Phnom Penh, An Unexpected Surprise

Truth be told, I didn't really know what to expect from Phnom Penh. All I really knew was that it was the capital city for Cambodia and that outside of Phnom Penh were the famous Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. When I arrived I was surprised to find that there was no foreign exchange bureau in the airport, but relieved when I found the ATM. Then I was even more confounded when it spit out U.S. Dollars? When I jumped in the cab to take me to my guesthouse, my cabbie informed me that everyone uses U.S. Dollars.

Upon finding my guesthouse I struck out to see a bit of Phnom Penh. I was pleasantly surprised by the French influence in the wide walkable streets. I was also surprised at the dirtiness of the main streets. It seemed to be a bit dirtier than Vietnam and the few places that I had been in Thailand. Still the area of Phnom Penh near the river was fantastic as there were lots of restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs. It was great fun to sit at a restaurant and watch the lightening show that seemed to happen every night as the rainy season drew to a close.

The Royal Palace was strikingly similar to the Grand Palace in Bangkok and the Cambodians even had their own Emerald Buddha. The architecture was very similar as well, but that's most likely because the Khmer Empire had influences in modern day Thailand and the Thai empire had influences in modern day Cambodia.

Of course, very few tourists miss out on the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and the Tuol Sleng (S-21) Museum. These two stops have probably the most humbling stops on my whole trip. To think of the mass genocide and tortures that happened at these two sites is truly humbling. Pretty much a whole generation was wiped out during the killings by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. And to put it into even greater perspective for me, it only happened 29 years ago, or one year before I was born. It just goes to show you that humans are capable of really, really bad things. And if that isn't an understatemet, I don't know what is.

More later........

Love, peace, and soul.