Phnom Penh, Cambodia
This is my second full day in Phnom Penh, the capitol city of Cambodia. I arrived on Sunday evening on a flight from Beijing which took about 5 hours total, including a stop for about 40 minutes in Guangzhou to reload on chicken feet. At least that's why I think we stopped. I am a bit overwhelmed so let me see where I can begin.
It's really hot. Like, Africa hot. When I arrived at the hostel the first night my glasses were fogged from the humidity. It is pretty much sunny all the time, though for a few moments the clouds pass and cast blessed shade upon the city. It is the first time in recent memory that it has been so hot that I find myself walking from shade to shade. People stash themselves wherever they can during the day, the small shade of a tree, a lamppost, just about anything. I am drinking water constantly and I think staying hydrated but it is hard to tell when you are sweating all the time.
I don't even really know how to characterize the city. It's really poor and totally chaotic. It's not really a city in which one can walk, not so much because of the distances though the heat is definitely a factor, but most sidewalks are on the destroyed side if they exist. The roads vary. Major ones are paved, but many are not. Buildings also range from new to a more bombed out look. Hopefully the pictures I took will do it some justice but at the moment I still lack the ability to verbalize what I'm seeing. The main form of transport is motorbike. There are a couple of other choices but there aren't really taxis that are cars except for from the airport. There are also tuk-tuks where are kind of like rolling chairs attached to motorbikes. Those are for tourists pretty much. There's occasional variations that are bicycle rickshaws instead of motorbike, but the streets are pretty much clogged with things like that. The traffic is nowhere near as bad as Beijing though the driving style is equally insane. There are minimal traffic lights and people often drive down the wrong side of the road, especially on the motos as they are called.
The hostel is really great. The people are very friendly and they have an amazing menu so food has been no problem at all. They have a lot of vegetarian Cambodian food and a lot of Western food as well including hummus! I couldn't believe that one. It was pretty good too, though I first had two different Cambodian dishes, one of which was a kind of Thai-style curry noodle soup with vegetables and another stir-fry with tofu and curry. The food is similar to Thai but the spices are different in a complicated way that I could not begin to decipher. There is a vegetarian restaurant in town I'd like to try, but the moto drivers have a varying degree of English at their command and my Khmer is still limited to a handful of words like 'hello' and 'thank you.' so giving directions isn't the easiest thing in the world. Anyway, my room is very comfortable. They have rooms with fan and then rooms with air-conditioning, the former which is $8 per night and the latter which is $22 per night I think. I went with the fan which was totally fine the first night, though last night the power went out which I guess happens periodically around here so it got a little steamy. It was still out when I left this morning but hopefully will be fixed by the time I return. Both rooms come with complimentary mosquito net by the way, which I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed. Maybe I'll get one for my apartment in New York.
Anyway, I'm kind of blown away but adjusting a bit to the hectic and intense nature of it all. I went to a few sights in town, like the Royal Palace and the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum which I'm not going to write about now but suffice to say it was among the most horrifying things I've ever seen, though I'm glad I went. This morning I visited a place called Wat Phnom, a giant Buddhist temple in a park with a large Cambodian crowd milling about and relaxing. There are monkeys hanging out in the park. That's right, monkeys. I also saw an elephant who apparently is there for rides, but he was on break and looking for shade like everyone else.
Last thing to say is that a lot of people are constantly trying to sell things to foreigners or offer them motos, tuk-tuks, rides to the Killing Fields, and other things and it is a bit relentless. You can't really sit still without someone approaching you, at least not for very long. Walking down the streets though I do see many people who just smile and wave and say hello. The vendors seem to be concentrated around tourist spots, though walking down any street I get asked at least 5-10 times per block if I need a ride somewhere. The predominant currency for tourists is USD btw, which I thought was interesting. They do have their own currency, the Riel, but even the Chinese tourists and even Cambodians are buying things in US dollars. This is convenient in a way I suppose, though they don't take coins which means the default price for anything you buy is 1USD and rarely less. Change is paid in Riel.
Anyway, everything is ok and this has been quite an intense dive into Southeast Asia though to an extent I expected it even if I didn't know exactly what it would be like. I'm pretty sure tomorrow I'm going to go to Siem Reap and visit Angkor Wat the next day, or for sunset if I make it in time. I haven't decided on the boat or bus up in that direction, apparently the boat is expensive since it is so touristy and the views aren't all that great anyway. I may be better off just taking a slow boat along some scenic route later on in Myanmar or Laos or something like that. I will as always procrastinate and decide that later.
It's really hot. Like, Africa hot. When I arrived at the hostel the first night my glasses were fogged from the humidity. It is pretty much sunny all the time, though for a few moments the clouds pass and cast blessed shade upon the city. It is the first time in recent memory that it has been so hot that I find myself walking from shade to shade. People stash themselves wherever they can during the day, the small shade of a tree, a lamppost, just about anything. I am drinking water constantly and I think staying hydrated but it is hard to tell when you are sweating all the time.
I don't even really know how to characterize the city. It's really poor and totally chaotic. It's not really a city in which one can walk, not so much because of the distances though the heat is definitely a factor, but most sidewalks are on the destroyed side if they exist. The roads vary. Major ones are paved, but many are not. Buildings also range from new to a more bombed out look. Hopefully the pictures I took will do it some justice but at the moment I still lack the ability to verbalize what I'm seeing. The main form of transport is motorbike. There are a couple of other choices but there aren't really taxis that are cars except for from the airport. There are also tuk-tuks where are kind of like rolling chairs attached to motorbikes. Those are for tourists pretty much. There's occasional variations that are bicycle rickshaws instead of motorbike, but the streets are pretty much clogged with things like that. The traffic is nowhere near as bad as Beijing though the driving style is equally insane. There are minimal traffic lights and people often drive down the wrong side of the road, especially on the motos as they are called.
The hostel is really great. The people are very friendly and they have an amazing menu so food has been no problem at all. They have a lot of vegetarian Cambodian food and a lot of Western food as well including hummus! I couldn't believe that one. It was pretty good too, though I first had two different Cambodian dishes, one of which was a kind of Thai-style curry noodle soup with vegetables and another stir-fry with tofu and curry. The food is similar to Thai but the spices are different in a complicated way that I could not begin to decipher. There is a vegetarian restaurant in town I'd like to try, but the moto drivers have a varying degree of English at their command and my Khmer is still limited to a handful of words like 'hello' and 'thank you.' so giving directions isn't the easiest thing in the world. Anyway, my room is very comfortable. They have rooms with fan and then rooms with air-conditioning, the former which is $8 per night and the latter which is $22 per night I think. I went with the fan which was totally fine the first night, though last night the power went out which I guess happens periodically around here so it got a little steamy. It was still out when I left this morning but hopefully will be fixed by the time I return. Both rooms come with complimentary mosquito net by the way, which I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed. Maybe I'll get one for my apartment in New York.
Anyway, I'm kind of blown away but adjusting a bit to the hectic and intense nature of it all. I went to a few sights in town, like the Royal Palace and the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum which I'm not going to write about now but suffice to say it was among the most horrifying things I've ever seen, though I'm glad I went. This morning I visited a place called Wat Phnom, a giant Buddhist temple in a park with a large Cambodian crowd milling about and relaxing. There are monkeys hanging out in the park. That's right, monkeys. I also saw an elephant who apparently is there for rides, but he was on break and looking for shade like everyone else.
Last thing to say is that a lot of people are constantly trying to sell things to foreigners or offer them motos, tuk-tuks, rides to the Killing Fields, and other things and it is a bit relentless. You can't really sit still without someone approaching you, at least not for very long. Walking down the streets though I do see many people who just smile and wave and say hello. The vendors seem to be concentrated around tourist spots, though walking down any street I get asked at least 5-10 times per block if I need a ride somewhere. The predominant currency for tourists is USD btw, which I thought was interesting. They do have their own currency, the Riel, but even the Chinese tourists and even Cambodians are buying things in US dollars. This is convenient in a way I suppose, though they don't take coins which means the default price for anything you buy is 1USD and rarely less. Change is paid in Riel.
Anyway, everything is ok and this has been quite an intense dive into Southeast Asia though to an extent I expected it even if I didn't know exactly what it would be like. I'm pretty sure tomorrow I'm going to go to Siem Reap and visit Angkor Wat the next day, or for sunset if I make it in time. I haven't decided on the boat or bus up in that direction, apparently the boat is expensive since it is so touristy and the views aren't all that great anyway. I may be better off just taking a slow boat along some scenic route later on in Myanmar or Laos or something like that. I will as always procrastinate and decide that later.
posted by Dan at 9:55 PM
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