Saturday 22nd March
I got up feeling rather good after a decent nights sleep and we had breakfast before heading to Psar Thmei, the central market in Phnom Penh. The market is housed in a large yellow art deco style building, with a dome in the middle giving it a rather grand look, even though it had probably seen better days. Traffic and people buzzed around outside it, making it a real centre of activity, and a focal point for both locals and tourists. The stalls are set out much better than the claustrophobic 'Russian market' we had visited a few days before, and the extra light made it much more pleasant to walk about in. We picked up a few cheap t-shirts and souvenirs, and took a walk through the food market which was packed with traders selling meat, fish and vegetables.
It was a hot enough day so, feeling in need of some refreshment, we headed back to the 'Garden Cafe Centre' which is located nearby and had some drinks and a long, relaxing lunch. Again, there were very few people about, so we had the place pretty much to ourselves. We all agreed on how easy it would be to get used to this kind of life, and it was certainly one of my favourite places to eat and chill out on my trip. The staff were also very nice, so much so that we felt sorry that they weren't getting the business that they clearly deserved.
We pottered about town for the rest of the day, just having a great laugh amongst ourselves. Maria & Simon even got a lesson in Khmer from a couple of shop assistants, and they surprised a few of the locals with their new found skills (I imagine it was also the first time they had heard their language spoken in a Derry accent!). We wandered around, stopping at a few shops and the odd cafe, passing along the riverfront in the sun of the late afternoon as we made our way back in the direction of the hotel. The riverfront is a nice place to relax, with people just taking it easy and watching the world go by. Food stalls are set up and locals eat picnics on the lawn in front of the Royal Palace. One of the stalls sold a big variety of fried insects, but none of us had the guts to sample anything (deep-fried tarantula anyone?).
I got a haircut and Maria and I bought bus tickets to Sihanoukville, a town on the coast of Cambodia, and where we were headed early the next morning. Unfortunately, Simon was heading back to England the next day, his holiday in SE Asia coming to an end. As a way of celebration/commiseration, we went for dinner to the 'Foreign Correspondents Club', a bar and restaurant where the foreign press are supposed to hang out. Despite the hype from the Lonely Planet review and the streams of people going in and out of the place, we found the food and the atmosphere to be very disappointing, and not a patch on the much better value 'Garden Cafe Centre'. Nonetheless, we had a really good laugh, as we had done throughout our trip together in Cambodia. It was a real pity that Simon had to leave us, but it had been a lot of fun while it lasted. There the night ended, and we turned in for the night to get ready for our start at 6am the next day.
