15 Dec - Arrival in Phnom Penh
We made our Kuala Lumpur transfer in good time. A nice modern airport but with no real snack or drink places to buy from. We met an old Oz guy who's living in Cambodia who gave us some tips during the 1.5 hour trip. The cabin music was like a snake charmer vibe and the announcer saying "ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls" like it was a circus show. Although the food was ok, after about 6 meals I wasn't really in the mood. The Haagen-Daz ice cream was appreciated.
The airport visa process was a little hurried with a passport photo and $20 to start then a bank of officials stamping and checking until our first names. With our baggage collected we met 'Red', our Phnom Penh rep who immediately insisted on getting the tour started with the Killing Fields nearest enroute. With about 14 hours traveling, all we wanted was a shower and change of clothes but our politeness stopped us. The 4x4 car journey opened our eyes to multi person mopeds with every type of goods being transported plus a sideshow of weird cuisine and some depressing slum areas. I would have been happy to watch all this but our rep was keen to give us detailed information needing our full attention. It was blisteringly hot with our jeans on too.
The Killing Fields site was quite modest with a tower building full of victims' skulls found. Red gave us some quite personal stories from his family's past which made it even more fascinating with each pit's purpose explained and stepping on or across victim's clothes' rags, bones and teeth just visible in the ground. The butterflies made it a little more peaceful. The baby pit was particularly gruesome as a story and the execution methods very harrowing. Red gave us some very detailed account of his elder brother captured, tried to escape then kill about 5 guards before being killed himself. Throughout this experience we're melting from heat and feeling run down from tiredness. Eventually we apologise for the request to quicken the tour and ask for some recovery time at the hotel, hoping we hadn't offended him.
Driving to hotel we past many national monuments and embassy buildings with the wealth difference noticeable. The PMs house looked smaller than the Tiger beer importer's. We had about an hour to freshen up at the Castle hotel (complete with xmas tree and decorations) then on to the Royal Palace which was quite grand. Lots of Buddhist monks around either in tuk-tuks or on moped pillion. We ran out of energy at about 4pm and had 4 hours kip disturbed by my right calf muscle spasmed with cramp. For dinner we played it safe for the Foreign Correspondents Club but ordered far too much food for our jetlagged stomachs. Lao beer was good though. The outside air near the river wasn't great either but the massages we had were cheap but excellent for $7 though a little tense after the cramp. By 11.45pm everywhere was dead apart from the odd tourist drinking at bars.
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