Phnom Penn

After returning from Koh Rung, we spent another day in Shinaouk Ville, I could really get to like that place.  It's a nice mix of the frantic of the bigger cities, the laid back of the Islands and it's beside a beautiful part of the Ocean in the Gulf of Thailand.

That aside, we're not here forever, so we had booked a bus to Phnom Penn ($6 each) and headed out the next morning after a Baguette breakfast.  They do the bread for the baguettes very well, must be that French colonial influence ?

A typical patisserie, Sihanouk Ville

The bus was reasonably well appointed, and reasonably comfortable, left on time, and made one comfort stop for for 20  mins along the way.  Getting into Phnom Penn saw typical disorganised chaos of any large third world city.

Along the river, Phnom Penn

It's not everyday you see an Elephant on the main street !

The outskirts had hovels and shanties aplenty, mixed in with the occasional ostentatious house lining too small streets, the traffic became disorganised chaos but eventually we arrived at the station on the outskirts, before we changed over to a tuk tuk and headed to our hotel.

The city is on the confluence of several rivers, including the Mekong with plenty to do if you are into big City living.  We enjoyed getting a further glimpse into Cambodian society, taking in the street markets and

Back street markets

Back street markets

watching people go about their lives.  We did shift hotels, as the first one was across the road from a night club that stayed open until 6am !  This put us a little further out of town but not to far, at the Diamond Palace Hotel .  Toni has been getting right into this bargaining and managed to get a Superior King Size Room down to $24 a night with breakfast.

Our room at the Diamond Palace Hotel

view from the front balconey

true Cambodia, from the Hotel's back balcony.

A walk at night along the river saw us introduced to groups doing what looked like the Cambodian version of line dancing.  Some sort of dance combined with aerobics ? Strange to a western eye but they seemed to be lovin' it !

Lien Dancing', Cambodian style !

As always the food was delicious,

Choose your dish off a "train:, then into a broth.  Shabu Shabu !

 though some of it we never tried !

Yum Yum ?

Lunch for 2, including a beer and a coke, $3.50

Of course the main reason for me being here was to visit Choung Ek (Killing Fields) and Toul Seng (S-21) torture area.  These were incredibly emotional experiences, leaving us both in tears, more about them both here

Scooters
Scooters are the main form of transport, effective, cheap and geeze can they load 'em up, both with people

Scooter the family around

and with goods for transport !

Cambodia also sees them do double time as a Tuk Tuk.  Just detach the trailer part at the end of the day and away you go on the scooter !

Pimp my Tuk Tuk !

We also wanted some exposure to the Orphanages of Phnom Penn, so the next day we visited the lighthouse Orphanage, more about that here


Markets
Of course we also did the ubiquitous markets, of which Central Markets are the biggest, we also went to the Russian Markets (more curios, artwork and knick knaks there) as well as the night markets on the river.  I was all "marketed" out by then end, albeit there are some wonderful artisans, hand making items for incredibly cheap prices.  Much as I loved things like the hand made instruments, and some of the stone and wood carvings, getting it back to Australia would be the problem.

Enjoying lunch at the Russian Market

As always, we soon had to head off, with the next stop being the north western Cambodian city of Siem Reap and the famous temples of the Angkor complex.