Kingdom of Cambodia - A Phnom Penh's taste

and here is the video of me experiencing Tuk Tuk ride in Cambodia.




Made a quick stop at Phnom Penh's Central Market before meeting The Royal Highness'...garden and bricks.

Girls, behold.

A dome shaped like building, resembling Angkorian stupa with 4 vast hallways branching out - a home of hundreds stalls offering what market supposed to offer. From clothes to accessories, 

To silver blings lover, Cambodian provide good quality pure silver with price trice cheaper than in KL.

Cheap.

and from paintings and dust collectors for your living room.

Bring out your bargain skills and this place turns you to an instant merchant. No more souvenir shit. If your friends ask for it, tell them - "here, I sell you cheap. Consider my selling (cheap) price as my gift for you on top of it" 

Cambodia is the place for you to buy good quality accessories like silver and semi precious stones compared with what you can get in China. In term of clothes & leathers, they don't have much compared to Indonesia and Vietnam, I guess?

Anyways, I bought 2 Cambodian pants here and put it on my facebook wall. What I know, few friends of mine wanted it too. Sandal, rings... instant merchant, that's what I am :)

Enough about merchant shit. Let's go back to the 3rd sightseeing I am about to share with you..

Our Tuk Tuk driver dropped us down at pigeon field before the Palace entrance. Feeling Trafalgar square la kejap. Beware of the little kids around that pigeon field. Once you talk to them or suddenly they are so nice to gather the pigeons around you - they will follow you for a kilometer or two, asking you to buy packed dried corn for the pigeons from them.

and it is so amazing that this picture taken by my SIII . Actually all pictures are. I was thinking to ditch my dslr like totally. I really want to travel light - small luggage and no bulky camera. I don't want to appear too touristy with big bulk camera hanging around my neck :(

Stood on 435 meters long by 421 meters wide, is the Preah Borom Reach Veang Chatomuk Mongkul, or The Royal Palace. This palace was constructed twice, 1st on year 1434 and 2nd was on year 1866 heavily sculptured with traditional Khmer architecture. Pavilions are characterized by many tiered roofs which are symbols of prosperity and this place now merely function as a museum and open to the visitors, daily.

The Eastern Gate or The Victory Gate.

The Royal Palace adorned in yellow and white - yellow represents Buddhism and white represents Brahmanism.

The previous buildings were wooden and then reconstructed in concrete - but their original forms have been preserved.

The Throne Hall - The visitors are not allowed to step into it or take pictures. But what I can tell you is this - inside, the furniture are all in gold and the floors luxury carpeted in beautiful yellow and red.

and then we were entering the southern section of the Royal Palace called The Pagoda of the Emerald Buddha or The Silver Pagoda.

It is called Temple of Emerald Buddha due to the fact the main image housed inside is made of Emerald. The floor completely covered with 5329 silver tiles, each tile weighing 1.125kgs - made this temple known as Silver Pagoda to the westerners.

As usual, even the visitors/ tourists are allowed to step in, however photographs are completely disallowed. Inside there are 1650 artifacts, most are Buddhist statue (which looks like completely mold in gold, or maybe plated in gold) precious and semi precious stones like diamonds, sapphire, rubies are inlaid.

I am not sure if you still remember the history of Malaya during Majapahit or Ramayana or whatever (I hate history, I swear) but my point is I remember about "Bunga Emas" (Golden Flower) that Malaya has to come up as a tax payment or as a token during Majapahit reign - I saw that inside this building! There are silver and bronze flower as well. 

Pond full of blooming lotus surrounded this temple.

Once you enter The Silver Pagoda, you will notice this white tower surrounding every corner of this temple. I was amazed by the sculptures embedded on every inch of its surface and thought it is something like Khmer traditional 'gazebo' for the royals to beautify the temple's landscape.

It turns out this Khmer gazebo is tomb of His Majesty King. It contains the cremated ashes of Kings and the great great grand father of His Majesty King =.=" (aku punya la berposing atas batu nisan ni kau tahu???)

and this one is belong to the princess. Notice the shape of the stupa for male and females.

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA - OCTOBER 17: People light candles and pray to honour former King Norodom Sihanouk on a street corner on October 17, 2012 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. King Norodom Sihanouk died of a heart attack in Beijing on Monday at the age of 89. Thousands of people lined the streets and the Royal Palace park to view the kings body as it arrived home from Beijing. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

The west part of this Silver Pagoda, model of Angkor Wat sit beautifully with every inch, every detail, resembling the real Angkor Wat in Siem Reap - haunting my desire be in Siem Reap to see this remarkable constructions of classical antiquity with my own eyes.

While you approaching the exit gate, you will be entertained by live shows and performance by the locals - helping you to glance to the life inside the palace back in the past. They have clothes and household equipment displayed behind the glass and traditional music is playing.

By looking at this map - Khmer, Kingdom of Cambodia really had its full glory in the past. It's a sad thing that, they lost it now together with Riel...

We went back to our hotel area for a dinner. In every journey you made during your travel, it seems like you are bound to meet, see or taste something that you can never forget - and it stays in your mind like a dream ever since...

It sets a new benchmark in your taste buds.

The most delicious Pumpkin Soup I ever had in my ENTIRE LIFE. The smell of pumpkin and cheese already telling me that I will never forget the taste.

..and as for Mike, he found his new love in his taste buds - Amok Chicken. He even pledge that, this dish came after his favorite food spaghetti & pizza NOW.

So, if you ever come to Phnom Penh, come to the riverside and find this restaurant called "Karma". Recommended!

To be continued...

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Welcome to The Swamp. Phnom Penh.

For a second, I thought Phnom Penh is sinking. 

Too lazy to do my research, then I came to know that May - October is the month where Cambodia gets the rain dosage more than they needed. Apparently there is nothing abnormal with the swampy view when one country back boned by a (Mekong) river.

Landed in Phnom Penh early in the morning, but it felt like afternoon. The sun was so bright like it was 12 o'clock. Small decent airport - there is no way for you to get lost in it. I kept reassuring myself  - this is Cambodia, not Thailand. It's very hard to tell between the two if you were here by private plane - blind folded. Everything is so similar. People's smile, the sound, the way they talk, the roof of every building as well as letters on the signboards. Except, I kept seeing "sortie" which means "Exit" in French. Then it kicked me back to my consciousness - understand that Cambodian is one of the South East Asians seriously colonized by them Frenchmen.

Suddenly the urge to tweet. check ins, Instagram, facebooking rushes in. Especially when you are alone and had another 4 hours waiting time for my travel (life) partner landed from the land of Far Far Away..

Forget expensive roaming. Starts with USD 1, you can choose your prepaid mobile data plan for daily, weekly or monthly. I got myself 2.50GB for USD5 and yes, I don't know what the hell was I thinking.

Made myself into a conversation or two with the locals. They had no problem with English at all. Except they talked to me in Khmer for a start. Mistakenly took me as a Cambodian who just made to homeland after 15 years vacation.

Took a taxi to the hotel. Costs us USD 9. We wanted to experience Cambodian Tuk Tuk for a start (USD 7), however they advised us to take taxi since we have big luggage & backpack plus my BF has laptop with him. So it is good to take taxi instead of the open air tuk tuk in case if the tuk tuk make a surprise drift and wheelie. Well, it was sunny and we need a little help with the bulky backpack, so we decided to pay extra USD 2 and got ourselves into taxi. Tuk Tuk can wait.

Phnom Penh isn't the city you can expect skyscrapers and fancy shopping malls. The view along the streets and city are just ordinary view of a 3rd world country. And yet, never underestimate what's waiting for you in this shabby capital city, past and present. So shake that ratchet and crazy shit off your shoulder and be humble.

Arrive at our hotel situated by the Mekong River. The place called 'Riverside' - a stretch of street along Mekong River that makes you feel like no stranger. Lively by day and vibrant by night, you can find bars and fancy restaurant - al fresco.

The hotel - every nook and corner is adorn with 'Apsaras', warriors and God statues and carvings. To ensure that both business and customers are blessed every minutes. Or maybe merely for decorations.

Hotel walls.

Bedside lamp

Wardrobe door panel

Hotel Lobby 

From my observations: Once you reach at ANY hotels, you will be greeted by Tuk Tuk drivers FIRST, instead of hotel staffs. These tuk tuk drivers are the street hustler in Phnom Penh. Once you made an eye contact with them, they will make you their customers. They parked their tuk tuk just in front of any hotel and wait for tourist like you and me to take them as your private tour guide for a day or forever. Once you talked to them - even for a city tour's price check - they remember you and haunt you, every time you stepped out from the hotel. I tried to talk to other tuk tuk drivers, he (the guy who I made an eye contact with, yesterday) came to me and said "miss, remember you talked with me yesterday, about the tour?" and the other drivers started to back off.

After you done with a Tuk tuk for a day, still, the question of "want tuk tuk?" continues haunting you in every step you make along the streets of Phnom Penh city. Almost like a chant. Or if you are lucky, you will get a question like "sir, you wanna get high?". Non repeat. But meaningful.

Riel serves almost no purpose in Cambodia. USD rules. They used Riel for small change like 75 cents and below. Bring small notes. Since Tuk Tuk ride and food ranging from USD 2 - 5. Prepare lots of USD 1 for tips. If you feel happy with their service, few dollars of tips wont hurt you much. Seeing their wide eyes and smile on their face after some tips is priceless. God lends a helping hand to the man who tries hard. 

Our hotel, Bougainville, is located few meters from the Royal Palace and Trafalgar's like pigeon square. Walking distance from Grand Market and crawl-able distance from bars and fine dining restaurants. Basically, it's a superb location.

Getting ready for some serious walk.

Tours in Phnom Penh ranging from USD 20 - 35 / 4 - 5 hours. Depending on how far is the site from your hotel. My boyfriend keep mentioning about killing fields and the prison. I had no idea about that but since he's paying so I just give it a go. It's a man thing, I guess. I just want to visit the Wat. That is Cambodia is well known for. Never for the Zoo and Museum. Those two gives me skin rashes and crazy itchy. If he want an Elephant ride, I swear I'll take my own taxi and return to the room and sleep.

We paid USD 20 for 3 site-seeings. The Royal Palace, Toul Sleng (S-21 Prison) and Cheoung Ek (killing field). The Tuk Tuk driver suggested us to go to the S-21 Prison in order for us to understand the chronology of Khmer genocide.

In four years time 1975 - 1979, when Cambodian was under Khmer Rouge reign,  2 million were killed. Not by mass bomb or guns, but in the most tormented process that you could never had imagined. Pol Pot created hell on earth, killing his own nation for his program called "Year Zero" -  to "FREE" the Cambodians from religion beliefs, education, western culture, capitalism and all foreign influences. I guess he loves agriculture too much, too. So he execute this ruthless program - Cambodian souls for a stalk of paddy. That's why he needed to kill so many in order to get sea of paddy fields. I wish he was exposed to the knowledge of bioponics / hydroponics earlier during his study, not in radio electronics.

Once a school turned into torturing prison

It's kind of shocking that, this is happening in other part of the country while Malaysia (in year 1975) celebrate its independency for 18 years.

The Victims

The Victims' clothes.

For more, find about Toul Sleng (S-21 Prison) and Cheoung Ek (killing field) on here and here

While I was already unable to stomach the thoughts of these images and new knowledge of past, we moved to another site that brought all those pain to the end. - Cheoung Ek (The Killing Field)

Upon entrance, they gave you this audio player (depending on language you prefer. "Angli" is for English. This audio player provide you detail information for your better understanding what exactly happened during the Khmer Rouge holocaust. 

Every stop/ site is numbered from 1 - 18. By pressing the number on the audio player, you will get to know the details of the site, what, why, how.

For example, this sign board is marked as #1. When you press #1 on the audio player, it started to give out detail information more than what's written on this board.

#2

#3

#4

My heart sunk at the end of my journey in this vast graveyard, my whole body shivers just by imagining that myself going through this green mile. No body could ever bring himself to speak after knowing what exactly happen here and know that there is nothing you can do if you were at this place before, during and after.

This tour isn't like visiting a museum or UNESCO site. This tour left a mark deep in my mind, washes away all the conceited thoughts sitting in my nerves.
After knowing about this evil Pol Pot, I think he is the worst world leader in the world's history - He made Osama bin Laden's (with the most fake terror story) and Muammar Ghadaffi looks like an angel now. He turned Kim Il Sung into a sweetheart too - if to compare number of people killed over the short period of time. For sure his soul rot in hell with his other friends 

Enlighten your small box minded with some world history before you busy fighting among your own kind for PRU-13.

.........................................................................................................

It was afternoon when we finished with Toul Sleng and Cheoung Ek tour. We had 1 hour left until the Royal Palace gate open for the visitors at 2pm. I asked our Tuk Tuk driver to drive us back to the hotel. I need to change my outfit to decent one. Apparently you are not allowed to enter The Royal Palace with tank tops or whatever outfit that bare your armpit and legs :|

To be continued.