A bus back to Phnom Penh from Battambang and a quick shower letter and there were visitors at our door step! One of Shanti's good friends from Spain, Laia, and her boyfriend, Diego, happened to be traveling through Southeast Asia and had a few days in Phnom Penh - our first guests!
We had a lovely Khmer dinner on the riverfront which, although beautiful, is very touristy and the moto drivers and souvenir-peddlers are very pushy.
Shanti had to work Friday, so I hung out with her Spanish friends, going to Wat Phnom - where you could feed, ride, and take pictures with an elephant (go jumbos!). There were also wild - but very tame - monkeys that you could feed. From the Wat, we went to the Central Market, and enormous area, indoors and out, of people selling handicrafts, jewelry, housewares, fresh produce, clothing, and almost anything else you can imagine. Incredibly overwhelming, but also quite a bit of fun.
The same afternoon we met Shanti at Tuol Sleng, or S-21, the infamous high school turned Khmer Rouge prison and torture camp where about 20,000 people were killed. It was the most disturbing place or thing I had ever seen. Though turned in to a museum, it was as if nothing had changed in the past thirty years. What appeared to be blood stains remained on the floor and the cells, some brick and some wood (and all minuscule) were left in tact and untouched. The most haunting part about the "museum" was not the small collection of skulls with descriptions of how that particular person had been killed (whether by bullet or "blunt impact" to the head), but the incredible photographs of thousands of the prisoners and images of some during or just after being "interrogated." It was an experience I will not soon forget, though I plan to return just to remind myself what Cambodia went through not too long ago.
Saturday morning brought our first true monsoon. Pounding rains and heavy wind for several hours. Instead of going to the Royal Palace or the National Museum (as planned), we decided to treat ourselves to an hour-long massage by the blind (apparently this is a popular, non-sketchy alternative to other massage parlors) for a mere $5. It was the first massage I paid for and it was pretty damn good. I think Shanti and I will treat ourselves to a half hour massage every few weeks.
Though we thought our day had been lacking in adventure, we returned home to discover a leak in our kitchen (the floor was flooded) and a critter - a spider with boots if you're my mom, a mouse if you're anyone else). Though the leak has now been fixed, the critter remains at large, though we think we have him under control.
Sunday brought more adventures, perhaps as expected. We made a trip to the Olympic Market (Pshar Orussey) to purchase goods for the house. We ended up with cookware, a battery charger, trash cans, a laundry basket, an iron, a hair dryer (not for me), and a cute charcoal barbecue. Can't wait to use it!
If I haven't bored you to tears yet, you can wait until my next entry, hopefully within the next few days.
We had a lovely Khmer dinner on the riverfront which, although beautiful, is very touristy and the moto drivers and souvenir-peddlers are very pushy.
Shanti had to work Friday, so I hung out with her Spanish friends, going to Wat Phnom - where you could feed, ride, and take pictures with an elephant (go jumbos!). There were also wild - but very tame - monkeys that you could feed. From the Wat, we went to the Central Market, and enormous area, indoors and out, of people selling handicrafts, jewelry, housewares, fresh produce, clothing, and almost anything else you can imagine. Incredibly overwhelming, but also quite a bit of fun.
The same afternoon we met Shanti at Tuol Sleng, or S-21, the infamous high school turned Khmer Rouge prison and torture camp where about 20,000 people were killed. It was the most disturbing place or thing I had ever seen. Though turned in to a museum, it was as if nothing had changed in the past thirty years. What appeared to be blood stains remained on the floor and the cells, some brick and some wood (and all minuscule) were left in tact and untouched. The most haunting part about the "museum" was not the small collection of skulls with descriptions of how that particular person had been killed (whether by bullet or "blunt impact" to the head), but the incredible photographs of thousands of the prisoners and images of some during or just after being "interrogated." It was an experience I will not soon forget, though I plan to return just to remind myself what Cambodia went through not too long ago.
Saturday morning brought our first true monsoon. Pounding rains and heavy wind for several hours. Instead of going to the Royal Palace or the National Museum (as planned), we decided to treat ourselves to an hour-long massage by the blind (apparently this is a popular, non-sketchy alternative to other massage parlors) for a mere $5. It was the first massage I paid for and it was pretty damn good. I think Shanti and I will treat ourselves to a half hour massage every few weeks.
Though we thought our day had been lacking in adventure, we returned home to discover a leak in our kitchen (the floor was flooded) and a critter - a spider with boots if you're my mom, a mouse if you're anyone else). Though the leak has now been fixed, the critter remains at large, though we think we have him under control.
Sunday brought more adventures, perhaps as expected. We made a trip to the Olympic Market (Pshar Orussey) to purchase goods for the house. We ended up with cookware, a battery charger, trash cans, a laundry basket, an iron, a hair dryer (not for me), and a cute charcoal barbecue. Can't wait to use it!
If I haven't bored you to tears yet, you can wait until my next entry, hopefully within the next few days.
1 comment:
I think you will appreciate comments here, so I'm just saying hi. This sounds amazing, I can't wait to hear more stories. I'm thinking about you and Shanti a lot.
Lots of Jumbo love,
Margaret
PS I think your blog name is funny and clever.
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