A five hour bus journey south from Battambang through attractive Cambodian countryside brought us to the capital Phnom Penh at sunset. We transferred to a tuk tuk and weaved through peak hour traffic to the swanky Nagaworld Hotel a few blocks south of the main tourist drag of Sisowath Quay.
There would be few places that exhibit the disparity between rich and poor that can be seen within a few city blocks in Phnom Penh. But it certainly seemed to be a city on the move, and hopefully along with it an increase in the living standards of ordinary Cambodians.
We spent a morning strolling through the magnificent Royal Palace initiated by King Norodom in 1886. Within the grounds is the stunning Silver Pagoda paved with 5,000 silver tiles and housing a 17th century emerald Buddha statue made of Baccarat crystals. The elegant buildings and the beautiful manicured gardens outside are surely the equal of any similar site in the world. But just a few blocks away were decrepit houses and the surrounding streets had plenty of hawkers and beggars with more than a hint of desperation in their pitches to tourists. We moved on to the classy National Museum housed in a striking terra cotta-coloured building. It houses amongst other things ancient stone carvings, statues and other items taken from the Angkor Temples.
Our day became much more sombre when we arrived by tuk tuk 14 km out of Phnom Penh at the site of the infamous Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. It was here in the mid 70s where most of the 17,000 detainees held in the Khmer Rouge’s torture prison S-21 in Phnom Penh city were taken and murdered most cruelly. A small interpretive centre describes the ghastly events of the time, and if any more evidence were needed, an adjacent glass tower contains a stupa of 8,000 cracked skulls of victims and their discarded clothing. Around 130 mass graves were discovered at this site alone. Of course this was only a tiny proportion of the more than 2 million people killed or starved to death by the mad, murderous Khmer Rouge regime under the command of Pol Pot and his henchmen.
Between visits around town we discovered the excellent Café Fresco on Sisowath Quay and lunched there twice. I nipped into a nearby internet café and while my USB pen drive was being hopelessly infected with computer virus, I looked out the window and was startled to see a large elephant ambling past on the footpath.
On Friday morning we made a foray into the Russian Market, so named more for historical reasons than for any preponderance of Russian products for sale here (we didn’t see any). But the market was large and bursting with interesting goods at reasonable prices, so we all had a good time following our interests. Lee Tuan had a jeweller repair an old pendant: it took him more than an hour and his craftsmanship was amazing. Collectively we reduced the market’s supply of small handbags, scarves and other goods somewhat and loaded it into a tuk tuk along with the four of us for the return journey to the Nagaworld. Xmas shopping done.
Friday night was our last night in Phnom Penh. We dined at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Cambodia on Sisowath Quay, where in pleasantly balmy air under swirling ceiling fans we looked out over the still waters of Tonle Sap and the illuminated boats gliding slowly along it.
Cambodia had given us several great days in return for our holiday dollars – the country has several world-class tourist attractions and tourism is a much needed potential bright spot for the economy. Given all that Cambodians have been through in relatively recent times, and the big challenges they still face, it was perhaps surprising to see so many smiles everywhere. If anyone deserves to enjoy some good fortune now, it is surely the people of Cambodia.
Saturday morning we flew out of Phnom Penh, arriving 90 minutes later in Kuala Lumpur. There over a coffee we said our au revoirs to Susan & Chris and then each went our separate ways – they back to Australia and we two back to the Middle Kingdom.
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