Phnom Penh: History and Culture

I arrived after quite the layover in Singapore but was renewed by my curiosity. Visa was easy even though I didn't have all the "required" documents. And I bought a SIM card and data plan for 5 dollars, and caught a tuk tuk into the city. I was meant to text the boys when I landed, but couldn't seem to get that part of my phone working. Luckily enough Robert was super tall and I spotted Jim easily. We enjoyed a breakfast of pork, rice, and eggs followed by coffee with Bailey's and some yummy Belgian abbey ale. Then after catching up on life we headed to the market for some noodle soup and so Scott and Robert could show me some things and buy their veggies and meat for the week. The iced coffee I had was sugary, but so delicious.

The best part about Scott and Roberts house is the large open air balcony. I could sit up there for hours as long as there was a breeze. So we grabbed some beers and did just that. Robert managed to call and book a ticket for the following morning for me to get to Siem Reap. 

balcony!

We headed to the Royal Palace and stopped on the way to pick up my bus ticket. After I had it in my hand (13 dollars for an 8 hour ride) we stopped for some beers and to split a pizza before heading to the greenery by the palace for sunset. 

This was of course accompanied by a bottle of wine and chats with local monks about Cambodian schooling and cultures. I couldn't get over the beauty of the birds flying around the palace, the community of people hanging out, and the general splendor of being in nature.

We took a tuk-tuk home, drank some water and did some more chatting before heading to bed early. Overall I had an excellent first day.

I spent most of the rest of my time traveling, but came back to Phnom Penh for the last 2 days. One of those days I walked with Scott to pay the electric bill. It was quite the journey, but this is sort of my favorite way to experience the culture of the city. Afterwards we went to see the White Building because I had read some interesting articles about its demolition and felt like this was a necessary stop. On the way home we made a quick stop at the russian market to get ingredients to make dinner. 

The White Building

We ended up have a BBQ night and just relaxing, followed by an early bed time.

The next day was my touristy day. I hired a tuk-tuk driver for 20 dollars for the whole day. He took me first to The Killing Fields, which is exactly as its name suggests. This is the place where the Khmer Rouge soldiers took victims to mass murder them. I highly recommend going even though it was depressing. Absolutely worth the money to learn more about the history. They will give you a little audio player that is filled with information and stories from survivors and executioners. I had to pause a moment to cry at the baby mass grave as I listened about how the executioners would beat the babies against the tree to kill them before tossing them in the grave pile. I also had to fast forward through a portion of the miracle tree story. This is where they hung speakers to play music to drown out the screams of death. When they started playing the music I nearly lost it thinking about how this is exactly the opposite purpose of music.

The mass grave for children

Memorial for those who died. If you look closely you can see all the skulls and bones inside.

Once I finished here I was driven to the genocide museum, a high school that was converted into a torture camp in its previous life. Here I saw the cells and torture devices used, as well as many pictures of those that died. I was ready to move away from the whole death thing, so I headed to the royal palace.

On arrival I realized I was inappropriately dressed since I was wearing shorts. I was going to cost me extra to rent shorts and I didn't really fancy spending 10 dollars (plus cost of cover up) to see lots of pretty things, so I skipped it and headed to the national museum. This was also a huge bore, filled with statues that had been taken from the Angkor Wat temple I had seen previously in the week. Maybe I'm just not one for museums. I finished off the day with some beers and lunch along the riverfront.

I headed back to the apartment stopping to pick up some items for dinner on the way. Robert made butter chicken that night and after chilling for awhile Scott and I went garbage hunting for more items to add to their garden. It was quite the blast of a last night. I woke up fairly early to pack up and make my long journey (only because of the layover) home. I was sad to say goodbye to my boys. But I'm starting to become more convinced that we will just always manage to see each other. Connected for a lifetime.