Friday, March 7, 2014
What a long day. After we left the temple and regained National Highway No. 6 we had only 180 kms to go to Phnom Penh. We had heard the road was in bad shape, but we did not expect the journey to take 5 hours. There was construction almost the entire length, maybe the last 10 kms as we entered Phnom Pehn were finished. It was a dusty and bumpy ride.
Once we found a hotel, the real drama started. We couldn’t get the rear door of Sterlin open. The dust from the last few days had somehow jammed the mechanism. This is a bit of a problem, as the shelving is designed to prevent the luggage from being stolen unless the rear door is open, so although we could access the car, we could not get to the luggage. I broke out the toolkit and started doing things, but it is very hard to access the back door to grease it if it is jammed shut and the “secure” shelving system is in the way. Anyway I started to dismantle the shelving system, knowing this would be a multi-hour job and would involve breaking or sawing through things to regain control of our luggage. About 30 minutes in, the door magically opened. I think the WD40 that I sprayed into the rear door seal had somehow worked itself into the locking mechanism and freed things up. Another 30 minutes later I had returned everything back to the correct place. I was very relieved.
Later that night we found a wonderful Japanese restaurant were the attentive staff could not do enough to please us. To be fair, we were the only people in this section of the restaurant. Our first choice of wine was not available so they offered Craggy Range Sauv Blanc as an alternative. Very nice food with a very nice bottle of wine to wash away the day’s dust 🙂
Saturday, March 8, 2014
After 8 days straight of visiting temples, today we rested. Our hotel has a very nice English Breakfast and Lattes. What a great way to start a day off. I (Stephen) did spend an hour or so giving the rear door of Sterlin a good old clean. There is a bit of a design flaw in Land Rovers and the inside of the rear door fills up with dust. I flushed the dust away with water and greased anything I could find. The rear door has never worked so well. Also made a failed attempt to do our 2013 taxes. I thought I could get everything I needed on-line. Apparently not. So sent out an emergency cry for help to our trusty administrator in America who is already ahead of us and has been keeping our tax documents to one side.
We did do a little wandering of the streets and found a very nice cafe/restaurant/bar/shop where we had a mighty fine burger with white wine (Caroline) and Sierra Nevada beer (Stephen). We have not really explored that much of Phnom Penh (yet), but what we have seen appears very cosmopolitan, very lively and the french colonial style buildings are very nice. We see about 30 Range Rovers an hour and even more high end Land Crusiers. Clearly there is some money in this town. There are also western style coffee shops so of course we got ourselves the type of latte that we are use to.
Otherwise we spent the day relaxing in the hotel a catching up on email and the news. The situation in Ukraine is not looking very good.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
After breakfast we headed to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. A former school was used by the Khmer Rouge to house the notorious Security Prison 21 (S-21). From 1975 through 1979 approximately 17,000 people passed through the prison, which can hold around 1,000 prisoners at one time. The prison was used to torture and obtain false confessions, which in turn enabled the Khmer Rouge to arrest and repeat the process with others. After being interrogated and held for a few months, the prisoners and typically family members were killed and buried locally or were taken to the Choeung Ek extermination center. The Genocide Museum provides a really good overview of what happened so recently here in Cambodia and is a grim reflection of the atrocities that occur during acts of genocide, wherever they occur. We were both moved and humbled by the visit.
In the afternoon we spent several hours just walking the streets and the banks of the Mekong River. Waking is a nice way to see a city. The only real challenge is crossing the street.
Monday, March 10, 2014
This morning we headed to the Chinese Embassy to lodge our application for an entry visa. There were no lines and we had prepared our forms earlier, so the entire process took but a few minutes. We will be back on Thursday. Over coffee we worked out some logistics for our planned trip to the Sea of Okhotsk later in the year (August/September).
Sterlin got a much needed wash. Although around here cars do not stay clean for very long. Caroline went to do a little window shopping while Stephen worked on our taxes. Quite a few hours later the window shopping was complete and the taxes were filed. So, quite a successful morning and early afternoon. We celebrated with a walk around the neighborhood and a burger and drink. I so love that one can get Sierra Nevada here in Phnom Penh. During our walk we conducted a highly scientific survey of the number of Range Rovers. I am glad to report, that one is likely to spot around 100 Range Rovers every hour if you are just randomly wandering around. Which is in stark contrast with the obvious poverty lots of people live in.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
We decided to spend two extra days here in Phnom Penh and skip Sihanoukville. It is a long day to drive there and another long day back, and we are enjoying Phnom Penh. We had planned to visit the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek on our way to Sihanoukville, and we did not change this plan. We headed out after breakfast into the worst traffic conditions so far in Cambodia. The 12 km from our hotel took well over an hour to complete.
Choeung Ek is one of the most visited ‘Killing Fields’ in Cambodia. In total more than 20,000 mass grave sites were found in the country. It is estimated that 1.7 to 2.5 million people died (including of disease and starvation) at the hands of the brutal Khmar Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979.
There is a memorial at the site. The audio tour of the site provides an amazing history of this site and what terrible acts happened in the late seventies. Close to ten thousand people were killed in this tiny site. Quite horrific. The memorial displays around 5,000 skulls of victims recovered from the graves.
We took the back streets back to Phnom Pehn. Only had to backtrack once due to a low bridge which we couldn’t get under. There is a lot of poverty in the backstreets
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Today we planned to see the Royal Palace. After a late breakfast we jumped in a Tuk Tuk and headed for the Royal Palace getting there at 10:30am. Well, they had already closed for the morning, darn. On the walk back to the hotel we found the shopping street selling all things silk, and picked up a few nice things. After lunch we attempted the Royal Palace, and this time was successful. Unfortunately there is not a lot going on in the Royal Palace, and within an hour we were back on the streets. Maybe we should have gone to the National Museum.
We raided various cash machines around our hotel to restock our US dollar pile. In the process got some US$100 bills that I have never seen before. They look pretty high-tech, so assume that they are legit. Dinner at Ocean Restaurant. There was a little confusion between Spaghetti Bolognese and Spaghetti Vongole, but ended up with the correct dish in the end. Tonight was our last night in this wonderful town and definitively our favourite town in Cambodia.
Thursday, March 13, 2014
First things first. We headed to the Chinese Embassy to pickup our China Visas. Tick. It is only 33 days until we enter China. And then it was time to say goodbye to Phnom Penh. We liked this city a lot and hope to be back sometime.
