Phnom Penh Cambodia

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

 On Sunday night, Jay, Dylan, Anita and I helped Kasumi update a Japanese tourist guidebook by going around to a number of craft and clothing shops to check if they were still open and if prices in the book were still current.

 Sunday night dinner at the BBQ Garden in HCMC, grilling our own meal on the table-top grill. Mmmmm!

 A typical Cambodian house en route by bus from HCMC to Phnom Penh (PP). Our bus ride took 6 1/2 hours although it was only 240k. The bus guides helped us get our visas at the border which only took about 20 minutes but can take 4 or 5 hours if it's busy. We also stopped for a 20 minute lunch break. Otherwise it was just slow due to 2 lane bumpy roads and much traffic. When we got to the Orussey Market in PP,  Anita's brother Tim had come to pick us up but we missed him so we took a tuktuk to our hotel. When we got there we discovered that Tim was out looking for us. He called the desk at the hotel and we eventually found each other.

 Tim and Anita gave Ernie Perrier a helmet and goggles so he could be our tuktuk driver. (He didn't drive.)

 Tim, Anita, Ernie, Mike Bellisle and I getting into a tuktuk for a ride to a bar before dinner.

 The Cat House bar is staffed by beautiful Cambodian women. Buy a woman a drink and she'll sit and talk to you. Friendly place where one before dinner drink might turn into a few.

 Mike, Tim, Tim's Korean friend from our hotel "Gangnam Kim", Ernie, Alin a friendly Cambodian woman, Anita and I at the Cat House.

 Anita and Tim leaving the Cat House, obviously enjoying themselves.

 Tim drove us to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda this morning. The Palace grounds were closed, probably because the old king died recently.

 The junction of the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap River in downtown Phnom Penh. When the floods come in September, because of the volume of water coming down the Mekong, the Tonle Sap actually flows backwards up into Tonle Sap Lake making it 4 times as big. This annual flood makes the Tonle Sap area very productive for fishing. The resulting productivity was a big factor in the emergence of the old Khmer culture that created Angkor Wat.

 The Silver Pagoda. We were not allowed to take pictures inside and you have to take your shoes off at the door but there are many sculptures of Buddha and other artifacts inside that are made with many kilograms of gold, silver and jade. Some have inlaid diamonds. Very beautiful.

Here we are posing with an artist from whom we all bought paintings. Our 2 paintings cost $23 each so we gave the artist $25 each in appreciation for her wrapping them for us.
So far, PP is a busy city but not as hectic as HCMC. Our hotel is a little further away from the river and the other tourist hotels so the people are more typically Cambodian, according to Tim. They're very nice and very honest in their dealings with us. Bargaining all the time is not necessary as it was in HCMC.
It's great having Tim as our guide. Ernie and Mike keep us laughing all the time. Combermere in Cambodia!