Cambodia – saskatoonie.com

January 29, 2019January 30, 2019

Tuesday January 29, 2019

Phnom Penh to Bangkok

Today we got up at 4:48 am and plugged in an electric kettle for instant coffee. We ate our sticky rice with fresh mango for breakfast and washed it down with Nescafe. Ugh. Our driver Mr Sandy was a few minutes late, he seems to have slept in because his alarm failed to work. Our hotel man phoned Mr Sandy and he was there to pick us up in 10 minute. HIs hair was still a bit sleepy looking and trying to button his shirt. In the end we had to wait at the airport to check in. We were there about 15 minutes too early.

The check-in, passport control, security and screening went very soothly. Shoes off, belts off, the usual thing. Once again we had to ditch a brand new bottle of water we got from the hotel.

Our flight loaded quickly, we were off in no time and on the ground in Bangkok in less than 2 hours.

Once we passed through immigration, picked up our bags, hit an ATM for Thai Baht, then we got a SIM card for our mobile phones. The cost was 649 Thai Baht which is $27.50 CAD. Over $1/day each for phone service. We paid $5 USD in Cambodia for up to a month ( but was only there 3 days) and $8 USD for a month in Vietnam (our stay was 20 days).

We hired a cab for 500 Thai Baht for the 45 minute trip to the Centre Point Pratunam hotel. Once we got checked in we crashed. Something about getting up early and flying is hard on the body. It really wears you down. Our Sticky rice was starting to wear thin by then. We got up after 90 minutes of snoozing and walked around and found a Thai restaurant. Back to the hotel to check out the laundry facility and then we went for a walk. By then it was getting dark.

The buildings around here are tall and the roads are narrow. Our side of our hotel is on a wide street but the front is on an streets no wider than a back alley at home. it is cray how narrow the roads are here in places.

The weather is Bangkok is hot. The weather at home is -33C with a wind chill of -46C. There are times when we miss the cold, but only for a moment as we are crowded on a narrow street passing food carts with deep fryers and people smoking cigarettes. Car and tuk tuk exhaust and smoke. We are wandering around Bangkok in flip flops t-shirts and shorts. By 6:30 pm our underarm secret was worn off. Its almost 9pm and we are ready to crash again for the second time today!

January 28, 2019January 28, 2019

Monday January 28, 2019

Phnom Penh - Royal Palace - Museum

Today we took it easy with only 2 things on the agenda. The Royal Place and the National Museum of Cambodia, both located close enough to walk, only a few minutes away.

Admission for each was $10 US. While each was unique we felt that the price of this admission was more expensive than anything we did yesterday and we got far more out of yesterday’s tours.

The Palace has 4 compounds and the public is permitted into two of them. We could look inside the doors or open windows of some of the buildings and some we could walk into. None of them permitted pictures so we only have outdoor shots! There were some exhibits as well towards the exit. One that was particularly interesting was a young women weaving fabric for a skirt. She said it takes 7 days to complete a skirt. The pattern was so intricate and had gold variegated thread that she lines up to make the design. The thread is so fine and there are so many that it was amazing how she shot the shuttle back and forth, lined everything up and managed to keep the pattern so perfect. Definitely no amateur!

The Museum was only a block or two away from the Palace. One of the streets that runs along the one Palace compound wall is blocked off to traffic. It was great to stroll down the street and not be dodging cars and scooters! The Museum, same as the Palace, didn’t permit photos of any of the indoor exhibits. We opted not to do the audio tour that was available for another $5 each. We chose to just wander through the displays and spend time at the exhibits that caught our attention. There were some very intricate wood carvings, lots of metal work and lots of stone sculptures, many from Angkor Was temple in Siam Riep and one from Koh Ker that we also visited 3 years ago. There was an interesting boat cabin all constructed from wood.

The video above was taken in the courtyard area of the National Museum Cambodia. The skirt that she is weaving will take 7 days to complete.

By then our feet and stomachs were starting to complain. Gary googled nearby restaurants and we found the Cocina Cartel only a block or two away and the reviews were good. We shared an order of chips and guacamole and a plate of 3 shredded chicken tacos. We decided to really splurge and had 2 Corona beer, far more expensive than the local beer! Altogether our meal was $16. From there we headed back to the hotel to change our of our “respectable” gear. You have to wear pants below your knees and shirts with sleeves (no bare shoulders) to visit the palace and museum (also many temples). Once changed we headed off for a 90 minute massage for $15 each. The bed in our hotel room is great, the pillows not so much, plus with all the walking we’ve been doing a massage felt pretty good. Came back to the hotel and enjoyed a Mango IPA beer crafted locally. It was not cheap, $.4.95, but we love mangos and were interested to see what the beer would be like. You could taste the mango and it was pretty refreshing. The view from the 3rd floor terrace bar at the FCC Hotel is pretty impressive. We sat overlooking the Mekong River and watched all the boats, people and traffic! It’s never dull.

Supper tonight was back at the little restaurant a couple doors down from our hotel where we ate our first night. Food was awesome, we both had cashew chicken, steamed rice and a 50 cent beer! We found they had mango sticky rice for dessert so shared one of those. Our entire supper was only slightly more than our two mango beers!

We have a car booked to head to the airport tomorrow morning. It will be here by 6 am to pick us up so we’ll have an early morning. After multiple conversations with the front desk about getting something for breakfast before we leave (they don’t start serving till 6:30) they finally said they could make a take-away breakfast but it would be bread only. We said thanks but we’ll pass, did also ask if we could get juice and extra water but that seemed like a major conundrum so not sure if there will be any at the office in the morning or not. Linda ran back to the restaurant and bought two orders of mango sticky rice to go and squished them in our little fridge. Gary bought a 1.5 L bottle of water for 68 cents. We have a kettle in our room and some instant coffee so we should be set for morning. We are off to bed early, so glad we packed ear plugs!!

January 27, 2019January 28, 2019

Sunday January 27, 2019

Killing Fields & S-21 Tuol Sieng

Phnom Penh Cambodia

The Killing Fields

and

Tuol Sieng Genocide Museum

Up until now you have seen some disturbing pictures and heard horrid tales of killing. The purpose of the Killing Fields, also known as the Choeung Ek Genocide Centre is to record this for the history books so it will never be repeated. Sadly there have been mass killing not far from Cambodia in the former country of Burma now known as Myanmar. The 2017–present Rohingya genocide in Myanmar began on 25 August 2017 when the Myanmar military forces and local Buddhist extremists started attacking.

We walked along the river promenade down the street to the Night Market. Linda. bought two new shirts and Gary bought one, total price $11 USD. We has a fun visit with the lady selling the clothing. She asked how to pronounce (and pointed at a feather on a T-shirt) We tried for several minutes to teach her to say “th” sound as in “the”, “feathers”. Something we take for granted, but it was very difficult for her to place her tongue in the correct position. We all had a good laugh! Her little baby was 2 years, 2 months old and sleeping in the rack of clothing on a hammock. Just totally out of it, in all the noise!

The video below is the partial trip by tuk tuk to the FCC Hotel in Phnom Penh. Everyone drives in random madness ! Sometimes its enough to drive you nuts. There is no road rage here!

January 26, 2019January 26, 2019

Saturday January 26, 2019

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

We packed our luggage and met the airport shuttle driver in the lobby a few minutes before 10 am. We had to allow one hour for the trip to the airport. We actually took only 15 minutes. Traffic still seemed slow but we never actually stopped in gridlock so we got to the airport about 30 minutes faster than expected.

We actually got to the airport before our airline was accepting check ins for our flight. We sat and waited. Finally 3 hours later we were sitting at the gate with frozen Mocha drinks to combat the dehydration. We aren’t getting enough liquids. This will help. Did we mention the cluster flick they have going on at Saigon’s airport security? It was the most unorganized thing going. Very few trays and no place to set them if you managed to fight the mass to grab some when they became available. And no long conveyers into the scanner. We may have been x-rayed as bystanders, by standing to close to the scanners. There was no direction from security staff, no place to load trays, open laptops or take off your shoes. Basically mass confusion.

Our flight landed and we were at immigration with our photos applying for visas. 10 minutes and $60 USD later we were at the luggage carousel grabbing our bags. We went out the doors, found our driver and bought 2 SIM cards for $5USD each. From now on we are talking USD in Cambodia. I think the US lost the war but won the currency battle.

We’re staying at the coolest place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The Foreign Correspondence Club Hotel. We have the first floor corner room. If you watch the movie “Killing Fields” with Sam Waterston, the hotel is centre stage when Phnom Penh fell in the Vietnam era war. The hotel Is old but seriously cool. And the rooms are big! We have a corner patio outside with chairs and ceiling fan overlooking the river and street. Life here before air conditioning must have been pure hell, thus the ceiling fans outside. We are sitting out side as we write this blog, the noise is earth shattering and exhaust fumes are occasionally strong. We are getting a nice breeze from the ceiling fan. We left the air con on in the room and its too cold now.

We went for a sunset cruise down the Tonlé Sap River and joined into the Mekong river. Linda was accosted by 2 Cambodian girls for pictures. It’s only beginning! After the cruise we ate at a restaurant behind the hotel down the side street. It was cheap and very good. We finished off with a cappuccino coffee.