We were full of anticipation heading to the tour office to pick up Rav’s passport with the extension fixed so we can leave Vietnam to join up with the tour (that we had booked and paid for in advance before leaving Canada) that is now two days ahead….
When we got to the tour office they informed us that they could not pick up the passport that day, but it will be ready the following day at 1:00 pm. Needless to say I was livid and so was Rav. We both sat there in full frustration and voiced our discontentment in both languages to deaf ears. I got on the phone with their manager, who assured us the day before that we would be getting the passport back this night. I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with him and all of the yelling that I did, could not get the passport to us that evening. Since we had booked a bus to Phnom Penh at 6:00 am the next morning, we were pretty much screwed…..
There was not much we could do this night to resolve the problem, so we left the tour office with a sick feeling in our stomachs, as the uncertainty of our departure from Vietman was still up in the air. The hotel that we were currently staying at was way beyond our budget and now it was too late to cancel the bus ride as they required a 24 hr notice. It was not a comfortable night as we both were unsure what was to become of the prepaid tour that we had booked and a tour that was now half done already. We felt there was no cause in trying to catch up with the tour as we would surely miss all of Phnom Penh and part of the time in Angkor Wat.
To make the best of the situation, we told ourselves that maybe we were meant to travel through Cambodia on our own. We decided to put all of these mishaps aside for now and to deal with the travel agency when we get back home in the summer. So we spent more days in Saigon then we had planned to but made the best out of the situations we were placed in and decided to book another bus ticket to Phnom Penh…
We finally arrived in Phnom Penh after a long 7 hour bus ride, with some hassle at the Vietnam/Cambodia border, regarding the two different exiting dates in Rav’s passport. After much explanation we were allowed to cross. The bus ride was extremely bumpy and the differences between Vietnam and Cambodia was quite noticeable rather quickly. The streets were much dirtier, the buses were much more crowded, people were sitting on the tops of buses and trucks, the houses were a lot more run down, there was way more garbage everywhere, more beggars (both children and adults) on the streets, and the Tuk Tuk and motorbike drives were extremely aggressive and demanding.
So we reached Phnom Penh with no place to stay, no sense of the city, and not being able to speak the local language which all made us feel a little bit scared. However, we managed to find a comfortable place to stay among the locals away from the back packers/touristy area with the help of two young ladies from the Phillipines who were on our bus. We stayed at the Ankor Bright for $15 US a night. In general we found everything in Phnom Penh to be more expensive than that of Vietnam and of a lesser quality as well.
So we spent a couple of days wandering around town and taking in sites such as the Killing Fields, the Royal Palace, a local Wat, and just trying to get away from the Tuk Tuk drivers and the beggars.
The Killing Fields was about 15 km outside of Phnom Penh, and we got a tuk tuk guy down from an extremely high $22 US to an amazing $4 US return – talk about trying to pull one over on us. They can really get you if you are not careful. There is not much left to the killing fields now, except for the craters that are left behind from the many mass graves that once housed the innocent people whom were killed by the Khemer Rouge. These atrocities were worse than that carried forth by Hitler during his genocide of the Jewish people and ended up costing 20,000 lives and all of them innocent deaths. There is a monument built in remembrance to all those who lost their lives during this period. Skulls and bones were stacked 4 stories high in this monument. Although disturbing to see, it was no where near the honor that once resided within this vicinity. Throughout the exhibit different signs would tell of horrible acts of cruelty to women and children. Such exhibits included the “Killing Tree” which was a large tree which was used to torture children up against and the “Music Tree” was a tree which they hung a microphone off of which played loud music so that it would drown out the moans and groans of those being killed. It was not a pleasant place to visit, but one that we both wanted to visit for its historical purpose.
It was a quiet ride back into town as thoughts of what might of happened there were still fresh in our thoughts.
We got dropped off at the Royal Palace, where we waited for a couple of hours before it reopened at 2:00 pm. It seems that everything was closed between 12:00 and 2:00 as banks, shops, and government offices were closed. We found refuge at a nearby restaurant along the river which would be the equivalent to our “Robson” and waited until the Palace reopened.
The Royal Palace was a grand complex with numerous buildings built like temples and shrines. Not all of the Palace complex was open for viewing, but some of the more magnificent buildings were open to the public. One in particular housed the sacred Jade Buddha where no photography was allowed. It was not a bad way to spend a couple of hours but the sun was so hot that even in the shade we found it to be overwhelming.
We decided to continue on foot to a nearby Wat (temple) we had seen the night before as we went looking for food. It was quite a ways away, but we managed to find it after stumbling through the back packer part of town (a nice little stretch along the river). It was good to see, as we had not seen too many tourists up until that point and were starting to wonder where they all were.
The Wat turned out be a dud, looked better at night, and so we wandered home stopping once to pick up some lotus flowers to eat… yup, just like the locals do…
We had a wonderful dinner that night, and packed as we were off to Siem Reap the following day at 7:00 am.
Hope all is well with everyone, and that some of you are reading this…
To those whom have responded to our emails, we will try to respond as soon as possible, as our time in Cambodia is limited and the internet here is costly and not that reliable (no surprise there).
Thinking of you all…
1 comment:
holly molly these are just wonderful and beautiful and the stories accompanied by these pictures are to be more than desired! I'm so happy to see this dream come true to you guys! ~ Love Priscilla N.
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