Just a quickie to say i have arrived in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia..
Flight was a bit turbulent cos it was a short one and I also thought i was going to be in some sort of accident en route to my guesthouse!! Note to self - DO NOT ride in the front seat of a car in Asia, i felt like i was in a 3-D cinema except it was real life and the driver used his horn about 50 times in a 30 min journey, no joke.
I thought the roads in Bangkok were mental but it turns out PP at rush hour is just as crazy. There are 2 lanes leading into the city but they are completely ignored and most of the time there are at least 3 lanes of traffic weaving in and out of each other. I noticed there are a lot more bikes here too (pedal and motos).. and you see families of 4 riding down the duel carriageway on one moto with no helmets. Oh and rather than wait in the traffic jam, they ride them down the pavement haha! Might try it back home!
I didn't get to my guesthouse til 6ish so a bit late to do any sightseeing today, and unfortunately i have a bus booked to Siem Reap tomorrow at 9am so i guess i'm missing out on seeing around here due to bad planning..to be honest there isn't a major amount of touristy things to do anyway but i would have liked to go to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum where thousands were imprisoned before being killed in the 70's by the Khmer Rouge as part of Pol Pot's regime. It's a bit morbid but good to see these places to put things in perspective. The Khmer rouge were very similar to the Nazi's in their thorough documentation of each prisoner, so there are photographs and autobiographies of each person who was killed (they estimate around 17,000 in total).
I ended up going for dinner to a restaurant called Friends which the guesthouse owner recommended to me. No it's not the Cambodian version of Central Perk! A lot of the restaurants and other places around Phnom Penh are charities to help the disadvantaged people who live here so the restaurant basically gives street kids the chance to train as service staff - waiting and in the kitchen. It was fairly expensive compared to what i've been used to paying, but at least it's going to a good cause and the fresh chicken and mint spring rolls with fresh lime juice was delicious too!
Anyway i've decided I'm going to get up really early at 7 and go see the Palace before i head off again as it's only 10 mins from my guesthouse.
I'm away to take advantage of the TV in my room and the fact i have my own bathroom for the first time since leaving home :) the small comforts eh..
