Following up on my previous post, I got to thinking about that trip we made ten years ago. I found the journal I kept during the trip. Precious! Ten years ago today, I was in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. Jiwon & I had arrived just the day before, to find a war-shocked city still in the early stages of recovery. Things were bustling, but the city appeared to be largely ungoverned and quite lacking in city services. Garbage rotted in the streets and there was not a functioning traffic light anywhere. We arrived late in the day on March 18, and got "a $4 room on stilts at Guest House Number 9 on the edge of Boeng Kak Lake." The next day we went out to look around.
March 19 - Phnom PenhThere was quite a wild little community of foreigners there at the time, a mix of UN staff, aid workers, and adventurers appearing to enjoy the free-for-all. We thought about sticking around for a while, and even interviewed at an English language school being run by an ex-US army colonel, but after a few days we got on a boat heading north toward Angkor, and never looked back. Posted by Jason at March 19, 2006 10:26 PM | TrackBack
We awake early, but not really early enough to get out and see something before the really oppressive heat sets in. By 10am we're at Wat Phnom, an important temple/shrine. Lots of incense. Funky Khmer xylophone music on tape in the Buddha Hall.
Later we ride on the back of a motorcycle, Jiwon & I, passing a pickup truck loaded with about ten heavily armed soldiers on the side of the street. Security patrol. We arrive and I give the driver 2000 riels (about 80¢).
Heart of Darkness is a bar. Almost exclusively foreigners. "Best bar in the world," said Dennis, who was already there when we arrived. "Black walls. Great music. I can play pool for free. There's a big wooden bowl full of gangja and you can roll your own joints. And shots of tequila are a dollar."
And there it all was. We stayed for a while.
We'll head up to see Angkor Wat one of these days.