December 12, 2014 – Phnom Penh
Well, here we are. Still. More on that later.
China Southern, our airline for this sojourn, turned out to be excellent. We rode in a Dreamliner over to Guangzhou, and then a new 737 to Phnom Penh. Good food, excellent seat-back screens with tons of entertainment. We were still in the cattle car out back, though, and after 20 hours of sitting we were pathetically grateful to get OUT OF THE PLANE at 1 AM. The taxi thing from the airport worked, no fuss, no muss. It was $12 to our hotel, which is on a quiet little side street right downtown.
The dispensing machine at Beijing Airport has beer for $3 and water for $4. I picked beer.
The Royal Mekong Boutique Hotel looked like a bit of a dive at night, but it’s not. We were shown into our room, which is across the street from the hotel, past a very nice little pool/bar thing, and into yet another courtyard out back. Big king bed on a platform, nice-sized room, air conditioning, Wi-Fi, flatscreen with good cable, an excellent Hotpoint shower, and free breakfast, all for $25 including taxes. The room is sparkling clean, but sure enough, when the desk guy showed himself out, a huge cockroach galloped in from outside to check the place out. I was busy herding him out with my foot when he deked right, cut left, and ran right over Debbi’s foot. Bad idea, she let out a shriek and stomped him into goo. She still displays low empathy for cockroaches, apparently. Well, at least THAT is out of the way!
Breakfast in the morning was excellent. There is the usual cold buffet you would expect in Canada, but there is also a chef to make you a hot egg dish. The omelettes are great, and of course, the French coffee is terrific, and the toast is French bread. We can do this. We hired a moto driver (motorcycle taxi) to give us a nice city tour, and we got a good look at the usual tourist things. We’re just four blocks from the Tonle Sap River, which joins the Mekong right in town. There’s a main thoroughfare along the river, a nice park, and a walkway along the river. At lunch, Phuala (our driver & meaning ‘fruit’) took us to a second-story restaurant overlooking the river, and we had a big traditional Khmer meal. Six bucks each, including a beer, and of course, that includes the Stupid Tax, as the touristy stuff along the river is more expensive. After four or five hours, we hit the wall. We were still sleep-deprived, and it was 32 degrees, and we decided a nap was in order. Deb decided to take a dip in the pool, and on the way back to the room, she slipped on the marble floor and fell flat on her back on the concrete stairs. Luckily, she didn’t hit her head, but her back is a mess. Two of the ladies working here took charge of her and have been rubbing in tiger balm and applying poultices for the past two days, plus we’ve been applying ice and heat and plenty of pain pills. She’s actually pretty good today, although her back is a fine shade of purple-green. The heat was applied using an empty rum bottle filled with hot water and wrapped in a towel. I had taken some photos of it, but alas, I managed to delete them before downloading 🙁
So it’s been a pretty slow two days whilst Debbi heals up, but that’s all good. We managed a lunch out at a dim sum place and a couple of walks around downtown. The traffic here is pretty amazing. Most of the intersections, including the principal thoroughfares, have absolutely no traffic control at all. Everyone just pinballs their way through as best they can. There is no jaywalking, as that would presuppose that there is some legal way to cross the street at an intersection. There isn’t. You just work your way across while trying not to snap your head right off your neck by looking in three directions at once. There are a few traffic lights, which are cool as they count down the seconds until they change, so you can get a good running start at the intersection. Our taxi driver must play a lot of roulette because his favorite number seems to be 26 Red. If no one is coming, they just blast right through regardless of the color. The other thing that is neat (to me) is that I can actually hear things out on the street. Most of the traffic is 100cc motorbikes, which are very quiet, so even in heavy traffic, it’s pretty quiet out there. On the other hand, they can run you down like a dog, and you’ll never hear them coming….
We’re planning on taking the six-hour bus ride to Siem Reap tomorrow morning, depending on how Deb is feeling.
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The street in front of our hotel.
Yes, we are on the wrong side of the street. On the other hand, so is he!
Santas!
The architecture is VERY distinctive. No explanation for the cannons.
The Bat Tree…hanging upside down during the day Downtown.
