Unfortunately, Sarah and I do not have much to report from the last three days in Phnom Penh. We arrived on Tuesday in much less dramatic fashion than we left Ho Chi Minh City (which is to say, no scissor-wielding cabbies looking for a fight…) and checked into the TeaHouse Asian Urban Hotel. Though it’s a bit of a mouthful to spit out, I was really glad we had such a nice place to say while in Phnom Penh.
We settled in quickly and walked over to Eclipse in order to catch the sunset from one of the city’s best vantage points.
Sunset over Phnom Penh on a “clear” day…glad we didn’t arrive on a “hazy” day!
Looking the other way toward the river.
After darkness set in over Phnom Penh, we walked to a local restaurant, Domrei Kitchen, that Sarah found on TripAdvisor – we wanted to dive right in and try Cambodian food and this place was well reviewed. Sadly, TripAdvisor let us down. The food was bland and the service mediocre; that said, we were still excited to be in Cambodia and explore the city over the next two days.
Like I said at the beginning, though, we have little to report…because things didn’t work out exactly as planned. I’ve had a cold that’s been bothering me for a couple days and it kept me out of commission for most of our time in Phnom Penh. I knew when my masseur was sneezing on me during our Halong Bay cruise - lower spa standards in this part of the world! - that I might catch what he had, but I didn’t think it would turn out to be this bad. Oh well, considering we’ve both been healthy for the majority of our trip, it’s hard to complain.
We spent most of our time relaxing by the pool at our hotel. Having a couple lazy days reading and soaking up the sun was probably good for us anyway, given how much we’ve been on the move lately. I ventured out a few times per day for meals, Sarah explored more of the neighborhood to do some shopping and even stopped by the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (which, as its name suggests, is a pretty heavy experience).
From Sarah: The Tuol Sleng Genocide museum is located at S-21, the former prison and torture-house used by the deadly Khmer Rouge regime during the late 1970s. During the genocidal rule of Pol Pot, it is estimated that nearly two million Cambodians - approximately 25% of the country's population at that time - were slaughtered. The museum is a harrowing look at a (fairly recent) historical travesty in Cambodia and calls to mind the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. Worse still, the government that has since ruled the country is horribly corrupt and Cambodians continue to suffer from a lack of education, infrastructure and basic human rights. You can learn more about all of this here.
One of the prisoner torture rooms. This was substantially larger than where most of the prisoners had to stay, chained at all times.
Looking down the hall at the prisoner cells.
It's hard to tell but each of these is a small chamber that held multiple prisoners.
The museum tour ended with a peace bell...surrounded by skulls and bones from those who were massacred here.
From far away the building looks much more like it's original intended structure - a middle school.
It's too bad that we didn't get to see much in Phnom Penh. Fortunately, though, we're planning to spend two and a half days here at the end of our time in Cambodia, so we'll be able to see the city next time we come through.
We woke up early today so we could catch the bus up to Siem Reap. We have three days there to see Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples – fingers crossed that I've kicked this cold by then!