Trip Report: Day 5 Phnom Penh
The itinerary for the day had been planned out; we would start with the the Royal Palace followed by the Tuol Sleng Museum and the Killing Fields. The last stop before returning to our guesthouse would be the Russian Market which was something like Ben Thanh Market in Saigon.
We stepped out of our guesthouse at 8.40am and I thought that the tuk-tuk driver whom we had a deal yesterday would have left by then. Well he was still waiting there for us and after confirmation of the price and our itinerary we proceeded on to the Royal Palace.
Entrance was expensive at 6 usd as most of the places in the palace compound were out of bounds for the visitors. We were cheapskate and tried to listen to the tour guides explaining to other tourists. Couldn't really figure out much so we just went on a tour by ourselves.
The palace is super grand. All the buildings had really intricate carvings and the one which stood out got to be the Silver Pagoda. The entire floor was made up of silver and the amount of precious metals used to make all those exhibits were impressive. It was hard to link the former splendour of the Kingdom to the abject poverty visible everywhere in Phnom Penh. The kids who were selling things outside the palace probably could never imagine how opulent their royal family were.
We got kinda bored walking around the palace until we discovered a hill with Buddha statues. Risking the wrath of Buddha, we imitated the statues to our own amusement. An elderly uncle was so inspired by us that he followed suit as well.
In order to understand the modern history of Cambodia, visiting the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng Museum is a must. Fearing that our appetites could be spoilt, we decided to have a brunch along the riverside before visiting the Killing Fields which is situated 17km away from Phnom Penh.
The entrance fee cost 3 usd and the landmark of the place is a stupa which contains bones that were dug out from the mass graves there. The atmosphere of the place was eerie; the fact that thousands died there would give anybody an uncomfortable feeling.
There were many holes which used to be mass graves. The information available at the place were not really informative; it made us wanting to find out more about what exactly happened. S21 or the Tuol Sleng Museum would help to fill in some of the gaps when we visited it later.
Tuol Sleng Museum was located inside Phnom Penh and cost us 3 usd each at the entrance. It had the same desolate and eerie feeling as the Killing Fields. It used to be a secondary school before it was turned into the headquarters of S21, the special branch of the Khmer Rouge government.
Many innocent people were tortured into confessions for non-existent crimes in the cells there before being transported to the Killing Fields for execution. Like the Killing Fields, it is a place which only can be visited once. The impact was so great on us that we hardly talked during our visit and tried our best to make sense of the sufferings that the Cambodians had been through.
The killings were senseless and the effects brought on by them could still be felt in Cambodia. The genocide almost wiped out the entire intellectual class; many of those who survived sought refuge in other countries after Khmer Rouge was ousted. The disastrous period had set the country back at least 20 years in terms of development.
It had been all heavy stuff since our brunch and we just browsed through the Russian Market. The tuk-tuk driver dropped us at the Soraya Shopping Plaza which seems to be the nicest shopping mall in Phnom Penh. It wasn't a bad day for him as we paid him 13 usd for his service from almost 9am to 3pm.
HT and I tried the fast food from Lucky Seven. Over our tea, we started to chat about whether we would like to visit Phnom Penh again. It has been a city of contrasts; there are so many Lexuses on the roads but many people still lived in poverty. The tuk-tuk drivers were really getting on our nerves whenever we were on the streets. Overall, the Cambodian capital is really a depressing place for us; I'm unlikely to return there anytime soon.
The supermarket in the shopping mall was well-stocked but the prices weren't cheap as they were in quoted in dollar. Since most of the manufactured goods are imported from either Thailand or Vietnam, the cost of living is higher in Cambodia despite the lower incomes of the people. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why the standard of living remains so low; there are little industries and Cambodia is still mainly an agricultural country. The money are concentrated in the hands of a few powerful people and the poor are generally left to fend for themselves.
Dinner was at the riverfront again. There were kids who tried to sell us books on Cambodian history and we bought the books from a cute girl who is only 10 years old. Her English is not bad and she must be overjoyed with the sales that she got from us. There was this boy who wouldn't give up and followed us for a few blocks trying to sell us some books. In the end he received no business from us but I was sure that he had a good time playing with us.
Public transport is a buyers' market in Phnom Penh. The supply of tuk-tuks and motorcycles far outstrips the demand. If the drivers did not accept our price, there would always be the next one who was willing to take our fare. All of the trips that we took around town cost a dollar each.
When we reached the entrance of Nice Guesthouse at 10pm, the shutters had already been pulled down and we needed to wake the caretaker up. Phnom Penh wasn't really the safest of cities indeed. As we would be leaving for Siem Reap the next morning, we settled our bill before we went back to our room. A night's stay cost 11usd; Phnom Penh would turn out to be our cheapest stop for the trip.
We stepped out of our guesthouse at 8.40am and I thought that the tuk-tuk driver whom we had a deal yesterday would have left by then. Well he was still waiting there for us and after confirmation of the price and our itinerary we proceeded on to the Royal Palace.
Entrance was expensive at 6 usd as most of the places in the palace compound were out of bounds for the visitors. We were cheapskate and tried to listen to the tour guides explaining to other tourists. Couldn't really figure out much so we just went on a tour by ourselves.
The palace is super grand. All the buildings had really intricate carvings and the one which stood out got to be the Silver Pagoda. The entire floor was made up of silver and the amount of precious metals used to make all those exhibits were impressive. It was hard to link the former splendour of the Kingdom to the abject poverty visible everywhere in Phnom Penh. The kids who were selling things outside the palace probably could never imagine how opulent their royal family were.
We got kinda bored walking around the palace until we discovered a hill with Buddha statues. Risking the wrath of Buddha, we imitated the statues to our own amusement. An elderly uncle was so inspired by us that he followed suit as well.
In order to understand the modern history of Cambodia, visiting the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng Museum is a must. Fearing that our appetites could be spoilt, we decided to have a brunch along the riverside before visiting the Killing Fields which is situated 17km away from Phnom Penh.
The entrance fee cost 3 usd and the landmark of the place is a stupa which contains bones that were dug out from the mass graves there. The atmosphere of the place was eerie; the fact that thousands died there would give anybody an uncomfortable feeling.
There were many holes which used to be mass graves. The information available at the place were not really informative; it made us wanting to find out more about what exactly happened. S21 or the Tuol Sleng Museum would help to fill in some of the gaps when we visited it later.
Tuol Sleng Museum was located inside Phnom Penh and cost us 3 usd each at the entrance. It had the same desolate and eerie feeling as the Killing Fields. It used to be a secondary school before it was turned into the headquarters of S21, the special branch of the Khmer Rouge government.
Many innocent people were tortured into confessions for non-existent crimes in the cells there before being transported to the Killing Fields for execution. Like the Killing Fields, it is a place which only can be visited once. The impact was so great on us that we hardly talked during our visit and tried our best to make sense of the sufferings that the Cambodians had been through.
The killings were senseless and the effects brought on by them could still be felt in Cambodia. The genocide almost wiped out the entire intellectual class; many of those who survived sought refuge in other countries after Khmer Rouge was ousted. The disastrous period had set the country back at least 20 years in terms of development.
It had been all heavy stuff since our brunch and we just browsed through the Russian Market. The tuk-tuk driver dropped us at the Soraya Shopping Plaza which seems to be the nicest shopping mall in Phnom Penh. It wasn't a bad day for him as we paid him 13 usd for his service from almost 9am to 3pm.
HT and I tried the fast food from Lucky Seven. Over our tea, we started to chat about whether we would like to visit Phnom Penh again. It has been a city of contrasts; there are so many Lexuses on the roads but many people still lived in poverty. The tuk-tuk drivers were really getting on our nerves whenever we were on the streets. Overall, the Cambodian capital is really a depressing place for us; I'm unlikely to return there anytime soon.
The supermarket in the shopping mall was well-stocked but the prices weren't cheap as they were in quoted in dollar. Since most of the manufactured goods are imported from either Thailand or Vietnam, the cost of living is higher in Cambodia despite the lower incomes of the people. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why the standard of living remains so low; there are little industries and Cambodia is still mainly an agricultural country. The money are concentrated in the hands of a few powerful people and the poor are generally left to fend for themselves.
Dinner was at the riverfront again. There were kids who tried to sell us books on Cambodian history and we bought the books from a cute girl who is only 10 years old. Her English is not bad and she must be overjoyed with the sales that she got from us. There was this boy who wouldn't give up and followed us for a few blocks trying to sell us some books. In the end he received no business from us but I was sure that he had a good time playing with us.
Public transport is a buyers' market in Phnom Penh. The supply of tuk-tuks and motorcycles far outstrips the demand. If the drivers did not accept our price, there would always be the next one who was willing to take our fare. All of the trips that we took around town cost a dollar each.
When we reached the entrance of Nice Guesthouse at 10pm, the shutters had already been pulled down and we needed to wake the caretaker up. Phnom Penh wasn't really the safest of cities indeed. As we would be leaving for Siem Reap the next morning, we settled our bill before we went back to our room. A night's stay cost 11usd; Phnom Penh would turn out to be our cheapest stop for the trip.
posted by shyh jie at 5:21 PM
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