Phnom Penh
I’m not sure what I think about Phnom Penh.
Part of the problem is the contrast with Don Khon. Arriving here was quite a shock to the system. Don Khon probably only has a hundred or so permanent inhabitants. Rush hour involved two mopeds and a bicycle slowly tootling past. It could not get more more laid back. Phnom Penh has over 2 million inhabitants and the traffic is sheer chaos. Cars, mopeds, bicycles and pedestrians pushing hand carts vie for space on congested roads. No-one seems to bother with one way systems. No-one even seems to care which side of the road they are on. Trying to cross a road seems impossible. It would probably be easier blindfolded. Walking around town also involves huge amounts of hassle as you are constantly asked whether you want a motorbike or a tuk tuk. The drivers don’t seem to understand the concept of a foreigner wanting to walk… The drivers also don’t seem to know their way around town. Virtually every time I have taken a bike or a tuk tuk, I have had to give directions myself… I’ve only been here a couple of days!
Phnom Penh also contrasts with itself. One moment it’s drowning in rain. The next I’m worried about heatstroke. One moment I’m visiting an outstandingly beautiful monument. The next I’m looking at a collection of mass graves.
I arrived in town late evening on Sunday and it was pouring with rain. Properly pouring with rain. Torrential rain. The kind of rain that soaks you to the bone in minutes even when you are wearing a waterproof. And when the local version of a black cab to your hotel involves hopping on the back of a moped, this means that you get wet. I got very wet. My backpack also got very wet and I learned that it is not very clever to ride the back of a moped with a heavy backpack on. Getting off safely requires a lot of balance… To give you an idea of how bad the rain was, at one point the water was so deep it came up over my ankles. Given that I was sat on the back of a moped at the time, that’s a good foot or so of water flowing in the streets. For a city subject to tropical rains, you would have thought that they might have installed some storm drains. But no.
The next day, I woke up to searing sunshine. There was very little sign left of the previous night’s downpour. It was hot. Very hot. I got very wet. This time it was sweat not rain. Even less pleasant. That evening it started to rain again. I had just left my hotel for dinner but, as the rain got heavier, I decided to forget my plans for food and to take refuge back in my room. The rain just got heavier and heavier as I ran back to the hotel… The next morning, I again woke up to blazing sunshine. It hasn’t rained since. But I don’t trust it. It’s just waiting for me to be outside again, somewhere a long way from the safety of my hotel room.
There isn’t a whole lot to see in Phnom Penh. A bit of colonial architecture and a few unimpressive wats, and then there are the four must see sights. The National Museum contains a collection of Khmer sculpture. My guidebook states that it is the best collection of Khmer sculpture in the world, but that is a bit of an obvious point really: where else would there be a world class collection of Khmer sculpture? The Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda are amazing buildings and contain a collection of royal regalia, silverware and other golden stuff. Again very impressive.
The last two sights show a very different side of Cambodia’s history. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a former school that the Pol Pot regime used to incarcerate its enemies whilst they were tortured before being executed. The banality of the empty class rooms is haunting. The Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre (more commonly referred to as the Killing Fields) is where most of Tuol Sleng’s ‘guests’ were taken to be killed and buried. They have exhumed almost 9,000 corpses from the mass graves at Choeung Ek and about a third of the graves still have not been opened.
Both places are utterly depressing sites and contrast strongly with the National Museum and Royal Palace. Nearly every visitor at both sites walked around in complete silence. The ‘no smiling’ signs (I’m think that’s what they meant) at Tuol Sleng seemed utterly unnecessary. The ‘Please do not walk on the mass grave’ signs at the Killing Fields were quite disturbing.
So there you go. Phnom Penh is quite a depressing place in many ways but it is charming in its own way too. I can’t make my mind up about the place at all.
Still, I’m leaving tomorrow. I’m not quite sure what I think about that either, but it’s time to go. I’ve been here 3 days already and there isn’t much more to see. I’m heading down to the coast. Hopefully it’ll be a little quieter. I think that I could do with some quiet again.
