CAMBODIA I: WEIRD PHNOM PENH AND MY FIRST TUK TUK

Grandma has left. I think that I am missing her a little bit. One more night mum and I stayed at the same hotel by the airport. It is great: there is children´s area with heaps of toys and they come to pick us up and drive us back to the airport. Which they did in the morning again. I think I am more often on a plane than in a car. This time it fortunately took not even two hours and there we were. In Cambodia.

Based on the experience from Vietnam mum was worried that we were going to be stuck at the immigration for ages, but we didn´t. I guess it makes a big difference when you actually bother a bit and have everything ready (in this case a photo and 30 USD for each of us). From the airport we took a tuk tuk. My first tuk tuk ever. I don´t understand why we don´t take tuk tuks all the time. They are great – you can see everything, you can wave on everybody… easily my favourite mean of transport. I think I am going to tell dad that I want one in New Zealand.

Couchsurfing which mum organized for us was my big debut as well. You might be asking what the reason for sleeping on someone´s couch is in the country where you can get even the best hotel for a few dollars. I guess mum wanted something authentic again. To make the long story short: “Green Tram”, how our host called himself, we never met and the next two nights we spent in a hotel. Well done, mum.

I found Phnom Penh significantly weird. But mum said that for Asian countries it is quite typical that skyscrapers stand right next to run down shanties, fancy boutiques next to stalls where (truly genuine) Ray-Bans are sold for two dollars, and luxurious restaurants next to street cookeries, where you can dine like a king for a dollar… but still.

Have I already mentioned that it was hot in Malaysia? Well, in Cambodia it is hot as hell. By the time we finished exploring the Royal Palace we were soaking in sweat.

The walk along the Tonle Sap River, which is basically an arm of the grand Mekong River, was superb. Mum and I were sitting among the mountains of clothes drying in the sun and we were watching locals doing their washing, bathing and cleaning their teeth in that dark brown water in the middle of the city. I also saw a few ramshackle boats parked at the bank and I think people actually lived there. Phew, it is good that mum hasn´t run out of money yet and we can still sleep in a normal bed.

In the evening we went to the Night Market (there mum bought herself those sunnies for two dollars – not Ray Bans though but Gucci are not too bad either), where we grabbed delicious noodle soup and ate it on a map on the ground like locals.

I think that if I was a little bit older and understood what it was about we wouldn´t have gone where we went the next day. But because I was not older and I didn´t really understand what was going on we went to the Tuol Sleng genocide museum and then to the place which is called Choeung Ek and which everybody calls the “killing field”. These places made me very sad, but I also think that everybody should know about them and that we have to speak about things, right?

They say that it will take Cambodia at least one more century to get over what happened there in 70´s. I know that mum and I can´t change much, but at least we visited the Daughters of Cambodia center, had a nice coffee and bought nice little shoes, which are too small for me anyway. The Center helps women, who used to support themselves by the world´s oldest profession, so I think it was a good thing to spend some time (and money) there.

I am off to bed now. In the morning we are carrying on. Mum wants to see some temples apparently.

Your Annie

Some facts

When: 29. 6. - 2. 7. 2017 Where: Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) - Phnom Penh (Cambodia) How: plane, tuk tuk

How long: 55 min. + 1 hr. How far: 1 040 + 10 = 1 050 km