PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA - AN UNPLANNED TRIP (PART 1)

I didn't plan this trip at all. It was on the spur of the moment. I wanted to go somewhere because I would have 4 days off in a roll. I just wanted to go alone like I usually did because I hate planning. Dragging someone on a trip means you're responsible for that person's happiness during that trip (well, partly). I don't have the energy for that. My way of traveling is arrive at the destination, get the map, google, note down, go out and see how thing turns out in the end. 

Anyway, enough about my travel taste. This is the trip. 

I went to Phnom Penh, Cambodia from Hochiminh by bus. There was no research for the bus ticket also...I knew it must have been around $9-10 so I just came in any store on the backpacker's street and asked. I was lucky, the service I chose was very good. Another thing you must know about me is that I'm not picky. I have a set of criteria and if anything, anyone meets those criteria, they get a gold star from me. So for the bus service, the same. The name was Phuong Heng:

- Clean, no toilet on the bus, unlike other Cambodia-Vietnam buses. The idea of dragging a pile of human waste on highway for 6 hours just grosses me out. 

- Very nice and quick staff

- I didn't know the roads but they drove pretty fast. I was on time every time, 6 hours. Unlike last time my friend took the same route, she spent 8-10 hours.

- Big seats like buses in Korea. I just love those comfy seats with leg rest (excuse me, I'm old). The moment I saw the picture of the seats in the poster, I bought tickets. 

So recommended, Phuong Heng bus service, 291 Pham Ngu Lao, District 1, HCMC. Stops on Sihanouk road (near Olympic stadium) just like every other bus services of the same route.

About the hostel, I stayed in Lovely Jubbly Place, Street 19. Every travel, I go to Hostels.com to search. This place had the best rating, price for value and the most importantly, they accept Visa (you can't really find many places in Phnom Penh accept credit cards). Price was dirt cheap, $2 for weekday and $4 for weekend, co-ed dorm room. The bed was big and of course, clean. Toilets were nicely scrubbed. Lockers, towel were free of charge. They also had a bar so very convenient. It was near a lot of attractions like Silver Pagoda, National Museum, Night Market, Royal Palace, Wat Phnom (another pagoda), Central Market and river cruise. You can walk comfortably and discover all of the aforementioned in one day and that would be 90% of what you can see inside Phnom Penh.

So recommended, Lovely Jubbly Place, find them on Hostels.com.

Talking about attractions. Well, Phnom Penh is, honestly in my opinion, somehow boring because it resemblances cities in Vietnam a lot. Small cities in the South I would say.  But if you're not Vietnamese, maybe you'll like the slow, laid back vibe, the hot humid and polluted air, trash everywhere, sewage smell, beggars, lots of tuk tuk drivers calling as you are walking by, strange women, etc. Well, I don't mean it's bad, it's interesting in its own way. If you take time to walk around and just endure everything for a while, you'll get used to it. I did (I live in a similar country anyway LOL). Indeed, walking was the best way to observe life in Phnom Penh. 

The city architecture is boring and messy in general but those attractions mentioned above have very interesting Khmer decors (well, I've seen these in the Southern Vietnam already). I had high hopes for the museums though but...I went to 2. The first was National Museum. $5 admission fee (what?!) but it was a total disappointment. Very lack of information. Artifacts were exotic but not at all well preserved. Installation was a mess. No story telling. The second museum took me 5 hours walking to get there (I was nearly out of cash after shopping and getting a tattoo so didn't take tuk tuk). It was Tuol Sleng Museum, which was a prison under Pon Pot genocide period. I wanted to go so bad because I'd heard and read about the genocide but had never been to a real historic place to really feel the story. Anyway, the place itself and its history were impactful enough (20,000 people were tortured and killed there if I'm not mistaken). The displays were intriguing. Dead beds and empty rooms. Skulls and faces of dead prisoners, the elders to mothers holding infants. The pictures were very very real I could almost feel it by looking into their eyes. The prison cells (1x2 meter, very small) stroke me the most because I went inside a cell and sat down for 30 seconds. The feeling was chilly enough. Anyway, although it was not very emotional (I think I expected too much), Tuol Sleng is definitely recommended. 

Shopping in Cambodia. Yes, shop a lot of fabric! It was sooooo cheap and beautiful! I bought one 3-meter long well-made table runner for just $5! I went on buying many scarves I don't even know what to do with them now...I would recommend going to Night Market (opened only on Fri and weekend), cheap price and just enough variety so you'd save time. If you want more choices, go to Central Market. I didn't go to Russian Market since it was too far but from Google, stuff are just the same. 

Food...Just like Vietnamese food but a little bit more expensive so I ate nothing traditionally Cambodian. I thought I would though. I called "Khmer beef curry" and it turned out to be exactly like Vietnamese curry. Erh... Maybe it's just Phnom Penh...

PEOPLE! They are very nice and interesting. The people I met there that left me great impression were 2 boy working in the hostel's bar, the tattoo artist who did my tat, the Vietnamese tuk tuk driver I still owe 2000 riels to (about 50 cents), an Aussie entrepreneur and some of the random lives on the streets of Phnom Penh. 

Read more in Part 2.