I don’t think I have ever said “no thank you” so often, I am hoarse with no thank you. Every step of the way in Phnom Penh (now referred to as PP) it’s the same refrain “tuk tuk sir?”. Honestly the guy has to see that actually I just got off a tuk tuk, why on earth would I need another one five seconds later.
I did sleep in this morning, all the way until 8.30am, that was a treat. Breakfast in the hotel looked somewhat expensive so took a ride to the recommended venue promoted by guide book, unfortunately it is no longer in business, or we couldn’t find it so jumped out at the first sign of eggs. Just as an aside, I really find it offensive to be unable to avoid hearing about the exploitation of the local female population over breakfast, sleaze bags.
Sorry. To continue. Totally messed up, thought I would go to the Royal Palace before lunch so jumped in a tuk tuk, off we went only to discover it’s closed for lunch, 11.00 to 2.30, that is quite some Royal Lunch. Sat in cafe and drank water, tried to Skype younger son. Passed the time. Time dragged. Come on….
2.30 and I was at the gate, very impressive Royal Palace. All gold, silver, temples, Buddha’s,beautiful woodwork, bas reliefs ( for Barbara),great gardens and monks and cameras, lots of cameras. round I went. There are some photos, I added to the previous post Arrived Phnom Penh.
I had heard or read about the Russian Market so that was the next stop. Warnings in book about claustrophobia, no kidding. If the aisles between the stalls were three foot wide I would be surprised. After about ten minutes I really felt overwhelmed and left. Another aside, the local kids have made an art of mimicking the sounds from Angry Birds (a game) it is quite amazing, listen, someone is playing Angry Birds, look round and these young kids are having convulsions of hysterical laughter. Really quite clever.
So then I went to the Tuol Sleng museum. Well you don’t think about Cambodia without thinking of Pol Pot and his murderous four year regime do you ?. In the year 1975 he and his bunch of thugs evacuated this entire city, enslaving the population into tilling the land. It was quite ghastly. Ladies were openly weeping in the courtyard.
I was very sad.
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notreallytravelling 
Received your blog PP for a day. Sounds a bit depressing. Sorry I missed both your phone calls this morning.We were at church and then went out for drinks. Many thanks for trying. No news from Sal yet. Sophie coming down on Tuesday for a bath!
Lol
Mother
Thank you for the bas reliefs! The Palace looks amazing.
I guess when one is travelling as you are, there are going to be days such as this. It can’t all run smoothly or be consistantly interesting hour after hour. Read a history of Cambodia when we were planning on going out there and it included Pol Pot, how could it not? An unimaginably horrendous period. Stay safe.
Thanks for the empathy Barb’, you so right. Glad you liked the bas reliefs. Maybe we could get all bas relief nerdy together, privately! Just thinking about it briefly it seems that getting up early really helps things go smoothly.
What exploitation of women? I had no idea Cambodia had that going on, but I don’t know that part of the world. Kids mimicking Angry Birds, where do they have exposure to this application? So many questions…I’m sorry you were so sad Tim. Very quiet around the “hood”, despite the nice weather. No news to report, other than I’m talking to my dog….
Oh yes, it is quite sickening to behold, men of a certain age, often British, often heavily tattooed, entertaining young ladies old enough to be their grand daughters. Lots of smart phones, lots of tablets, lots of Angry Birds.