We weaved through the city streets and then ended up at a different guest house where the owner asked me if i would see his rooms. This is a common trick among tuk drivers who are on commission at these guest houses. I took a look but the rooms were quite frankly small, damp and expensive for what they were - 15 USD a night !!
Finally, after i moaned, the driver took me to the 'Spring Guest House' where i initially requested to be taken to.
The rooms here were basic but very clean with air-con, cable TV, lovely staff and only USD 10 a night !!...
I set out exploring the area and dropped into a restaurant for lunch. I noticed that in the area in which I was staying, there were a lot of Chinese Cambodians, who ran most of the businesses such as restaurants and guest houses.
I later read there are large populations of ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese in Phnom Penh & Cambodia as a whole.
One resto was full of locals, so i popped in. This meal of fish and pork with rice and 2 beers came in at USD 4.50 (about GBP 2.81).
There's not a huge amount to see in this city during the day....
I was informed that one of my close cousin's might be joining me for a few days if his visa came through, so I left the 'Killing Fields of Choeung Ek' and the museum at the Khmer Rouge's infamous detention centre S-21 till the end of the week.
There's a central market selling mostly clothes, mobiles and jewellery which wasn't that impressive :
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There's the 'Russian Market' which was better..we came across a stall with a very young shop assistant...(actually this wasn't an example of child labour, it was the owner's daughter who had just woken up).. :)
..and the Royal Palace, which was quite nice, but expensive at USD 6 per ticket (for a foreigner) ..
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...the King and Queen's costumes..
The main area with the bars and restos is on the riverside (by the banks of the Mekong River).
One of the most famous is the 'Foreign Correspondents Club' which was where the journalists used to hang out during the war...
I dropped into another bar there called the 'Riverside Bistro' and got talking to the manager, a really chilled out English guy named Toby. He'd been living here 3 years and had been in advertising and energy trading in London. I met a number of expats at this bar during the week. Most were working for mining exploration companies from Australia and Canada, as Cambodia apparently has huge amounts of resources in the North East of the country.
During, the evening i noticed that the all-female bar staff were snacking on deep-fried crickets. When they offered me some, i decided i'd stick with the peanuts.. :)
She told us the females were larger and more juicy ?!
As the night wore on, a few of the expats and i went clubbing and they took me to the 'Heart of Darkness'....it even had a figurine of 'Kurtz'...
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A few days later we went to another place called the 'Sharky Bar' which is very popular with expats and tourists alike. This place has everything, from pool tables to live bands and a smattering of bar girls who chase after the tousists...!
Some of the members of the band, looked like left overs from the Vietnam war (see the guitarist on the right)..
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It was only when i started going out in the night with Toby and other expats that i realised what a crazy, hedonistic place Phnom Penh was. Bars close when the last person leaves and I only got back home at 7am twice in bright daylight ! ...Most of the Khmers (ethnic Cambodians) have a mentality of living for today, as i suppose 25 years ago, under the Khmer Rouge, there simply was no tomorrow...
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