Dan and Carolann are not at Home: Cambodia--Hot and Spicy

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

After almost two days of travel, we finally arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, exhausted. What we saved on our flight cost by going the long way from Toronto through London and Helsinki, we paid dearly in our energy levels because of lack of sleep and travel fatigue. And our ears are still plugged and painful from all of the takeoffs and landings—eight in total counting the last leg from Bangkok to Phnom Penh.

The flight from Helsinki to Bangkok was particularly interesting because I got to watch the de-icing and the take-off from a camera on the tail. Pretty cool.

Business class seating in little cubicles turned out to be very comfortable and I actually was able to sleep on the plane, which is unheard of for me.

Our plan is to lay low in Phnom Penh, the capital city, to recover and resynch our internal clocks to Asia time. Why Phonm Penh? Well, we’ve been to Cambodia before but never to the capital and this city will be a good jumping off point for the islands off the southern coast and then for our trip north to Laos afterwards. We’re not really in Phnom Penh for the tourist sites.

We’ve lucked out with a lovely boutique hotel within walking distance of the main attractions, such as they are. The Royal Palace is similar but not as grandiose as the one in Bangkok and we’ve seen lots of temples or Wats in Asia. That leaves the Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields, neither of which I’m looking forward to, but which I feel we have a moral duty to visit even if it is depressing. More on that after our visit.

Sacred Lotus blossom at Mansion Hotel

Phnom Penh is a bit of a surprise. This former French colony capital of over two million people is overcrowded, teeming with motorbikes and cars and not very attractive. It has none of the grace or elegance of other former French colony cities like Hanoi. In fact the only vestiges of French colonialism I’ve seen so far are the wonderful croissants and baguettes. Where Hanoi has a lot of French colonial architecture, I’ve seen very little here. Everything appears drab except for the golden wats and the ever-present flowers.

But Phnom Penh isn’t as polluted or dirty as other cities we’ve visited in India or Thailand. Although there are millions of motorbikes zipping along like enraged hornets, the air pollution is minimal. There are no diesel buses or trucks belching black clouds of throat-clogging exhaust. In fact, we haven’t seen any public transit other than Tuk tuks. And the noise level is so much lower than horn-honking cities in India. Drivers rarely use their horns here except to warn a bike not to cross in front of them at an intersection.

The rules of the road, however, are similar to other Asian cities—bigger wins. Red lights are routinely flouted. Stop signs, if there are any, are ignored. A wave of cars and bikes will keep going through the intersection as a solid block long after the light has changed. The herd provides security. Motorbikes will turn left on a red light if they see a gap in the crossing traffic. And you will often find a motorbike going the wrong way on a one-way street, driving close to the curb right where you need to be walking. You need to keep your eyes peeled, which is hard to do because the ongoing weaving dance of bikes and cars is mesmerizing. It’s like a ballet, constantly moving in an intricate synchronized flow. But the risk is much worse than stepping on your partners toes!

Typical traffic, but the ladder on a scooter is a bit unusual.

Which brings me to the hazards of walking in Phnom Penh. Sidewalks are broken up and completely clogged with parked motorbikes and cars. So you are forced onto the road to get around the blockades, all while looking out for oncoming cars and deadly stealth electric motorbikes which you can’t hear until they brush by your arm. It is impossible to walk in a straight line anywhere. You have to constantly zig zag around trees, parked bikes and holes in the sidewalk. Consequently it takes twice as long to get anywhere.

At night, the danger is much, much worse. You can’t see the broken tiles or holes in the sidewalks and some of the electric bikes turn off their lights to save their batteries. It is much safer and faster to hop on a Tuk tuk to get where you’re going at night. It only costs $3 and because the traffic here moves at such a sedate pace, it is relatively safe. Much safer than walking.

The other problem with Phnom Penh is currency—it’s US dollars in restaurants, stores, and even for Tuk tuks. They will take Cambodian riels, but the prices are listed in US dollars so you have to convert. To make matters worse, banks won’t change Canadian dollars and ATMs won’t give you riels. They only spit out crisp, new $100 US bills, which nobody takes!

Purple lotus flower and buds at market

On the plus side, even in this blackened city there are trees and flowers everywhere, mostly in urns, vases or holes in the sidewalks. And the market is full of bright bouquets of lotus blossoms and golden offerings for prayers. Trees are adorned with purple cascading bouquets or multicoloured frangipani flower clusters. Colouful offerings of purple or white lotus blossoms are left on sidewalks and epiphytic orchids hang from tree branches.

And everywhere, fragrant incense wafts from stores, restaurants, coffee shops and brilliant golden orbs left as offering on the sidewalk. Bright, fresh mango, dragon fruit, pineapple, jack fruit is sold from carts and stands everywhere in the city.

A big pleasant surprise is that the noise level is very low. Unlike many other Asian cities there are very few barking dogs roaming around, no roosters, no loud trucks and rarely any honking.

The biggest blessing is the Cambodian people. They’re friendly, smiling and always gracious. I’ve learned a few expressions of Khmer that I use to greet people just to see them smile when I say “Hello” or “How are you?”.