Worldwide Wanderers

So we’re obviously not going to love every place we explore, but we hope that we can understand a bit of it’s heartbeat and find something that makes us smile..

Ummm….Phnom Penh – you were just far too weird, dark and seedy for us….so much so we legged it within 36 hours!

The journey itself began really rather strangely and should have been a sign of things to come. The reviews of driving from HCMC to Phnom Penh were more than a little frightening with stories of drivers falling asleep at the wheel, sharing seats and dodgy border crossings so we took the very quick, 28 minutes flight from HCMC where we were only 4 of about 50 passengers on a 777. I have never got on a flight where you are invited to sit anywhere you like, informed that it’s not worth taking your seat belt off and the safety demonstration is followed immediately but the landing announcement. Another rather officious immigration process left us with a slight dilemma. A Chinese teenager who didn’t speak much English had got himself stuck between immigration and freedom with no money for a visa (his Dad apparently had it who was waiting for him in the arrivals hall) was asking for help. After a gut reaction of “sorry no this sounds like scam written all over it” the kids reminded us that we must always be kind….so we offered to give him the money for his visa. He then stuck with us through bag collection at which point I had a panic that we were all going to end up in a Cambodian jail for assisting drug trafficking. After we collected the bags I got separated by Pads and ended up walking out sandwiched between some rather serious looking Cambodian Police Officers…Pads nearly had a heart attack thinking the worst! Moral of the story is obviously its great to help people but maybe not at the expense of a life sentence in a Cambodian jail….. Thankfully the story ended well with faith in humanity restored, and the boys Dad was indeed waiting for him, with the money (plus a little extra!…..just enough in fact for a rather stiff G&T!)

I had been really boasting about my bargain USD35 a night 2 bed Cambodian accommodation gem…..that’ll teach me! If you thought China was big in Africa, Cambodia is literally being built by the Chinese….every building, bridge, supermarket, construction site was branded with Chinese backers. As our taxi pulled up to the imposing 1960’s style high rise apartment block there was a collective gasp of shock …. of course followed by a very British “put your big girl pants on” approach…it surely can’t be that bad. Well….have you ever stayed in a Chinese built apartment block, that isn’t actually finished, and you’re the only people staying there….on the 23rd floor! Unbelievably bizarre….the two rooms in fact turned out to be one room with two double beds….thank goodness as there was no way I would have slept in different rooms, selflessly also insisted Pads slept closest to the door. The more concerning thing was the posters all over the building that said “no sex service and no drugs” (there were some other informative posters that were far too dark to mention) – I literally think we’d booked into some kind of weird Chinese brothel….

After a rather fitful nights sleep with one eye open (I was sure we were going to be murdered in our beds or some sex party was going to invade the flat) …we set off on a tuk tuk tour. The visit to the Killing Fields was incredibly emotional and thought provoking…..to be honest it was worth experiencing the dark side of the city to reflect and learn more about the Khmer Rouge and the horror of Pol Pot’s regime. A quick tour around the central market, Royal Palace and temple’s was enough for the kids to conclude that Phnom Penh “stinks” more than Bangkok and Pads & I to work out we’d probably knocked a few years off our lives by breathing in the heavily polluted city air.

A little bit jaded but not defeated we thought we’d head to the night market and for dinner…hoping that the city would show us a different side. Oh she did but far stranger that we would have ever dreamed. As we had dinner a very sweet Cambodian couple sat next to us and proceeded to put a very life like doll on their table, stroked her hair, kissed her lips and then cradled her like a real life baby…..E & G were transfixed and couldn’t stop staring, slightly uncomfortable after a while, until……they noticed the couple on the other side. A rather portly middle aged American gentleman with a gorgeous Cambodain woman. Evangeline was mesmorised…”mummy, look at her nails…Mummy, look at her really long eyelashes……….mummy……why does she speak like a man”……kids have no volume control so some more discomfort followed and a rather long conversation ensued about LGBTI?+……we had LGBT covered but must admit struggled on the I?+ explanation….We did say this trip was about learning!

After tuk tuk’ing back through the arid pollution we arrived back at the weird Chinese Brothel high rise only to meet a man putting up more “no sex – service” posters and quickly decided to leg it as soon as possible the next morning…..on a positive note I packed my backpack the quickest ever….

Battambang…..please be more gentle with us!