[Andymon]

RETURN TO PHNOM PENH:

Friday morning after breakfast I went across the street for another legit $6 massage. I then hired a motodop (motorcycle taxi in Cambo) to take me around PP and started out at the Tuol Sleng Genocide (S-21) prison. This is a former high school that was turned into a torture and detention center by the Khmer Rouge during the 70’s. Thousands of men, women children and foreigners were tortured and interrogated here before being sent to the killing fields. For the most part it’s been left the way it was found….with blood stains on the floor, piles of clothing and rows of photographs of the prisoners that passed through. Very sobering place….I spent about 45 minutes and then left.

I then headed over to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda but changed my mind when I saw the large crowds of tour groups at the admission booth….I also wasn’t appropriately dressed (shorts and t-shirt), so headed over to the National Museum close by. The museum houses a lot of the statues that had previously been looted from the Angkor Temples and will soon be returned to Siem Reap to the new National Museum currently under construction up there. Spent about an hour at the museum and then had my motodop driver take me for a cruise along the river front road before heading back to the hotel.

While riding around I noted that PP is a very dirty city. There are piles of trash filled plastic bags along the curbs and litter everywhere. There is a lot of dust and dirt in the streets and several of the side streets are full of potholes or are just dirt roads. I would estimate that about a third of the population wears a surgical mask or scarf when outside due to the dust and air pollution. I did see one cleanup crew of women picking up litter, but that was near the water front tourist area.

Even though they just passed several new traffic laws….no one observes any traffic laws.... and driving is a free for all. If you have a larger vehicle than the other guy you have the right of way….and if your horn doesn’t work….stay off the road. They drive on the right side of the road in Cambo and I found the way they make left turns to be very interesting. No one likes to come to a complete stop, even if there is a traffic light…and there’s not many of those. When approaching an intersection and want to go left you turn before the intersection and travel along the left curb facing oncoming traffic and then when you see an opening you cross over to the right side, completing your left turn without stopping. The only good thing is that due to the busy streets the average speed is in the 20 to 25 mph range so most accidents are of the fender bender type….of which I saw two.

Friday night was bar hopping night. I started across the street from the hotel at the Shanghai Club for happy hour with an expat American guy who hangs out at Flamingos a lot. Shanghai’s is not a large bar but it does have an outside patio and does get pretty crowded later on. The hostesses all wear numbers and I would estimate that there were around 15 to 20 girls there. Most of the girls are very cute and petite (some are Vietnamese) and most spoke pretty good English. Not all girls are available for take out so ask early before spending a lot on lady drinks. My friend was going to take me around to other bars but by 8:30 he was pretty wasted….so I left him there and headed out on my own.

The bars in PP are situated in small groups through out the city so you need transportation. I grabbed a motodop outside and asked if he knew where the Sugar Shack was. He assured me he knew (same same Thailand) so off we went and after going to at least 3 other bars that began with an “S”, and asking directions from other drivers at each stop, we finally found it 15 minutes later, about a block back from the riverfront. One of the BM’s hangs out there so I was going to look him up and buy him a drink but unfortunately he wasn’t around (sorry Sultan). The Sugar Shack is fairly small and there were only a couple of girls there so I had a beer and left.

My friend from Flamingos had mentioned the Martini Club so I grabbed another motodop to take me there (my original driver had left). I soon found out that Martini’s was way on the other side of town and started to get a little worried when he turned down what appeared to be a dirt road, but that was where it was located. Going in the entry I was “patted down” by a guard/bouncer….which didn’t help my comfort level any. Martinis is a large club separated into two areas. There’s a large bar and table seating area with a 120 inch movie screen on the wall and then through a door is the disco.

The girls here all appeared to be freelancers and I watched a lot of young cute girls coming and going from the disco. Sat at the bar and talked to a few of the girls but didn’t really hit it off with any of them…. and felt kind of uneasy being there by myself. I had a couple of beers and then decided I’d feel better staying closer to my hotel, so grabbed another motodop to take me to the Walkabout bar/hotel which is located around the corner, about a block from Flamingos.

The place was packed and pretty much standing room only at the bar. It wasn’t long before a pretty little Khmer girl came over and started a conversation. It was getting late and I wanted to take her home, but she said she would only do short time upstairs. As I hadn’t really been laid in a few days I followed her upstairs for a fun $20 short time.

Woke up late the next morning (Saturday) and took a motodop over to the central marketplace to do a little shopping. It’s a huge domed indoor building (built in 1935) surrounded my numerous outdoor stalls and even has food court areas where you can sit and dine on your favorite insect. There’s clothing, jewelry, electronics, gift and grocery sections and I wandered around for an hour or so picking up t-shirts and souvenirs.

That night I had a few beers over at Shanghai and then went back to Flamingos for a few more before heading to bed, as I had an early flight out in the morning to Phuket via Bangkok.



Overall, I’m glad I made the trip to Cambodia…..but it’s not my cup of tea.

On the plus side: The Khmer people are very friendly, the girls are cute and it’s a lot cheaper than Thailand….and the Angkor Temples were amazing.

On the negative side: Traffic is insane, its very dusty and dirty, the bars are scattered throughout the city, and it’s a very flat country with not much in the way of scenery. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it down to the beaches at Sihanoukville which I’ve heard are pretty nice….and if I do go back to Cambo in the future, that’s where I would like to go.

More photo's:

38) The gallows at Tuol Sleng prison...previously the kids swing set
39) A few of the many photo's of those who passed thru S-21 prison
40) Central marketplace
41) Mum, one of the bartenders at Flamingo's
42) Sunset over Phnom Penh
43) You can do it...just don't film it
44) I heard Tin Tin was in Cambo....heres proof ( spotted on t-shirt at central market)