Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is one of the most bizarre places I've ever been. It truly is a 'Wild West' kind of town that revolves around girls, guns, and ganja. Needless to say I like the place... a lot.

My bus arrived in the center of town at the Capitol Tours travel agency about half four. The building was three stories high with an open air cafe on the ground floor and apartment rooms for rent on the top two stories. I went upstairs to scope out a room, but it looked like a dump.

Back down on the street with my backpack that has become heavy with knick knacks, I hailed a cyclo, a Cambodian three wheeled taxi, to take me to a lakeside guest house that was recommended by Dan, a guy from my jungle trek in Laos.


The lakeside road

The cyclo took me to Guest House Number 9 just north of downtown. The rooms and the atmosphere were much better due to the enormous westward deck overlooking the lake, so I booked a room. As I was checking in and carrying my bags around, a young guy asked me if I needed a big bag of grass.

After the initial shock and double take, I went into my room, took a shower, and made it back out to the deck just in time to watch the sunset over the lake as fishermen paddled by with their days catch.


Sunset over the lake

Later I walked around the corner from my guest house into an area that caters to backpackers with several CD/DVD shops and a wide variety of restaurants along with other guest houses.

I opted for Indian Curry because the sign outside boasted a free beer with your meal. My knowledge of Indian food was absolute nil, so I didn't understand a single item on the menu. Luckily, they offered a set meal for about $3 (with a free beer). It was delicious, and I even taught them how to make candle holders using used water bottles, so the candles on the tables would be safe from all the fans twirling over head.

The next day I woke up very early( about 5am). For some reason I couldn't sleep.

I rolled out of bed about 6am, took a shower, ate breakfast on the patio by the lake, and organized for a scooter driver named Tom, a very soft spoken guy, to give me a tour of the city for $5.

I hoped on the back of Tom's scooter and away we went into the streets of Phnom Penh.

The first place he took me was the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda. It was early in the morning, so there were very few people. The weather was absolutely perfect; without a cloud in the sky, and it actually seemed cool.


Silver Pagoda


Royal Palace grounds

No words can describe the beauty of this place. The architecture and colors were very similar to the Grand Palace in Bangkok, but the atmosphere was much more relaxed. Not to mention the stupas that jutted upwards into the big bright blue sky.


Roof top stupa





My next move was something I would normally never do. Maybe it was because I'd just left Vietnam and needed to blow off some steam, or maybe it was because I'd just finished reading The Beach, whose main character Richard romanticizes the Vietnam War through movies, or maybe it was because it was available. I don't known why, but I fired thirty rounds from an AK-47.

My driver, Tom, took me about 20km outside the city limits to what he called a commando base. Basically, it was a Cambodian army base where they had a firing range for people who want to shoot guns for fun.

As soon as I got off the scooter, a man approached me with a full menu of guns with prices and number of rounds along the right-hand side. It had everything you'd ever want to shoot. Machine guns, hand guns, and even artillery rifles.


Guns to chose from


Or would you rather try a handgun?

I chose and AK-47 for reasons unknown to me. The man then led me into a dark, long, narrow, sound proof room, and set up the AK with a full clip on a shoulder high stand. He then told me if I paid him $5 more dollars, under the table, he'd take pictures of me while I shot the gun. I agreed and started counting out money. I'm not sure how much I gave him, but I think it was more like $3.50. ( He later told me for $400 you can shoot a cow with a rocket launcher!)


Me & my AK



After finishing the clip which also depleted the funds I'd allotted myself for the day, I needed to go and cash a travelers check. The Phnom Penh International Airport was nearby but a little out of the way, but Tom took me there without a second thought. On the way down the main road, we passed a group of about 50 factory workers striking for higher wages. They were waving to all the passer-bys and chanting something I didn't understand.

After getting my money at the airport and starting to head back in the direction we'd come from, a police flat bed truck loaded with officers in the back dressed in army fatigues and full riot gear (AK-47s included) passed us. Tom wisely decided we should pull over and have a cold drink in order to avoid any disturbances that might ensue.

We waited for about 30min then decided to take an optional route when we saw another truck loaded with even more officers drive by. The optional route we took ended up putting us back out on the main road at precisely the place where the protesters and police had met. Fortunately, nothing was happening. It was just a stand off as we cruised by and took the corner.


Protesters stopped by the police

With that behind us, Tom took me to the Killing Fields in Choeung Ek (only about 15km south west of Phnom Penh), and my knowledge of Cambodian history got a sudden wake up call. Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine people were so sadistic.


The Killing Fields

The Killing Fields is a mass burial ground for countless numbers of Cambodian artists, teachers, monks, and a few foreigners who opposed the rule of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge during the late Seventies.

The first thing I saw when I entered the grounds was the Memorial Stupa packed with over 8000 skulls, arranged by sex and age, of the people that were exhumed from the mass communal graves scattered around like sand pits around a golf green.


Memorial Stupa filled with skulls


One of many mass graves

There were fragments of human bones and clothes littered around the site, and even a sign on one big tree where children were bashed to save ammunition.


Read the sign

To make things even worse, many young children from a village that was a stones throw away came and offered to guide me around the outskirts of the field in exchange for a dollar. They spoke several different languages and were all smiley kids that just wanted to play games or entertain me. Anything for a dollar to share.


Playful little girls from a nearby village



Feeling very speechless and a bit morose, Tom and I headed back into town. On the way a huge rain storm blew in that completely drenched us on the road.

Tom took me to a great restaurant called the Boddhi Tree opposite the Tuol Sleng Museum (aka S-21). When I entered the restaurant soaking wet, the staff looked genuinely surprised and gave me a towel to dry off. Then when they realized how wet I really was, one waiter gave me his dress shirt from under the counter to wear until my shirt dried off.

I ate lunch and noticed on the menu that the restaurant was established to give down and out street kids a place of employment. It occurred to me the guy who gave me his shirt was probably an orphan whose parents were killed at the Killing Fields. He told me to go across the street to the S-21 Museum wearing his shirt and I could come back to collect by dry clothes afterwards.


Gates of Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21)

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum was almost more shocking than the Killing Fields. It was originally a High School, but under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge they transformed it into a massive prison used for torturing captives before shipping them off to the Killing Fields.

Some classrooms were used for detaining only one prisoner strapped to a bed. In each of these classrooms there were black and white pictures depicting what had happened. Mind numbingly awful.


Bed and instruments used for torture

Other classrooms were converted into many tiny cubicles using brick or wood; just enough space for one person to lie down lengthwise.


Classrooms made into solitary confinement cells


Faces of children detained

Outside in what used to be the playground, there were some elements of torture. Like how they strung people up to the chin-up bar for interrogation.

I couldn't take any more that day, so I asked Tom to please take me back to the guest house. We made it back just in time for another spectacular sunset over the lake, and then I ate dinner and watched a couple movies on the deck before going to sleep.


Another sunset over the lake

The next day I slept in. By the time I woke up, Tom was busy driving someone else around, so I got another driver to take me to Wat Phnom. It was interesting to see, but what was more interesting were the many land mine victims scouring about asking tourist for money and the big elephant grazing in the courtyard.

Next I went to the National Museum just next to the Royal Palace. The museum was very well displayed with many treasures from the Angkor Era of Cambodian history, and strangely not crowded at all. I almost had the place to my self.


Courtyard at the National Museum


Inside the museum

My driver then took me the Russian Market for lunch. To my knowledge, the only reason it's called the Russian Market because it's located on Russia Street. There's nothing Russian about the inside packed with more Asian knick knacks, t-shirts, and lots and lots of junk.

Last but not least, I went to get a massage from the 'Seeing Hands'. The massage parlor, located on the round-about circling Wat Phnom, is operated by blind Cambodians who can't find work in the normal workforce. All the proceeds from their business goes to helping other blind Cambodians.

That night, after yet another sunset, I went to another restaurant near my guest house called the Lazy Gecko. I had an excellent Khmer curry with chicken that was very similar to a Thai green curry.

Afterwards, I went to a bar in the center of town called Heart of Darkness. This place was completely off the wall.


Heart of Darkness

A majority of the clientele were backpackers and travelers, but there was a large percentage of young local females perusing around. After talking with a few people I figured out the girls were actually employed by the bar to 'entertain' guests. They were talking and dancing with anyone that looked at them. A few even had a monopoly on the pool table.

Total shock came when I looked across the bar and saw two girls that couldn't have been more than 13 years old drinking beer and chatting with the bartender. I could only assume they were there to attract any pedophiles in the pub, but Gary Glitter was absent that night.

After being shocked and chagrined and making friends with a 42 year old drunk Irishman on vacation that wanted to offer me a job, I finally made my way out of the Heart of Darkness and back to my guest house for a few hours of sleep.

Early the next morning I caught a bus to Siem Riep to visit the temples of Angkor Wat.