It was an early start to the day as we had an early morning flight to catch to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Louisa was kind enough to drive us all to the airport. Priscilla and I met her and Steph at Causeway Bay at 6am - yes it was a very early start.
Priscilla had discovered that there would be no blackberry service in Cambodia so there was some frantic blogging going on the way to the airport and right up to boarding. I can now inform you that I am able to blog under pressure!
The dragonair flight to phnom penh took two and a half hours. We had all been given seats apart from each other and Priscilla and Steph took the opportunity to catch up on sleep for the whole flight. I had drunk a latte just before the flight so I started to read my chick lit novel, eat pray love. Priscilla has just finished it and recommended it to me to read also.
Immigration at Phnom Penh was somewhat of a convoluted affair. First we had to apply for a visa which involved filling out a form which was then passed along a production line of 9 people. We handed 20 dollars to the last in the line to get our passports back. We then had to queue up all over again and complete another form to get our passports stamped - and I thought US immigration was painful!
Steph's friend Charles from Beijing is travelling with us in Cambodia, and he met us at the airport. We were met by a driver from our hotel and headed there together. Our hotel here is pretty decent although Priscilla was a bit perturbed to find a price list for everything from the TV to the towels in the bathroom. Hopefully we won't be breaking anything during our stay.
I was expecting Cambodia to be a lot less developed than most other places we have been on the trip. On first impression it is actually pretty developed, although a lot less so than Hong Kong and most of China. However I guess this is probably because we are in the capital city and not the rural areas.
After arriving at the hotel we decided to head straight out again to get lunch and then start our tour of phnom penh. We decided to try a place recommended by the New York Times called Boddhi Tree. We shared a few dishes, all of which were pretty good. The place was just opposite the Tuol Sleng museum which we then visited. The museum is on the site of a former school which was used as a detention and torture center during the Khmer Rouge period.
The museum was a pretty harrowing affair. It was hard to believe that such horrific acts had been carried out within these quiet school grounds. The museum included countless photos of inmates almost all of who had been murdered by the Khmer Rouge. We learned that most of the guards were children who in turn were murdered in order to maintain the secret of the dreadful acts carried out there. While no one knows the exact number of those who perished the official estimates are that between one and three million Cambodians were killed during the Khmer Rouge rule from 1975 to 1979.
During our visit at the museum the heavens opened and the rain started to lash down. It was very dramatic - it is still monsoon season here so I think these afternoon showers are pretty common. The rain tapered off a bit but it was still drizzling so we decided to check out one of the bars by the waterfront.
The bar we went to was called FCC which stands for the foreign correspondents club. It is supposed to be the hotel and bar for journalists so it was very appropriate that we should hang out there given that we are now world famous bloggers. Actually, in reality the place was mostly filled with tourists by the looks of things. I was however pleased to discover that it was happy hour when we arrived which meant half price pitchers of beers for $4 - perfect! The bar had a nice setting overlooking the tonle sap river and we settled ourselves in to some comfy chairs. We ordered some food and chatted for a while, the main topic of discussion being the complexities of Charles' love life. I will save you the details but we are all looking forward to getting updates from Charles going forward.
We stayed at the FCC until the end of happy hour and then decided to head back to our hotel (being poor and tired journalists). After our early start we were all ready for an early night.
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