Day 55 - Phnom Penh
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Saturday 2nd October
Grand Final Day - take 2!
I was awake reasonably early, given the match didn't start until 10:30am local time. In between showering and breakfast, I got distracted by the movie '27 Dresses' which was playing on TV. I would have watched it to the end, which would have given me 15 minutes to grab breakfast before the match coverage started, except I had to remember where I was - nothing fast happens here! (Case in point - did you know there is an overnight bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, even though it's less than 200km!)
Did anyone else feel the second time around lacked the excitement and atmosphere of the first? By halftime, things were looking grim, and the sight of Eddie McGuire's face in the last quarter was enough for me to want to throw something at the TV. Thank goodness I am not living in Australia at the moment, with Julia Gillard as PM and Collingwood as premiers!
I was starving when the match finished, but there were a couple of sights I wanted to see before they closed at 5:30pm, and I didn't want to waste time eating. First off, I walked to Tuong Slel. Previously a school, it became a home to the innocent Cambodians during the Khmer Rouge's reign before they were shipped off to the killing fields. It really does look like a run down old school with a few notable exceptions - the most extreme being the barbed wire strung up along every balcony - effectively fencing the victims in and preventing them from committing suicide. The classrooms had been converted to museums, housing some harrowing and extremely graphic images, both real and re-created, of the torture imposed on the victims, including waterboarding and amputations.
From there, it wasn't far to the 'Russian Market;. Lonely Planet had said this was the market tourists shouldn't miss during their stay in PP. It was full of tiny allies and crammed stalls, a large number of which were clothing stalls selling branded clothes that had 'fallen off the back of the truck'. (You may know, thanks to the recent press coverage of the strikes at the garment factories, that a large number of Western clothes are manufacture in Cambodia, including Levi and Adidas). I accidentally ventured into the food section, where whole ducks that had been literally just 'de-plucked' (eyes, mouth etc still in tact) were strung up on hooks - yuk!
I had the tuk-tuk driver drop me on the river, intending to eat at a cafe recommend by 'the Bible' (LP). Whilst I couldn't find the cafe, I witnessed 2 crashes whilst looking. One, with a 4WD collecting a motorcyclist, and the second with 4WD reversing straight into a parked car (before promptly speeding off!)
I ended up at an American themed bar (all in all, the food in PP had been very unimpressive), before having a Khmer massage nearby to the guesthouse. It was the worst massage I've ever experienced, with the girl torturing my muscles rather than soothing them.
I took shelter in the internet cafe whilst the skies opened and then collected my laundry from the guesthouse. There has been 2 items missing from the batch I'd dropped in on Thursday, and I wanted to make sure they'd returned. They hadn't - and another item had gone missing.
Despite speaking English, it was hard to explain to the owner, who put in calls to the laundry but were unable to find the items. The owner seemed unfussed and said the laundry had probably given them to someone else, who had since checked out. Not impressed, especially when the missing items were my favourite Billabong skirt, a brand new Adidas hat and pair of Adidas socks. I did end up receiving some compensation from the by then very unfriendly owner, but it made me extremely mad and glad to be leaving early the next morning. They will be receiving a very bad review on TripAdvisor!!
Grand Final Day - take 2!
I was awake reasonably early, given the match didn't start until 10:30am local time. In between showering and breakfast, I got distracted by the movie '27 Dresses' which was playing on TV. I would have watched it to the end, which would have given me 15 minutes to grab breakfast before the match coverage started, except I had to remember where I was - nothing fast happens here! (Case in point - did you know there is an overnight bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, even though it's less than 200km!)
Did anyone else feel the second time around lacked the excitement and atmosphere of the first? By halftime, things were looking grim, and the sight of Eddie McGuire's face in the last quarter was enough for me to want to throw something at the TV. Thank goodness I am not living in Australia at the moment, with Julia Gillard as PM and Collingwood as premiers!
I was starving when the match finished, but there were a couple of sights I wanted to see before they closed at 5:30pm, and I didn't want to waste time eating. First off, I walked to Tuong Slel. Previously a school, it became a home to the innocent Cambodians during the Khmer Rouge's reign before they were shipped off to the killing fields. It really does look like a run down old school with a few notable exceptions - the most extreme being the barbed wire strung up along every balcony - effectively fencing the victims in and preventing them from committing suicide. The classrooms had been converted to museums, housing some harrowing and extremely graphic images, both real and re-created, of the torture imposed on the victims, including waterboarding and amputations.
From there, it wasn't far to the 'Russian Market;. Lonely Planet had said this was the market tourists shouldn't miss during their stay in PP. It was full of tiny allies and crammed stalls, a large number of which were clothing stalls selling branded clothes that had 'fallen off the back of the truck'. (You may know, thanks to the recent press coverage of the strikes at the garment factories, that a large number of Western clothes are manufacture in Cambodia, including Levi and Adidas). I accidentally ventured into the food section, where whole ducks that had been literally just 'de-plucked' (eyes, mouth etc still in tact) were strung up on hooks - yuk!
I had the tuk-tuk driver drop me on the river, intending to eat at a cafe recommend by 'the Bible' (LP). Whilst I couldn't find the cafe, I witnessed 2 crashes whilst looking. One, with a 4WD collecting a motorcyclist, and the second with 4WD reversing straight into a parked car (before promptly speeding off!)
I ended up at an American themed bar (all in all, the food in PP had been very unimpressive), before having a Khmer massage nearby to the guesthouse. It was the worst massage I've ever experienced, with the girl torturing my muscles rather than soothing them.
I took shelter in the internet cafe whilst the skies opened and then collected my laundry from the guesthouse. There has been 2 items missing from the batch I'd dropped in on Thursday, and I wanted to make sure they'd returned. They hadn't - and another item had gone missing.
Despite speaking English, it was hard to explain to the owner, who put in calls to the laundry but were unable to find the items. The owner seemed unfussed and said the laundry had probably given them to someone else, who had since checked out. Not impressed, especially when the missing items were my favourite Billabong skirt, a brand new Adidas hat and pair of Adidas socks. I did end up receiving some compensation from the by then very unfriendly owner, but it made me extremely mad and glad to be leaving early the next morning. They will be receiving a very bad review on TripAdvisor!!
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