China - Day 109

Nothing like a little vacation to put your life into perspective... I have a new found appreciation for the traffic laws and "fresh air" in Guangzhou. (Prior to visiting Cambodia I'm pretty sure I would have never guessed I'd ever say that...) Don't get me wrong - I had a great time in Phnom Penh, it's just that things are... well, a bit "Third-World" there (for lack of a better description).

I thought that the rules of the road were lax here in China but it appears as though they're non-existent in Cambodia! Cars, motos, and tuk-tuks drive pretty much wherever they want and in which ever direction they want. If the light's red, who cares? Stop, what? Why? Need to turn the corner? Well no reason to make such a wide turn, that's a waste of time - it's much easier to turn into the oncoming traffic and sort it out later in a fun game of "Chicken". Definitely had some close calls there, luckily our trusty tuk-tuk drivers seemed to have everything in control... Or at least they faked it really well.

As for the air quality - it wasn't so much that the air was polluted - it was just incredibly dusty. Not all the roads are paved and there's a lot of litter on the side of the streets so when you go whizzing by in the back of a vehicle with no windows it makes breathing a newfound art form. When the locals are wearing masks and wrapping scarves around their face you know there's got to be a good reason why...

Despite the near-death experiences touring around the city I found Phnom Penh to be a great city to visit. Unique architecture - a blend of colonial mixed with traditional Khmer style. Overall the people were very friendly and cheerful, their faces lit up with wide smiles. Surprising, given the country's dark, not-so-distant past. The people appear to be focusing on the present and future, and not dwelling so much on times gone by. (That's not to say they've forgiven and forgotten though). There's a sort of camaraderie among the locals - no one fighting over who gets the next sale, but rather a sharing of resources. Everywhere you go there's a tuk-tuk driver offering a ride, but even though the competition is fierce they don't try to undermine each other and steal each others' fares... In spite of the noticeable impoverished conditions - there's a genuine positive attitude in the air; they're trying to rebuild, grow and prosper.

While in Cambodia we only had time to visit Phnom Penh although I'm told that Siem Reap is a must-see (I guess that will have to wait for another holiday). In Phnom Penh we started by paying a visit to the National Museum which happened to be kitty-corner to the guesthouse we were staying at. (FYI, our guesthouse was called Rory's Pub and Guesthouse, which was located on the second-floor of the local Irish Pub. You had to walk through the bar to get up to the room...). The museum is home to a large collection of Angkorean era artwork as well as some more recent pieces.

After that we visited both the Russian and Central Markets and picked up a lot of good deals. I bought three t-shirts for $10, three DVD's for $5, and a bottle of Coke for 50 cents. (Everybody works with American currency there). The order of the day is to barter the prices down - something I hate doing but am beginning to get a knack for. ...Although I'm no where near Amy's skill level just yet :P Rumor has it that back in the day, Phsar Toul Tom Poung (The Khmer way to say "Russian Market") was the place to go if you were looking to procure an AK-47 or copious amounts of marijuana. As far as I know that's no longer that case.

After lunch we decided to take the 15 km journey out to the Killing Fields at Cheoung Ek. Now I realize that that doesn't seem like such a long trip but when you're sitting in the back of a tuk-tuk (and an abnormally slow one at that) it gives the illusion of being really far away... It doesn't really help when your driver has to make several pit-stops along the way (to "fill-up" with ONE liter of gasoline, to get"engine coolant" out of the public water fountain in the middle of a roundabout, and to take a leak on the side of the road in front of two young girls walking their dog...) Anyways, back to the point... This particular killing field is one of the better-known ones and is thought to have been the site of at least 17,000 tortures/executions. The site is littered with dozens of mass grave pits. In the centre of it all is a large commemorative Buddhist stupa filled with the skulls of 5000 of the victims. The atmosphere is very somber yet oddly peaceful. Still, one can't help but be swept with sadness while walking through the grounds and reading all the descriptions of the genocide and how the executions were carried out.

After we left Cheoung Ek we were in need of something a little more uplifting so we headed for dinner and then capped off the night with a nice aromatherapy massage and a facial. Best $17 I've ever spent! It’s the first massage that I've received where I wasn't on the verge of tears half way in! (Or still in immense pain two days later!)

The next day was mainly spent at the pool of a nearby hotel called the Himawari. The plan was to try and get a tan, unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating. It was really cloudy all day and then it began to thunderstorm around 4:00PM. For the most part it was still really hot and humid while we were there so the pool proved to be a nice way to cool down nonetheless. (Rory's Pub and Guesthouse didn't really offer the same luxuries as they did at the Himawari.)

Our last full day was reserved to meet up with Natalie, Amy's cousin who is in Cambodia for the summer. Unfortunately she ended up being away for the weekend and didn't end up returning to Phnom Penh until the late afternoon. In the morning Amy and I elected to take a boat tour along the Mekong River and we got to see a riverside ghetto of sorts. It was really interesting to see what type of conditions the poorest of the poor have to live in. After the "cruise" we grabbed a bite to eat and then went to buy some souvenirs - mainly to a cookie shop that uses all local ingredients and donates half their proceeds to local children's orphanages. (There are many children in Phnom Penh with no families and no place to live - there's a big dependency on all these orphanages).

After dropping our purchases back off at the hotel we took another tuk-tuk out to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. ...You know how when you're in school you always have this notion that it feels like a prison? Well this one was. Originally Tuol Svay Prey High School, it was turned into Security Prison 21 or S21 for short - a prison/interrogation center under the Khmer Rouge's reign in power. Today it's a genocide museum where you can walk through and see how the classrooms were converted into tiny prison cells and torture chambers and the windows were covered with iron bars and barbed wire. They say that nearly 20,000 people were sent to S-21 between 1975 and 1979 and there were only 14 known survivors. Nearly everyone else was sent to Cheoung Ek to be executed.

Later we finally met up with Amy's cousin and went for dinner and then to Sorya Mall - Phnom Penh's main Western-style mall (with A/C!!!) Definitely a stark difference to the two markets we had visited earlier. There we did a bit of window shopping and stopped for some ice cream. It had to be an early night though as we had a flight to catch the following day.

The next morning, bright and early, we were on a plane back to China (as there's only one flight to and from Phnom Penh a day). Off the plane and out of the airport, we breathed in the newly-appreciated "clean" air of our host-city. And all the way back to our apartment we relished the relative safety of our taxi and the organized-chaos that is GZ traffic.