Phnom Penh, Cambodia

In September 2002, I took a trip to Cambodia. After a few days in Siem Reap, I was ready to take the ferry down the Tonle Sap to Phnom Penh.

The ferry from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh leaves at 6:00 am in theory, so I was up at 5 on my relaxing vacation. As my moto driver had told me the day before, the sleepy road to the water's edge is packed at 6 in the morning. My $25 one-way ticket to Phnom Penh included a taxi ride to the ferry. The taxi driver was one of those that you'll often meet in the third world; he drove too fast and honked the horn at anything anywhere near him. Even people crossing who were clearly going to be off the road by the time we got there got were duly honked at. Down where the road becomes a causeway there were lots of boats pulled up with people gathered all around. It appeared to be where the local housewives bought the night's fresh catch from local fishermen for the day's meals.

When we were finally dumped off, we had to walk a gauntlet of ladies yelling "Mister! You buy bread, cheese? They were all hawking identical offerings of baguettes, Laughing Cow cheese, and bananas. Not so strange, I guess, in a tropical country that was colonized by the French. The whole thing warranted a picture, but "attack the whitie" scenes like that make me tighten up and just want to get out of there. I bought a bunch of thumb-sized bananas, though.

The ferry was a type I'd seen before; it was the same kind that I'd seen carrying people to Tioman, and my Lonely Planet confirmed that they were indeed from Malaysia. Only these were ones that had been decommissioned. I thought perhaps the ferry would make a round trip, but I was told that there are two ferries. One leaves from Phnom Penh and one leaves from Siem Reap every morning, so they cross in the middle and spend the night at the other end. Upon boarding I was motioned to not enter the cabin at the front but walk a narrow ledge to the back to a room over the engine where backpacks were being stored.

Inside, the seats were narrow and three across. The seats in front of you are so close that any 6-footers like the guy next to me will spend the trip with their knees pushed into the seat in front, and the seats do not recline. No fold down table. No life preservers, either. In short, the trip is uncomfortable and it was 5 hours and 15 minutes. There is a TV in the front and speakers all the way down both sides of the aisle. The first 2 hours were Cambodian karaoke, followed by either a sitcom or daytime drama, I couldn't tell. What I could tell from the decibel level of the actors was that yelling passes for acting in Cambodia, and there is nothing worse in my opinion than listening to earsplitting, nonstop yelling in a foreign language. With no room to move for over 5 hours, most people were trying to sleep, but it was no easy task in that situation. I was able to drown it all out with my Walkman, but since it was over the roar of the engine and the yelling from the television, my poor ears got a workout. You are allowed to go up on the roof of the boat, which would be the best place to be in case of accident, but I never made it up there. Finally, we pulled up and docked in Phnom Penh and the fun began.

The pier was a nightmare of "Sir, sir. Where you go? " I'm not sure when I've been so hassled by touts shoving flyers for guest houses in my face and yelling "You need bike?" I pulled out the e-mail from my friend in town I'd printed out. I wanted to reread his suggestions on places to stay. There were so many Cambodians surrounding me, shoving flyers in my face and seeing how many times they could cram the word "sir" into the air that I finally had to look up, glare, and scream "Would you just all shut up? I 'm trying to read this and I can't hear myself think." Believe it or not, it worked. One guy took control, held out his arms, and said "OK. Quiet." I ended up getting on the bike of Bunavhat Mao, the one who had pushed his way past the retaining gates to the ferry and was the first to accost me on the pier. Mister, remember me? I was first. He only wanted 500 riel to take me to my hotel. Mind you, this is 12.5 cents! On the way I got the usual questions as to my name (Do they really care? Would they actually remember it? They never call you by name anyway) where I'm from, and how long I'd be staying. The last question mattered because he wanted to be my driver obviously. No one is going to take 12.5 cents for a ride and then say "Thanks. See you." This was corroborated by the fact that he took up residence in the hotel lobby and waited patiently as I inspected the room and checked in. I had no intention of using him further, though, so I gave double the fare we'd settled on (a quarter). Before he left, though, he gave me his business card, complete with e-mail address(!), and that's how I know his name.

OK, time to see Phnom Penh. Pictured above is Wat Phnom. It marks the legendary founding place of Phnom Penh. There is a free booklet widely available around Phnom Penh called the Phnom Penh Visitors [sic] Guide, and I'll quote its explanation of Wat Phnom. "The legend of the founding of Wat Phnom is tied to the beginnings of Phnom Penh. Legend has it that in 1372 Lady Penh (Ya Penh) fished a floating koki tree out of the river. Inside the tree were four Buddha statues. She built a hill ('phnom' means 'hill' in the Khmer language) and a small temple (wat) at what is now the site of Wat Phnom. Later the surrounding area became known after the hill (Phnom) and its creator (Penh), giving the city its name of Phnom Penh. The current temple was last rebuilt in 1926. The largest stupa contains the remains of King Ponhea Yat (1405-1467) who moved the Khmer capital from Angkor to Phnom Penh in 1422. " So there you have it.

The pagoda at Wat Phnom looks nice from a distance, but don't get too close. Up close it's a pretty tacky lump of gray painted plaster with strings of Christmas lights covering its girth. When I got to the top a pathetic little girl came up with a cage full of small birds and started giving me the hard sell. I mean she was shadowing me so close that I cut a stone lion figure close so that she'd either have to get behind me or walk face first into it. I couldn't figure out for the life of me how she expected me to put a bird in my suitcase and take it back to Japan. Later, my friend told me that the idea was to buy a bird and then let it fly away for good luck. Silly me. At the bottom of the hill are tethered elephants available for rides.

Norodom Boulevard dead-ends into Wat Phnom, and I took the above picture standing in the middle of it, hoping I wouldn't get run over by a taxi or hit by a moto. If you turn around and go south from there, you'll eventually come to the Independence Monument, located at the corner of Norodom and Sihanouk Boulevards. Here's how the Visitors Guide introduces it: "The Independence Monument was inaugurated in 1958 to celebrate Cambodia's independence from foreign rule. It now serves as a monument to Cambodia's war dead. At night the Monument is very tastefully illuminated by red, blue, and white floodlights-the colors of the Cambodian flag. It is the site of celebrations and services on holidays such as Independence Day and Constitution Day."

Phnom Penh is not the garden spot of the universe, but with its tree-lined boulevards, there was one thought that recurred to me as I walked around it, namely, "Why couldn't the French have colonized Tokyo?"

All streets, both north-south and east-west, are numbered in Phnom Penh. This is Street 110. I took this picture from the second floor open corridor of the Cathay Hotel, where I stayed before I went to Vietnam. If you walk down to the corner there where the boulevard with the trees in the median begins, that's Norodom Blvd. You will see Wat Phnom if you look right. The Independence Monument is several blocks down if you turn left. In short, this is what central Phnom Penh looks like.

I was only in Phnom Penh for about 3 days, so I'm not exactly what you'd call an authority. Still, I can give you my basic impression, and that's that it has somewhat of a Wild West atmosphere to it and it's pretty well known for its nightlife. What "nightlife" means is that there are some bars and discos, most notably Martini's, the Heart of Darkness, and Sharky's, that are full of Western men and young Cambodian "working girls." Cambodian women are very conservative, do not drink (not even the bar girls), and would not be caught in the above places unless it was their workplace. Consequently, you can bet that the little sexpots playing pool in Sharky's are not there to blow off a little steam with their girlfriends after 5:00 - they're for sale. Liquor, girls, and drugs all seem to be plentiful and cheap, so if you had a mind to indulge your self-destructive side on a budget, Phnom Penh would certainly be a place to do it.

I find markets to be one of the most interesting parts of any city, and Phnom Penh has several. This is the "old market." There were some pretty amazing shots to be had in it, but I didn't take my video camera to Cambodia. I find that just walking around with a camcorder seems pretty harmless, and I can get some great frame grabs later. It takes a little more chutzpah, more than I've got usually, to frame up and get a few snaps of a photogenic vendor with an SLR unless I've bought something. So, sorry, this is what the old market looks like from the street, but I haven't got any shots inside.

OK, sooner or later I've got to start talking about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, because I spent several hours touring their sites. From 1975-1979 the ultra-Communist Khmer Rouge regime, led by Pol Pot, controlled Cambodia. During those years, between 1 and 2.5 million Cambodians died. Yes, I know that's a broad range for an estimate, but nobody really knows. Many of the mass graves have never been excavated. In Phnom Penh a lot of moto drivers asked me, "Tuol Sleng?" This is the current name for the infamous S-21 prison, pictured at left. What you're looking at is a former classroom with individual brick cells added and walkways knocked through the walls. I'm quoting from the Visitors Guide again: "Prior to 1975, Tuol Sleng was a high school. When the Khmer Rouge came to power it was converted into the S-21 prison and interrogation facility. Inmates were systematically tortured, sometimes over a period of months, to extract confessions, after which they were executed at the killing fields of Choeung Ek. The S-21 processed over 17,000 people, seven of whom survived. The building now serves as a museum, a memorial, and a testament to the madness of the Khmer Rouge regime. Much has been left in the state it was in when the Khmer Rouge abandoned it in January, 1979. The prison kept extensive records, leaving thousands of photos of their victims, many of which are on display. Paintings of torture at the prison by Vann Nath, a survivor of Tuol Sleng, are also on display."

Tuol Sleng is in the shape of a "C." The tour of Tuol Sleng begins with the left wing of the school, the torture rooms. Each contains a metal bed frame and a large picture on the wall of a charred body lying on it. Luckily, the pictures are not too clear. The central rooms on the left contain rows of pictures on the walls of the dead, and not much else. The right center rooms are the cells pictured above. The rooms on the right wing contain Vann Nath's paintings and used to contain an infamous map of Cambodia, made from human skulls. Those skulls are now in a cabinet and there is a large photo of the map on the wall.

After Tuol Sleng, my moto driver took me to Choeung Ek, pictured at right. Choeung Ek is still beyond the outskirts of Phnom Penh, as it was in 1975, and I never would have found it on my own. Choeung Ek was an orchard and a Chinese cemetery prior to 1975. During the Khmer Rouge regime it became one of the "killing fields." This one was the site of the brutal executions of more than 17,000 individuals, most of whom suffered through torture and deprivation at Tuol Sleng prison first. Choeung Ek is now a group of mass graves and memorial stupa containing thousands of skulls on the lower tiers with the other skeletal remains above. The skulls have been classified and labeled by age and sex, so there are signs such as "teenage females." My guide pointed out that, since bullets were expensive and in short supply, most people were lined up, handcuffed and blindfolded, next to mass graves and then axed to death or beaten with garden hoes or bamboo clubs.

You can easily see that the left skull was split open and the right one has what looks like a hatchet mark. The very dark skulls are blood stained from cranial trauma.

After the memorial you walk down a path from open pit to open pit, excavated mass graves. Our guide pointed out that the graves used to be several meters deep, but the rains have been filling them in with eroded soil. What that means is that human bones and clothes continue to become exposed, and I looked down and saw that I was stepping over a bone, a large one from either a leg or an arm, sticking out of the dirt. It did not end with a ball but rather was cut at a diagonal, exposing the center. I picked up a twig, knelt down, and began to remove the dirt around it like some kind of crude archeologist. While down there, I spotted a tooth, a molar cracked in half lengthwise, lying among the pebbles. What should I do with it? Offer it up to the guide? Slip it into my pocket as a souvenir? No, thank you. I just placed it back among the pebbles. What bitter tale could that tooth tell me? I shuddered.
Farther down the path we were shown a large tree with the bark damaged on one side. There was a sign on it explaining that it was used for killing babies by bashing their heads against it. There were some nails in a pattern still sticking out of the bark, and you could imagine why they had been put there. It was too grizzly for words.

What, you weren't aware of all this? Don't know what happened to Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge? Can't imagine what could possibly have motivated such genocide? Try these links:

The Killer Files - Pol Pot - Cambodia
Cambodia - A Country Study (Library of Congress Country Studies Series)

I had met the moto driver who took me to Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek at the gates of the Royal Palace. It is closed from noon to 2:00 pm, though, so I came back to it later in the day. Doing so, you go from Cambodia's depths to Cambodia's heights, which is a good way to end a day of sightseeing. Quoting from the Visitors Guide again: "The palace was open and 1870 under King Norodom. The compound contains the Royal Residence, the Throne Hall, the Silver Pagoda, and other buildings. The palace grounds are open except when the king is in residence. The Silver Pagoda is one of the city's most often visited because of its display of priceless objects. It draws its name from the over 5,000 silver tiles which cover the floor of the vihear. The vihear serves less as a functioning temple than as a depository for cultural treasures, such as the Emerald Buddha, innumerable statues, a Royal Litter, and other priceless objects. Rarely seen in Cambodian pagodas, turn-of-the-century paintings of the Ramayama epic adorn the outer wall." Don't worry; I don't understand all of that, either. I don't know what this building is, but it was the only building that wasn't backlit at that time of the day, so it gets included.

I don't have pictures of the Silver Palace's famous silver tiles. Even though I was charged extra for bringing a camera into the grounds, photography is not allowed in the Silver Palace. The National Museum was the same way, so you don't see any pictures of it here, either. How do you explain it? Kickbacks from the post card companies?

On my last day in Cambodia I had an 11:00 am time set up with a moto driver to take me to the airport, so it was time to do a little shopping without having to worry about carrying things I'd bought. I've used the word "cyclo" several times on these pages; here's a picture I took of one as he took a fare to her destination. You never have to wait for transportation in Phnom Penh; just walk out to any street and you will attract a crowd. 25 cents is enough for a couple blocks; 50 cents seems to work for a kilometer or so. The prices aren't so different for motos, like the one behind, so I didn't use cyclos much. It seems if you ask "How much?" you will just be displaying your ignorance and opening yourself up for getting overcharged. It works better to just get on and offer a low ball amount when you get off. My moto driver who took me to Choeung Ek had the guts to demand $40 when he took me back to the Cathay Hotel and then scowl and refuse to take the $5 I was offering him, although it was reasonable for 4 hours. I laid it on his seat and walked into the hotel. He didn't pursue.

This is the new Central Market. There is also a Russian market they talk about, but I didn't have time for that. Maybe next time. The Central Market is a pretty amazing place - you can truly find anything you want, from notebooks to digital watches to clothes to groceries. Of course the prices aren't marked, so come prepared to bargain. Some things were cheap enough, though, that I didn't feel a need to.

A case in point would be the T-shirts. They go for $2, no bargaining necessary. The quality is pretty good, too. This gentleman's stall was outside the Central Market to the left of the main entrance, just about where the lady carrying the pail is in the picture above. I had looked at lots of T-shirts by the last day, and I was pretty specific about what I wanted. He was very patient as went all through his inventory looking for what I wanted. As I type this, I'm wearing the gray "Cambodia" T-shirt in the center row at the level of his mouth. Other designs include "Danger! Mines," "Angkor Wat," "Angkor Beer," and of course the ubiquitous "Hard Rock Cafe." No, Phnom Penh does not really have a Hard Rock Cafe. Saigon does, though.

I'll leave you with a few things I learned on the trip:

US dollars are accepted, even preferred, anywhere you go. You will be disadvantaging yourself if you change too much money into Cambodian riel, as prices are quoted in dollars and you won't be given a good rate when those dollar prices are figured in riel.
You need US$20 in cash and a passport size photo to get a Cambodian visa. Yes, you need one.
Taxis into Phnom Penh from the airport were $7, I believe. I bypassed officialdom and walked past the taxis into the parking lot. Before I ever got to the street, I was approached be a moto driver who took me into Phnom Penh for $1.25. If you are backpacking, you may consider doing the same.
You can stay in an OK room in Phnom Penh for $10 a night. Try the New Star Guest House at No. 153 St. 110. The Cathay Hotel at No. 123 St. 110 had larger rooms for $12, but they weren't quite as clean.
Phnom Penh is safer than you think, including at night. Just don't do anything stupid. And definitely watch out for the Le Cyree Club after midnight.
I hear you can rent motorcycles for $4 a day, but make sure your life insurance policy is paid up before you do. Motos with driver go for about $6 all day, flat rate.
Keep in mind when you visit PP that many things are closed from 11 or 12am to 2 pm, so you should plan your sightseeing activities around that.
Electricity in Cambodia is 220V. The sockets all take both flat or round plugs. I took an adapter but never used it.
Don't drink the water. Don't even brush with it. I took some Listerine to use, too. Don't buy water after breakfast, as the hotels I stayed in stock the refrigerator with a couple of complementary bottles every day and chances are the maid has already brought you two more while you were eating.
Towels are placed on the beds, not in the shower. You may find yourself wet with the towels out in the room.
Bathroom flip-flops have wedges cut in the toes to distinguish them from the ones you may have worn in. Unless you are female, and maybe even if you are, they'll be too small to squeeze into anyway, so it's academic.

Chances are that you clicked the link for this page out of curiosity, not for a little pre-departure information. Not a lot of people think of Phnom Penh as a tourist destination, and I'm not really sure why I did either, to tell you the truth. Still, having been there, I can say that it's pretty other-worldly and a real eye-opener for an American like me. I'm glad I went there solo, because it isn't much of a place for kids. If you're in Saigon or Bangkok and want to take a side-trip a bit farther off the path, give it a try.