sightseeing in phnom penh

ariel and i are back in phnom penh for a few nights before heading to vietnam. phnom penh is a charming city and we are both really enjoying it. the streets are crazy, filled with tuk tuks, bicycles, cars, giant suvs and hundreds of thousands of motorbikes. motorbikes are by far the preferred method of transportation. we decided to stay at the same guesthouse as the last time we were in the city (because we enjoyed it, and because we had left our passports with the woman to get vietnamese visas) and they picked us up at the bus. everywhere in asia there is a press when tourists get off a bus or boat. people are screaming to see if we want a tuk tuk, hotel, taxi, another bus...it is crazy. the chaos that meets us every time we get off a bus in cambodia is the worst i have ever seen. india is legendary for this kind of stuff, and it isn't half as crazy there as it is here. we have to push our way through the people trying to get us to go with them as quickly as we possibly can because, inevitably, someone has already taken our bags and is walking away from the bus with them so that we have to follow them. it is madness. we arranged to be picked up by the guesthouse to avoid this, but they only sent one moto (moped) for the driver, ari, me, and our giant backpacks (each the size, if not the weight, of a human themselves). we stood in shock for a moment, amazed that they thought we'd be able to fit on one moto, and then we swallowed our reservations and hopped on. for years in china i saw entire families commuting on a moto, often 5 or more people. the driver put ari's bag in front of him, she climbed on behind him, and i climbed of the back, still wearing my pack. the logic? at least if i fall off the back of the bike the pack helps protect me from spinal chord injury?!! i don't know, but the dirver was safe, the ride was a lot of fun and we reached out guesthouse safely.

we got our vietnamese visas without issue and although the woman told us we would have the same room as last time, she put us into a bigger room (with hot water!!) that could sleep three. ariel and i were pleased, but very soon it became clear as to why we needed a room for three and we were only two people. the room had a resident roach, one of the largest i have ever seen. clearly, the extra bed was for him. he crawled all over our stuff for days and would retreat to sleep in the sink.

first thing in the morning we got up and went to the wat phnom, a temple located on top of the only hill in the city, overlooking the u.s. embassy. locals go there to pray for good luck in school or exams. we went and made an offering for ariel to get into the nursing school of her choice and to give me success and concentration for law school. if your wish is granted, you are supposed to go back to the temple and make another offering. we also visited the royal palace and the silver pagoda in central phnom phen. the buildings are magnificent, with tons of gold paint. the silver pagoda even has a silver floor! it is covered in carpet, but you can see it in places. the buildings are oriented along the tonle sap river which meets the mekong less than a mile south of where we were standing. so we had our first glimpse of the mighty mekong. both rivers seem very high because of the rainy season and they are the color of coffee with cream.



we walked up and down the river front where there are tons of restaurants serving western food and bars for foreigners. a man handed us a flier advertisiting the screening of two films that evening. both were under an hour and we decided we'd like to see both. the first was on pol pot and the cambodian genocide. the second was on landmines, a real issue as cambodia is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world (along with angola and afghanistan). the video covered a lot about landmines that i'd never thought about before. there are an estimated 4 - 6 million mines still in cambodia. the video said world wide, a mine detonates and either maims or kills every half hour. everywhere in cambodia there are signs warning people to not leave established paths and trails. the video said that the mines come in three different types (the first kind is stepped on and explodes beneath the person, the second is triggered by a trip wire and sprays up to 10 meters in the direction of the trip wire, and the third shoots into the air and explodes approximately in the persons face) and can be buried up to 9 cm below ground. to detonate, most need only 3 - 5 kilos of pressure. mines are designed to maim and not kill. they were used in cambodia to protect the borders and slow the advance of enemy troups. for this reason, the heaviest minefields lie along the borders, especially the border with vietnam, as the vietnmaese were using land in cambodia to travel through as a supply route. eventually, too, the vietnamese invaded cambodia and so more mines were laid.

mine removal efforts seems to be making good progess all over the country, but the best way to remove them is manually and it is a very slow process. around the tourist sites and museums in phnom phen and siem reap are homes for those who have been disabled by landmines. it is very sad to see and cambodia will take many more decades to recover from the khmer rouge and civil war.