Two Weeks in Phnom Penh

We spent two weeks in Phnom Penh Cambodia. The hotel was awesome- we spent a lot of time at the very nice gym and even better pool. We also spent a lot of time wandering around. Every time we went out we discovered a new neighborhood which was great fun. The only problem was that Phnom Penh is the least walkable city I have ever been in. There are not a lot of sidewalks and even when we did find sidewalks we had to constantly watch out for motos. There seems to be a traffic hierarchy where motos yield to cars and pedestrians yield to everything, everywhere. I was standing on the sidewalk and I got honked at by a Moto driver and we have, on multiple occasions, almost been run over on the sidewalks when motos sneak up behind us or come around corners quickly. There are occasionally cross walks but they are a deceiving trick as no one even slows down if there are pedestrians in the crosswalks.

Every time we left our hotel within seconds at least one, often more, tuk-tuk driver would wave us down asking if we wanted a tuk-tuk. When we said no, they would simply nod their heads, point to their tuk-tuk and say “yes”. Initially we thought this was a ploy to get us to ride, but the longer we were there the more we realized that it was just blowing their mind that we would want to walk anywhere- no one walks, and walking is dangerous and difficult, so they didn’t understand why we would turn down a ride.

We did occasionally take one up on their offer for a ride and we went down to the riverside, the royal palace, silver pagoda, Russian market and central market. We spent St. Patrick’s day in Phnom Penh and managed to find an Irish pub (because everyone loves an Irish pub) and green beer!

We actually had a really awesome, really random experience- way back in Costa Rica we started our Instagram account. We posted a whole bunch of pictures and used all kinds of hashtags. We got a lot of followers from Costa Rica and people visiting Costa Rica. One of these followers was a girl named Carolyn. Her and her husband arrived in Costa Rica a few days after us and we proceeded to visit all the same places at different times. We were so close to meeting but never did. We have continued to follow each other for several months. She moved to Japan (she is in the Air Force) and has been visiting Southeast Asia for the last few months. She was just in Vietnam and we were hoping to finally meet up there. Unfortunately, we just missed each other again (she left about a week before we were planning on being there) fortunately she was spend in one night in Phnom Penh while we were there, so we met up with her and her husband Josh. We had a great evening chatting about our various traveling experiences. It was really nice to meet them and just such a random meet up.

We visited the royal palace and the silver pagoda which was a huge, well manicured and very beautiful property. Once again, we needed shirts with sleeves and pants long enough to cover our knees- fortunately this time I came prepared. No scarf for me, this time I wore an actual shirt!

The markets were very cool. Anything you could possibly want was available at the market, from knockoff soccer jerseys and designer clothes to fresh chicken, fish or beef to jewelry, toiletries and fresh fruits and vegetables, you just had to dig a little. We had a great time wandering around the central market which was very open and spacious and had good airflow.

The Russian market was a little stuffier, but still very cool! We had a really tasty lunch at one of the stalls in the central market. I had a great noodle dish, Nick had chicken and rice and it cost $3. The best part was that Nick said he was actually full, something that just doesn’t happen much here.

While visiting Phnom Pehn we became much more familiar with a part of Cambodian history that i had previously only known a little about: the Khmer Rouge regime. Their goal was to take Cambodia back to “year zero”, modern technology and advancements were shunned. Millions of people died during the Khmer Rouge regime through torture and execution, starvation and labor camps. Those who were educated, artistic, or ex-pats were especially targeted. It cost the country a lot in terms of their culture, as a lot of the cultural leaders, skilled artisans and masters of their traditional dances and martial arts were killed. It really set the country back and there is still a long ways to go to come back from the damage that the regime did. There is a lot of poverty and even in the cleaned up, white washed touristy parts of the city where it seems that the poverty is kind of brushed under the rug, the poverty is still apparent when kids come up and beg for food at restaurants. It was a very tough thing to see and we often went home from restaurants with really conflicted feelings. We definitely felt like people looked at us and just saw dollar signs, another disconcerting feeling.