Pnow in Phnom Penh

I’ve made it to Phnom Penh. I took a boat from Siem Reap down Tonle Sap, which was interesting. It was a very leisurely trip with most of the passengers on the top deck the entire time. Almost the entire length of the trip had elevated homes (shacks) on the water. Almost everyone who lives there fishes for a living. From what I saw, everyone fishes, including men, women and children.

Phnom Penh itself is unlike any city I’ve been to on my trip. I’ve been to poor countries before, but none had major cities in them (Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and East Timor). The power here goes out several times a day. One major intersection I was at today had no working traffic lights. There are few if any stores as you would find in most cities (even Siem Reap had convenience stores). Even the “nice” parts of town aren’t that nice compared to cities like Manila or Jakarta.

There is a definite French influence here. I have read that in the early 20th Century, Phnom Penh was the nicest city in all of SE Asia. I can believe it. The street naming scheme is almost, but not quite logical. The names of some of the streets are odd. One is named after Charles de Gaulle (makes sense, former French colony), one after Mao, one after Yugoslavia’s Tito. It is like they were trying to suck up to countries in the 60s and 70s and just never renamed the streets.

The city is pretty cheap. I can stay in a room with a bathroom (and hot water) for $10/night. A meal is $2.50 and I’m sure I could go cheaper if I really wanted.

Tomorrow I’ll be getting my visa for Vietnam and visiting the Killing Fields and the genocide museum. The guesthouse I’m staying at shows the movie The Killing Fields every night, which gets to be a bit much.

I don’t plan on staying here for too long. I’ll probably head to Saigon as soon as my visa is approved.

1 thought on “Pnow in Phnom Penh”

  1. When our group was exiting the Killing Fields a little girl that was maybe 7 or 8 chased our TukTuk down for money. She had clamped her hand onto the vehicle's bar and kept pace with us for a good 50 yards. We were going maybe 10-15 mph. She would NOT let go until we had offered her some money. It was so sad I was in near tears. We struggled to get our wallets out from our backpacks and when we finally pulled out some bills she had to let loose or else she would have been dragged. Her face as we drove away was so unforgettable. She stood still in the middle of the road staring at us with the most surrendered face. PP was an eye opener… complete humbling experience for me. Hope you are enjoying and learning from it.

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