cambodia revisited. day 2

day 2 started with both of us attempting to walk down the main road of phnom penh and it turned out to be a stupid one. (EEKS!) no one walks in phnom penh! trust me, not even the locals. their mode of transport ranges from bicycle to cars. the public transports here are tuk tuk and moto. no public bus here. you have to bargain and negotiate the prices for everything here.

we walked for about 10 mins, then gave up and found a tuk tuk. the name of the driver was mao. we talked him into showing us around the city for USD14. dunno whether it is a bargain or not. anyway, here are the places we went to before the rest of our travelling gang arrived on the air asia flight that day.

this is a photo taken from the balcony of my hotel room. this is just how a typical street in phnom penh is like.

we walked till phnom penh hotel before we decided to get on a tuktuk. one of the bigger hotels in this city.

a tuk tuk along sisowath quay which is along the mekong river.

sisowath quay. a lot of stalls are here in the evening and enjoying brisk business mostly from the locals.

the royal palace just opposite the quay. did not enter as i expected the rest of the gang would want to go as well. so it would be redundant if i went. but then...sigh. in the end, still did not get to go. story to come the next day.

therefore, we went to the national museum instead. it is quite an impressive wooden building. USD2 for entrance and no photograph allowed.

but then again, a mobile phone with a camera is not easily detected when it is working, isn't it? ;P so i flouted the rule and snapped one. most of the artefacts here are from angkor. it is very quiet and solemn inside.

wat phnom, on the only hill in town. many people come here to pray so there are people selling flowers and joss sticks. beggars and children are abundant but you can just walk on and ignore them. they don't cling to you. phew! entrance is USD 1 for foreigners. the ticket seller said i looked like a cambodian (!!!) and i told her, dun charge me lah. hehehe. i have been told i looked like a filippino when i went on a cruise last year. what is it with me and my look!!! do i have the typical asian look???

the temple guarded by lions.

one can get an elephant ride around the hill as well.

the devotees praying in the temple.

for lunch that day, we hunted a french eatery called comme a la maison situated amidst tall walls and high fenced houses. i got a recommendation from lonely planet. the above is not a photo of the restaurant but one of those rich people houses. photo of the restaurant is in my friend's handphone. we were the only chinese there. the rest were all expats, foreigners or rich locals. sitting next to our table were two locals who spoke in fluent articulate american english and their fluency put mine to shame ;( overheard from the next table,

" so what do you want me to bring to your house tonight? i mean i can't be
bringing just a bottle of wine and cheese."

waaa...so sophisticated.

anyway, we both enjoyed our meal there and the food was delicious!! i had ravioli and my colleague had pork chop. her pork chop was to die for!! the best pork chop i have ever tasted. thick piece of meat yet so succulent and tender!! aaa!! i still yearn for that. so from that meal onwards, it would be pork pork pork. prices were really reasonable. i dun think you can get the same thing for that price in malaysia.

independence monument. built in 1958 to commemorate the country's independence from france in 1953. they are having renovation around the monument to install fountains around it.

homeless at the park opposite the monument.

psar tuol tom pong, commonly known as the russian market (the russians shopped here during the 1980s). there are many stalls in this square and you can shop for all your souvenirs here. silk goods, silver goods, miniature buddhas, carvings, paintings, etc. go there early in the morning so it won't be so hot and the prices of goods are cheaper as they called it the morning price. it is auspicious for them to start running the business early in the morning. remember to bargain hard!!!

some shops in russian market.


next stop, another market, central market or psar thmei. a more comfortable place to shop. and you still get quite good bargains here but they have less art stuff. however, those looking for gemstones (manmade) will have a dazzling time as the central zone in the dome is dedicated solely for these stalls.

the flower stalls outside central market.

unique lotus flowers arrangements. have never seen it before.

one of the latest constructions in phnom penh. a big project in collaboration with malaysian businessmen. hotel, casino, theme park cum shopping centre called nagacorp.

tuol sleng museum. formerly tuol svay prey high school. it was taken over by pol pot's security forces in 1975 and was turned into a prison (prison 21). it became the largest detention and torture centre in the country. it was really gloomy here and walking around made your flesh creep. no laughing is allowed in the compound according to a sign posted.

barb wire surrounded the walls of the school.

fences surrounding each storey of the school buiding to avoid suicide attempts.

classrooms had been turned into cells. each classroom were made into 2 rows of cells. the picture above shows one of the cells which had been divided and one prisoner would go into each cubicle.

one of the torture rooms with a 'torture bed'. prisoner was chained and tortured here.

i call this the 'torture tub'. the dirtiest water was filled in the tub and the prisoner chained on top.

the gallows where prisoners were hung and tortured. the 2 big jars below were filled with filthiest water to regain the prisoners' consciousness if they lost it while being tortured.

rows of portraits of the prisoners in black and white on display.

the biggest portait here of a woman and a child she was carrying in her arms. she was the wife of one of the officers held captive. several foreigners were held in this prison too and later died, receiving the same fate as the others. only 7 survived.

clothes of the prisoners.

regulations board. click on the photo to get a larger view and to read each line.

i am feeling nauseous again now just typing and looking through all these photos. it is really a depressing experience visiting this place. it is so ordinary and plain, yet so much torture and pain happened here. i can never imagine the suffering the prisoners went through and the kind of atrocities done here. may the prisoners rest in peace.

before going back to the hotel to meet the rest of the gang, we stopped at foreign correspondents' club for a refreshing drink opposite the mighty mekong river. again only foreigners were seen.

one of the boats catering for mekong river cruise.

when the rest had checked into their rooms, i got another tuk tuk to fit us all, now there were 7 of us. brought them to the riverside to soak in the atmosphere and to get our dinner!

went to khmer borane restaurant, again recommended by lonely planet. we had their local dishes here. i had crispy rice with pork curry while the rest had some rice noodles with khmer curries. the curries were very rich with coconut milk. not something we were used to. but still, it was something local and something new.

those who could not finish the rich curry had fast food takeaway back at the hotel. hehe.

thus, the end of the second day in cambodia!!

the next day was the journey to siem reap. managed to get hire a van for this land journey. i bargained with the driver through tuktuk drivere's mobile phone. his friend's van. USD250 for 3 days. divide that among 7, it is not that expensive ya?