Phenomenal Phnom Penh

Entry 19:
Checking out of Vietnam after having spent several weeks there, was exciting, as we were off to a new adventure - we were off to see Cambodia. The bus that transported us to the border had an attendant who offered to get our visa for us while we dined in the restaurant for just $5 per person, as we warned us of long lines at the border. We passed on his offer and upon arrival at the Cambodian side we found not a single person waiting in line.

By this point in the trip, we were a bit tired of the "same same" in Vietnam and looked forward to the changes in Cambodia. After leaving the Vietnamese border, which contained a drab old building, we arrived at the Cambodian side, a building of typical architecture for the country with a beautiful roof and decorative exterior. We hoped this would be a sign of things to come.

The bus eventually let us off in Phnom Penh and we were greeted by the usual suspects...guesthouse proprietors and tuk-tuk drivers. We climbed into a tuk-tuk and headed for the guesthouse. While Sharon ran upstairs to see the room, Marc chatted with the driver. Chang let Marc know that he would take us to another guesthouse for the same dollar if we were unpleased with this one. Could be he was trying to sell his services as a tour guide for the next day.

An easy way to unsure you see all the sites is to join a city tour, so that's what we did. We started off at the Tuol Sleng, a former high school that was used as a torture chamber by the Khmer Rouge, headed by Pol Pot. The classrooms at this site were converted into cells, each displaying a picture of the last prisoner held there. An hour long film was shown which spoke about the story of one couple who was killed by the Khmer Rouge.

After being held at Tuol Sleng for some time, prisoners were transported to what has become known as the Killing Fields, an area where they were brutally executed and burried in mass graves. Their skulls are on display in a large "stupa" or tomb.

Other highlights included the Russian Market, the National Museum, and the Royal Palace.

One thing that we would learn is that Cambodian cuisine has a lot in common with Thai cooking. Needless to say, we were very happy to sit down and try our first Cambodian meal. For the next several days, while in Cambodia, we would be treated to a wide range of excellent dishes.

Us poor travellers sometimes need to recharge the batteries. And even if that's not true, it is still nice to get pampered every so often. At $6 per hour, it's not much of a financial hardship. We had read about an organization that trains people with vision loss to be massage therapists. The "Seeing Hands" massage parlors provide their customers with excellent Japanese style shiatsu massages. You change out of your street clothes and into a pajama-like outfit, climb onto the massage table and let the therapist do the work. The masseurs are extremely well trained and very precise in their actions. After our first Seeing Hands massage, Sharon could not stop raving about how good she felt. Marc took this as a sign that perhaps he ought to consider a career change. Throughout Cambodia, there are many blind people who have lost their eyesight due to explosive devices from the U.S. war in the region. This is a sad consequence to a really aweful period of history.