Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Leaving Bangkok we fly Air Asia to Phnom Penh and are immediately struck by the difference in the two capital cities. As we step down off the plane onto the tarmac we look around and see...no other planes. Entry into Cambodia is easy. Twenty dollars each for visas and in 5 minutes we are out the front door of the small terminal. As we make our way along the dusty highway towards town we notice lots of traffic going the opposite direction. Our taxi driver tells us that on weekends people head for the countryside. We see motorbikes with 3 and 4 adults on them. This is a poorer country than Thailand so fewer people own cars.

After looking at several guesthouses we decide on the River Star Hotel and a 2nd floor room with a view across Sisowath Quay to the Tonle Sap River. We also have a good view of at least a half dozen moto drivers waiting for us to emerge from our hotel. A moto (also called a tuk tuk) is a small two-wheeled carriage pulled by a motorcycle. The carriage looks like something that would be pulled by a pony. Another form of transport is the cyclo, a bicycle/rickshaw combination with the passenger seat in the front. Older men seem to operate these with their customers mainly local people. Motorcycles and motorbikes are also used to pull wooden carts filled with firewood or construction materials. Most unusual is an ornate circus wagon type vehicle which seems to be used exclusively for transporting monks.

Sunday morning we climb a hill to Wat Phnom which is surrounded by a park filled with local people enjoying picnics and family gatherings. Outside the temple are musicians and an actor/dancer with clown-like face paint. We watch him perform and then continue wandering through town. We pass small roadside stands selling liter bottles of petrol for motorbikes. Next to a wall is an outdoor one-chair barber shop with a customer getting a haircut.

We stop for lunch at a small restaurant in the backpacker area. The 33 year old manager tells us that only he and a brother are left in his family. His parents and other family members died during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. Cambodia is still recovering from its involuntary part in the Vietnam war and the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge which is responsible for the death of two million Cambodians in the late 1970's. The population at the time was seven million.

We opt not to visit the Killing Fields. Just too depressing. Instead we go to the Royal Palace compound with its beautiful grounds and buildings. The Silver Pagoda containing the Emerald Buddha is spectatular inside but as usual photos are not allowed. What we especially enjoy is the paucity of tourists. Phnom Penh is not exactly a hotspot of tourism and there are very few at the National Museum as well. Housed in this lovely old building are many artifacts from the Angkor ruins, which we will be visiting in a few days. The FCC (Foreign Correspondents Club) is a great stop for lunch with a view of the confluence of the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers. No war correspondents in sight.

The morning we left Phnom Penh we spotted an elephant walking down the street, a man on a bicycle at his flank. The six hour bus ride to Siem Reap takes one of the rare paved highway routes in Cambodia. The countryside is mostly flat and agricultural. Being the rainy season there is flooding right up to the road in some places. We pass motorbikes, bicycles and a few trucks. We pass slow moving oxcarts and a few carts pulled by small horses. Having left the French flavor of Phnom Penh behind we begin to get a feel for rural Cambodia.