charming city, day 1

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

What a great city.  I love it here.  Cambodia is known as the "charming city" via signage across the roadways and underpasses, travel guides and the people who smile their way through the day.  I feel totally welcome and that people are genuinely welcoming.  I agree, it's pretty charming.

This morning my travel buddy Caroline and I got up and wet running at 7.30am along the Mekong River.  We jogged for about 30 minutes before stopping alongside a cute cafe and having a fresh fruit plate with yogurt and honey, and some coffee that wasn't burned during the roasting or brewing process- fantastic!!  Then we wandered along the streets perpendicular to the Riverfront area.  We walked past massive auto repair centers, outdoor barber shops, and beautiful fruit markets. We happened upon a spa because 1.) this is Asia and they are everywhere, and 2.) we were in dyer need of a massage.  We found a cute place and each had an hour-long full body massage for $4.  It. was. heaven. We returned to our hotel for some more coffee and fruit and then got ready for our day.  

We took our first tuktuk to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, at Security Office 21 (S-21), which was incredibly sad and horrible.  

It originally operated as a school but in 1975 was redesigned on the orders of Pol Pot for detention, interrogation, inhumane torture and killing of those detained.  This blackboard still had writing on it.

For almost 4 years this horrible outfit used chains, shackles, and other various torture devices on its prisoners.  

Over 13,000 people met their death here in less than 4 years it was in operation. Bodies from here were transported to the various Killing Fields sites across the country.  Really sobering, but an important thing to see.

After that we made our way back to the Riverfront and to a place called K-West for lunch where I had my first hamburger of the year (no kidding). It was heaven.  Then we took a tuktuk to the Central Market.   

The Central Market has everything you could possibly think of to purchase: jewelry (jade, faux diamonds, angry bird slap watches), household items (pots, plates, bedding), women's, men's and kid's clothes, puppies for sale, candles, religious paraphernalia, fresh fruit, meat, fish and prepared food stalls. 

The meat section was in fact refrigerated. 

We declined these fish heads...

But when we saw this grilled squid we had to have some.  It may have been the best squid I have ever had.

 

Then we took another tuktuk to the Wat Phnom Pagoda.

In 1372 Lady Penh fished a floating koki tree out of the Mekong River and inside the tree were 4 Buddha statues.  The statues needed somewhere to live so she built them a hill and a small temple and that is now the site of the Wat (small temple) Phnom (hill) Penh (her name).  The city is her namesake. 

The inside of the temple was stunning.  Every inch of wall space was painted.

I loved this little Buddha incense station outside.

Then we took another tuktuk to the port where we attempted to get onto a "sunset cruise" but it just didn't work out so we took our 12th tuktuk of the day and went back to our hotel. 

We booked our hotels for Siem Reap and tried to figure out what to do with our evening.  After much discussion we decided to walk 50m out of our hotel on 178 street to The Latin Quarter restaurant where we enjoyed prawn ceviche, gazpacho and chicken croquettes. And some white wine. And some sangria. There was a Halloween party with an awesome high-energy live band and we had an amazing time dancing until we could dance no more.

Love Cambodia.