Another long boring bus ride took us to Phnom Penh, home of the S-21 prison museum and the infamous killing fields. As per usual the cambodians spat gak into their little sick bags every 4 seconds and watched the most unfunny improvised sitcom on the bus’ movie screen at 2 billion decibels. Honestly. It’s crap stuff they watch, the sitcom was 3 people in a room making stuff up on the spot with a fixed camera and lasted for an hour. The passengers loved it. I didn’t. I was miserable and pissed off.
We went to the Lakeside area of the city which seemed a good idea at the time but later I’d realise that in the long run, cheap is not necessarily good. The lakeside area does nothing for backpackers in Cambodia but make them hurry off to their next location as soon as possible. There are a lot of narrow streets there, populated mostly by kids selling books carried in baskets around their necks and the most annoying tuk tuk drivers known to man. I may sound harsh because this is a poor country after all but these guys are so god damn annoying and so stupid! There’ll be a whole row of them down the street and they’ll all ask you the same questions, regardless of what you said to the last tuk tuk they saw you pass. “you want tuk tuk?” “tuk tuk?” “smoke?” “opium?” “tuk tuk??” After you pass about 12 of these to get to the main street away from the lakeside there are more waiting for you only here, they crowd around you and argue and undercut each other.
Anyway that’s only half of the annoying things about Phnom Penh. You have to remember that not so long ago, the rule of the Khmer Rouge ruined their country and made it as poor as it is today. Many people struggle here and you can’t blame people for trying to make a living although over here, you see true desperation. Tuk tuk drivers will do anything to make money out of you. On several occassions we agreed on our destinations only to be taken somewhere else and then asked for more money for petrol to take us where we actually wanted to go!
We went out that night with Dave, Laura, Annalise and the two Dutch girls to a cool little restaurant. The food came out one meal at a time and took about 1 and a half hours to all come out which for SE Asia was pretty quick! This is one of the funny things about South East Asia that you quickly get used to, meals never come together if you’re eating out in a group. You get it when it’s ready! It also turned out that night that this girl we knew called Kim (an annoying 19 year old from England) had dengue fever. Unlucky.
Over the next few days we visited the usual sights for the area, including the s21 prison and the killing fields. We were all a bit unsure about the history of the area as no one really talks about it. It only happened 30 years ago where Pol pot started a revolution that ended in 2 million deaths of Cambodians turning friends and family against each other, brainwashing people to kill in the most horrific ways imaginable. We watched a video of how a family struggled through the regime and how a mother lost both her son and daughter. It was all sad to watch and learn about but the worst came when you walked around the museum as they displayed the pictures of the people who were tortured and killed. Some photos were of children as young as 4 or 5. The Kymer Rouge believed that as they were orphans of “criminals” killed under the regime, they would grow up to be dangerous. Very sad stuff. A stark contrast to the wonders of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap to the harsh realities of life after the regime.
We also went to see the Russian markets, where we bought small gifts and nik naks and sat and drank fresh orange juice at one of the restaurants inside. I’ve no idea why it’s called the Russian Markets but they had literally everything.
In no way was Cambodia the most dangerous of places to drive in the world, I’d give that award to India or Vietnam but it’s always amusing when you see scenes like this:
In my final days in Cambodia I said goodbye to two of my good friends I’d travelled with through Laos and Cambodia; the lovely Annalise who was heading off to climb a mountain in India and to the lovely Laura, my first proper friend I met out whilst travelling on my own 
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She was heading back out to Thailand to see her sister. Still, when you say goodbye to someone when you travel, invariably you’ll be saying hello to someone else! In this case it was Al. I had an email from him saying he was staying Lakeside and as it turned out, right next door! He’d made his own little pirate crew during our separated travels so all was well. Our last night in Cambodia was spent at the ‘Heart of Darkness’ A very dark place indeed on the Riverside! Men were outnumbered by cheap easy (very dirty skanky) women about 10 to 1. Whilst Dave was getting lucky with a cute girl we met just hours before, I was stuck with her mentally inbalanced New Yorker rich bitch friend. After I ditched her and the other loons in the Heart of Darkness, I went home for 1 hours of sleep before getting on the bus with Dave to Vietnam! I later found out that Dave didn’t get lucky with the girl after all, thus my boring efforts of talking to her friend were all for nothing!
And so off we went to Vietnam, where I would become lonely, get food poisoning, get harrassed by gay barmen, get lost, become bored and finally get to taste Fanny ice cream (yes, it’s a real ice cream)
If you’d like to see more pictures from the gallery for this blog, head to this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/Andypol/PhnomPenh
