the place properly but running the site on a commercial basis is quite upsetting apparently for many Cambodian people. I am glad I did not visit the Killing Fields site and feel that my quite contemplation at S-21 in Phnom Penh was a more appropriate response to an evil period in Cambodia's long and mostly proud history.

Lost for Words

The second day in Phnom Penh started off trying to find a tuk tuk driver for the day. After some interesting bargaining we agreed a route with the driver but refused his offer to go to the Killing Fields site outside of Phnom Penh (more on that later).
The first stop on the tour was a visit to a local market. Cambodia is a poor country but the market seemed well stocked with fresh meat, fish and vegetables. What I don't know though is how many people could afford to shop there despite the bargain prices. Some of the products were brought to market on the back of small motorcycles and mirrored what we had seen in Vietnam!
The latter part of the morning was spent touring the notorious and gruesome S-21 camp - also known as Tuol Sleng. This was a former high school that was adapted by the Pol Pot regime in the 1970's into a detention/torture centre. It was the most sombre place I would visit on the whole tour of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
Over 17,000 men, women and children passed through Tuol Sleng and it is believed less than 10 actually survived. The Pol Pot regime forced confessions out of the poor souls who entered the camp via methods too gruesome to describe here. The site is now a museum and a reminder to all of the horrors of an oppressive and ideologically corrupt system. The torture rooms and tiny cells with shackles were horrific, however, the display of pictures of the occupants (yes, oppressive regimes like to keep records and pictures of their inhuman acts) were the most haunting. Seeing the eyes of some children as young as 5 years old filled with fear and uncertainty was a chilling experience. To imagine that adults would torture and ultimately murder these young souls all because they were the children of some of the camp inmates just defies all comprehension. Tuol Sleng certainly shook me up but I felt compelled to see for myself just how horrific the Pol Pot regime was as it affected all Cambodians in some way and continues to have a profound impact. 1.7 million Cambodians were killed under their own government's regime in the less than 5 years that the Khmer Rouge held total power.
Lunch was a quiet affair and it seemed unreal to be enjoying the surroundings a beautiful cafe garden just 30 yards from buildings that housed unspeakable horrors.
The mood was lightened in the afternoon with a visit to the Central Market (Psar Thmei), housed in one of the grandest market buildings I have ever seen. Again, the market was very well stocked and as busy as the first one. The lady cooking up spiders and scorpions in an oil filled wok refused to let me take a picture of her culinary delights!
The final stop of the day was a visit to the temple that gives Phnom Penh it's name - Wat Phnom. It is an important site for Cambodians and occupies just about the only hill (more of large mound actually) in the city. It is a park with a temple on the top of the hill and it was a relaxing place to be. The short climb to the top (and the ubiquitous foreigners pay ten times more than the locals to get in) was to a rather ramshackle but working temple. The gaudy altars were stacked with fresh flowers and recently lit incense sticks. As with all the temples in Cambodia, there were plenty of people on hand to try and sell you something. The sellers are very persistent and at first their sales efforts to get you to buy things you really don't want need or want get a bit irritating but you soon learn to block them out.
On the way up to the temple I spotted some monkeys wandering around the park. After the look around the temple we went looking for the monkeys and were greeted with an amazing, but a bit sad, sight - an enormously fat monkey. I mean enormous - with a fat, fat belly. It was eating what it could find and even sought out discarded drink cans to drain them of their last drops of sugary liquid. I had never seen such an obese monkey. Given the general poverty if many, it was unlikely that the monkey's welfare would get much attention. Most of the other monkeys in the park appeared to be in much better shape.
Dinner that night was at the 'Foreign Correspondents Club' which was housed in a nice building but not quite as authentic as it would have you believe. It is part of a chain of bars and cafes in a colonial style and charging prices way beyond the reach of most of the local population. I tried a pizza - my first Western food in nearly three weeks. It was OK but I think I would preferred a local curry and the local prices too.
The end of another busy day in Phnom Penh was spent having a final drink in the friendly bar near the hotel. The staff were sad to hear it was our last night in Phnom Penh but we promised to come and have a final final drink there on our one night in Phnom Penh after our trip to Kep on the south coast.

Day Touring Phnom Penh

The hotel was almost in the back garden of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh so it was an obvious first thing to go and see! The sun was shining and the blue sky was peppered with fluffy white clouds.
The first view of the main part of the palace was amazing. Yellow is the colour of royalty in Cambodia and it was a striking sight to see in a large building. The palace was actually built by the French in the 19th century and was modelled on the much bigger Royal Palace complex in Bangkok. The materials used in the construction included marble from Italy so the French would seemed to have favoured the Cambodians more than the Vietnamese!
There was a rather bizarre sight amongst the the striking yellow buildings - a European looking structure that looked like it had been plonked right in the middle of the complex. It was in fact a summer house that Napoleon III had built for his wife on the recently opened Suez Canal. She liked it so much that she had it dismantled, shipped half way around the world and rebuilt in Phnom Penh as 'gift' to the King of Cambodia - what a bizarre gift!
It was a lovely palace to see and I was able to take some pretty pictures in the very favorable weather conditions.
It was hot, very hot and the walk along the Tonle Sap river bank after the Royal Palace tour was probably a mistake! Refreshment was required and gladly taken! After booking some bus tickets and a lunch of noodle soup, the next stop was the National Museum which was a neighbour of the Royal Palace. The building and surrounding gardens were beautiful. The artifacts inside looked quite interesting but there was limited information available and the best thing to do was just enjoy them. The building had a central courtyard and the water garden inside was a beautiful oasis in this dusty hot city.
After the days exertions in the heat a welcome swim in the hotel pool was great.

Weed in Phnom Penh

The hotel was great and it was also in a great location for some of Phnom Penh's sites of interest and restaurants & bars. A short stroll past the National Museum took us into a street full of restaurants, bars and ubiquitous tuk tuk drivers. As soon as tuk tuk driver sees a tourist anywhere he will ask them if they want a tuk tuk - every time, all the time. It was really quite irritating at first but we soon learned the best way to deal with it was to avoid any eye contact and just ignore them. Bless them, some of them would try so hard, come up claiming to be your brother, being curious ('where are you from') and even trying a little dance to impress.

As we looked for somewhere to eat on the first night a number of tuk tuk drivers touted for business and we politely declined and then one in a hushed voice said, "Do you want to buy some cannabis?" and showed us a little plastic bag full of green leaves! We left him as soon as we could!!

Dinner was a 'get to know our surroundings' type meal. We had left it until 8pm or so to eat and for many places in Cambodia this is late. some of the items we tried to order were not available and this was to prove the case in quite a few places we ate at in Cambodia. The food we had was tasty and well presented and looked far better than what we had seen at the bus stop place on the border earlier in the day.

As you might expect in a poor country, the street lighting and the lighting in the restaurants was generally low wattage so the streets were quite dark when we walked back towards the hotel. But despite this, we felt relatively safe walking the streets.

Very near the hotel we passed a friendly looking bar and were soon ushered in by a charming young man. We met some interesting people including a crazy Scot called Joe who had spent the last 11 months running a tourist boat service in the south of the country. He was a real hoot!

The bar was putting on a cabaret show but it did not start until 11pm and I was very tired so by 10:30 we said our good-byes and went back to the hotel

Despite the bed being made of concrete (with a real mattress on top of course!), I had a great night's sleep.