Sunday, November 1, 2009

Phnom Penh


Yay! We finally made it! No photos up yet, as our guesthoue doesn't have a USB port on their computer. We will have photo goodness up asap though...

We arrived at TAT guesthouse save and only a little worse for wear yesterday evening (thanks for the recommendation Megan - they have been awesome). The majority of the afternoon/evening was spent sleeping our jet lag off.

Today we were awoken at 5am by the guesthouse-family taking their showers (Cambodians are early-rises!). Not to worry - most everything opens at 7am, so we didn't have to waste any time. After breakfast, it was straight off to find a bank - sadly closed on Sundays (a bit odd, since this is definately not a Christian country). Not to worry, though - we were whisked off on a moto to check out Tuol Sleng genocide museum.

The museum was incredibly sad, and still in such a raw state - it really brough home the horrors that the Cambodian people have been through in their recent history, and certainly makes you appeciate how incredibly easy-going and friendly they are. We will have pics up soon.

On a lighter note, afeter the museum, we headed down to the river font to check out the annual river-boating festival. It is an annual even to celebrate the reverse-folw of the Ton le Sap lake, which becomes so swollen from the Mekong over the monsoon season, that it flows back towards the sea for a few weeks each year. It certainly seemed like it was a really big deal - lots of people out along the water-front to cheer on the competitors, who were manning long rowing-style boats (about 20 men/women per boat). It had a really great festival atmosphere, with lots of interesting food on sale (crickets on a stick, bulotte (chicken foetus in a shell) and BBQd (tiny)chicks). Sadly, we didn't have any riel (cambodian currency) so I couldn't buy a BBQd chick... kind of like BBQd pousson, I think. Next time.

Tomorrow, we are off on our bikes to Kampong Cham. It is about 110km aaway, but a good deal of the road is unsealed, so we will see how we go. We are planning an early start to fingers-crossed that we make it!

Thinkng of you all.

2 comments:

  1. great to hear you both arrived safely and are already having some great experiences! The food certainly sounds interesting! Take care :-)

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  2. Take care, we love you both. This a great idea but please keep in touch regularly. Dad dares you to eat the crickets, but then again you are his girls. Love you both, Keep safe. Mum and Dad

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