After landing yesterday, I had either experienced a scam or a genuine miscounting of my change. Paid for my tourist visa (USD20), which was processed by a line of 9 seated hard-faced officials. Each official had a job such as checking my passport, stamping the passport, stapling the visa, stamping said vise, you get the drift. They need to cut the hand off the last official - the change giver - as I luckily counted my change while still at the counter. I had only received USD75 back, so queried the 9 'officials' which visa I had gotten, plus how much. I received the 'sorry, thought you were on a business visa' BS and was given the extra 5er.
I stuck up a conversation with a Dubbonian by the name of Hannah.
As we walked outside, we were overcome with mens approaching saying 'tuktuk' and 'ladies, ladies, tuktuk'. We negotiated 9AUD to take us to Sisowath Quay to my accommodation at California 2, where we parted ways. The ride was a... interesting to say the least. Traffic was manic and on par with Vietnam. If you haven't been to either country, just watch any doco on those countries and there'll be sure to mention the crazy traffic. We saw families (including babies) all on the same moped, traffic going against the flow, mopeds going up on the pavement to get ahead - it was madness!
8:00am
After checking in, it was amazing to wash all the grime off accumulated over the last 12 hers. Did I tell you that there was some spew on the end of my hair previously? Yep, that was washed out too :)
10:00am
I had dawdled in the room for over an hour without realising the time. I immediately set out to see where I could walk to in Phnom Penh. I was around the corner from Wat Phnom, which is a Buddhist temple set in a park. For the fee of 1USD, I walked inside the temple (barefoot of course!) and admired the many paintings, Buddha statues and relics.
There were women attempting to sell me a quail from bird cages filled to the brim (almost!) with the little brown birds. I remember I caught one quail as a child by rigging up an ingenious (for a child) trap involving a washing basket, string, stick and bread. They were damn hard to catch.
I sat in the park opposite Wat Phnom to enjoy the cool breeze in the shade and watch the locals play a game, which looks like a cross between badminton (had feathers like a shuttlecock) and soccer (the foot shuttlecock had to be kicked).
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11:00am
Decided to meander the streets some more and ended up along the riverside. Tuktuk, Tuktuk was heard incessantly during my meander, so I crossed the roads of death to walk in peace.
11:30am
Hot and dehydrated, it was a good time to have breakfast/early lunch at International Gastronomique. With a name like that, I was expecting Heaton-style meals. I had my first giant coconut and chose the curry with rice and chicken. My eyes were bigger than my belly, so I struggled to eat the curry and rice. I was cursing the European chick next to me as I envied her baguette with strawberry jam. I was unsure of why she needed several different condiments brought out with the baguette - surely Tabasco and HP sauce don't need to go on it as well?
12:45pm
After a valiant attempt to finish lunch, I conceded defeat and left. The assails of the tuktuk drivers came thick and fast, so I gave them the perfect excuse - I just ate lunch and I need to walk it off!
Found another nice temple called Wat Ounalom, which was free, and invited people inside to reflect and have some peace. I thought it was a great place to have a mid-arvo nap.
1:10pm
An elderly man wearing a fake pink Polo shirt (found out later he was 65) decided to come over and have a yarn as I was leaving Wat Ounalom. He was originally from Nepal, and had moved to the US where he studied, then worked for most of his adult life. He was now travelling around SE Asia as he was made redundant and his family had taken his 600K in savings (his story anyway). He seemed an affable enough guy, so I let him go on a bit, then bid him adieu. As he turned to walk away, I noticed a massive cyst/tumour (?) at the back of his neck. Perhaps he had come to travel in SE Asia before he succumbed to whatever was on his neck.
Walking further down the riverside is the Royal Palace. One needs to be covered up inside so I tried my luck at the local markets. I bought a dark brown trilby hat for USD4 (no haggling) and a 3/4 sleeved black/neon yellow shirt for USD 7(was USD10 but could work on my haggling more).
The royal palace was closed until 2pm, so I wasted some time people watching kids swimming in the Ton le Sap river, kids selling corn and popcorn to attract pigeons and Viet staking ridiculous selfies of themselves. After watching me take a photo of pigeon city, one kid threw some some corn near me, thinking it was a great opportunity to get money out of me. I repeated that I hated pigeons several times, but I don't think he really understood and was upset he wasted the corn on a terrible foreigner.
2:00pm
The royal palace opened with a massive queue. The crappy part about the queue was that it was more of a suggestion, rather than a queue. The moment I started looking in my bag for USD 6 to enter the royal palace, there were about 6 people in front of me when I looked up.
Lo and behold about 20 minutes into wandering around the royal palace grounds was Nepalese pink polo man. He suggested we look at the buildings together, and not getting the old-man-wants-young-girl vibe, we pottered around the different attractions. Being Hindu/Buddhist, he was actually very informative about the different gods and Buddha, and the royal palace became more interesting than if I'd walked around without a guide.
4:00pm
I departed from Nepalese pink polo man around 4pm. In that time, we had explored the royal place, had a refreshing pick-me-up at Dairy Queen, then walked back along the riverside to the port. He had suggested I do a river ride up the Ton le Sap river at sunset to catch the lights. The river ride was USD5, so I booked in for 5:30pm and went back to California 2 to freshen up and relax.
5:30pm
River ride = pleasant enough, made more entertaining by the white guy and three broad, orange haired Cambodian fawning over their mangy terrier, then the white guy. I reckon the bottle of champers helped the white guy, since he didn't know quite what to do with freeloaders. The river itself is brown and murky, with one side of the banks being Phnom Penh and the other side under construction.
6:30pm
The night markets were in full swing, lit up like an 999 yr old's birthday cake. Stalls of clothing, shoes, jewellery, bags and other nik naks were on offer. There was a stage where the local singers come out and sing their emotional hearts out. With no back up dancers and heavy hitting ballads, the singers mainly stood in one spot and sang. I suppose there's no miming when you're standing still.
7:30pm
Back at California 2 where I had rice and chicken for dinner in the bar. It was similar to how my mum would prepare dinner, so I was very relieved I could eat it! Stayed clear away from the sliced cucumber and tomato though. I ended up staying at the bar and watching the entire Italy F1 (Sam should be proud) with:
- North Carolina young man - half Indian, but passes for Mexican over in the States
- Shane (nice older Aussie/Kiwi guy who works there)
- Jim (owner who had great tips for Siam Reap and transport), who goes for San Diego University when the American football is on and shared hot crunchy chips and guacamole
- Aussie-born Cambo who lives in Cambodia and helps his parents with their coffin making business next door to California 2. Apparently there was a party at the coffin shop, which made for great cracks at his expense
- Older American who arrived in the bar with a Combo girl. Unfortunately for her, he was more interested in conversation with us than the girl
11:00pm
Called it a night and went back to the room for some laundry by hand, then sleep :)
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