It would be our last day in Phnom Penh before we took a bus to Siem Reap the next day. We spent the day before trying to understand what it was in the head of Pol Pot when he tortured and killed thousands and thousands of people during his 4 years of ruling Cambodia. For me, there was no way I could fully understand it but then, whatever happened in the past is going to be a lesson not only to the Cambodian people but the world over.
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We were going to spend the day by visiting some of the major attractions within the city of Phnom Penh. Good thing about Phnom Penh is that, you can actually cover just about everything within the city by just walking and you guys know how I love walking. After all, I practically covered Paris on foot when I went there a few years back so I didn’t see any reason why I shouldn’t do the same for Phnom Penh which is probably less than a quarter smaller. With a map in our hands, we were ready to go…
The only problem is probably the heat – and I tell you – it really stings. I don’t know whether to be thankful or not but the sky over Phnom Penh had been so clear all throughout our stay there so you know how the sun can be so hard on you when you’re in a Tropical country like Cambodia on a crystal clear day.
First – breakfast hunting. I wouldn’t say that finding something to eat for breakfast is HARD in Phnom Penh. In fact you can find them just about everywhere but to find something with CHARACTER requires a little bit of surveying around and probably a little bit of patience – not to mention – energy. Heh.
The ever hungry Ulai must have had suggested at least a dozen of eateries that we could just sit down at and get it over with but her suggestion was always met with ‘Almost there, but not quite’ and we’d keep on walking. 😀
But yeah, that was just me. I couldn’t just sit down somewhere, order something and get it over with just for the sake of eating something for breakfast. It has to come with characters, something that I couldn’t possibly get back in my home country. Besides, we were in no rush so I had every reason to torture them especially Ulai who seemed to get hungry and make a fuss of it every few hours. Grrrr!
And what I meant by character was something like this. ^___^
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They might just be instant noodles but they way they put everything to make them look fancy gives some characters to it. Heh.
You know how we think we’re are so creative by throwing all kinds of things into our Maggie noodles but there are people who are destined to be more creative than us. They are not just creative but very very good at it. I wish I could learn how they prepare the instant noodles to make them taste so damn good.
Needless to say, CHARACTER suddenly became our word of the day – and probably the whole of our trip to Cambodia. Remember MAGGIE, remember CHARACTER. LLLLLLLLLLOL!
So, done with breakfast, we continued walking towards where we believed the Royal Palace would be. Of course, every now and then we’d stop to see whatever there was to see and they were actually plentiful.
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In a foreign country like Cambodia, it really is OK to let yourself be a little bit ‘jakun’ (observant) then you are when you’re back in your home country.
Located right in the middle of Phnom Penh, the ROYAL PALACE didn’t seem to be difficult to find. The only problem is, you’ve got to come in from the right angle of the palace or you’ll find yourself skirting around along the walled fence until you find the entrance.
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But then, if ‘exploring the city’ sounds so right and relevant to you then skirting the walled fence of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh would certainly define the world ‘exploring’ better. Believe me, there is always something to see and be amused over along the way.
Oh well, what we didn’t know was that the ticket counter would be closed for lunch break so we actually found ourselves trying to figure out what to do for the next two hours until it opens again at around 2.00pm. But then, things have their own way of getting into places when you’re traveling and even more so when you are open to a conversation even with a stranger like what I did.
We were taking a break from the grueling sun under the shade of a hut just outside the palace when a guy – probably in his early 20’s – came up and offered to take us around the city at least until the palace is re-opened.
Oh well, I politely declined.
Good thing about auto rickshaw drivers in Cambodia is that, they wouldn’t pursue further when you say no to them a first time. Of course, they’ll ask again a second time but that’s about it. They wouldn’t push and come up with thousands of bla bla bla reasons why you should hire them even when you don’t really need them like how it is in most other major cities in South East Asia.
So, leaving the other two with whatever they were doing, I opened myself up for a conversation with him. It was more like a conversation between two guys who are interested in knowing more about each other’s country.
When I told him I was from Malaysia, the first word that came out from his mouth was ‘PETRONAS!’. He told me how Malaysia is so blessed with oil and gas and that he thinks highly of Malaysia especially with the existence of big companies like PETRONAS who run the businesses and make Malaysia like how it is today.
Where the hell that all came from I have no idea and I didn’t even know in my entire life as a Malaysian that the existence of Petronas is something to be proud of. I wondered if he’d ever understand if I explained to him how Petronas sucks in just about every ounce of oil there is in Sabah and gives back crumps to Sabahan people in the form of so so development. I don’t think he’d be interested to know any of those either. LOL!
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So, he told me that he was a student from some local university, that he was renting the auto-rickshaw as his part time job while waiting for the 3-month semester break to be over. He told me that he is from Seam Reap and that he’d go back to his village once in a while to help his parents in their kampong chores and all. I took a gasp when he told me that it was going to be his second degree once he’s graduated! I was like… Whaa….. TT?
Never in my entire life time would I ever consider spending another four years going nerdy as a student just to earn another degree. But then, this is Cambodia. I think I already learned from my visit to Vietnam that good academics are the only things that they can earn a good name (and reputation) from since they can’t earn much of it from what they have material-wise.
I could have spent all the hours talking to him since it’s not easy to find a local of such English proficiency in Cambodia. Sometimes, you’ll get to know more of a country from just a simple conversation with a local than what you are probably getting traversing every corner and nook of it.
That is probably why you’d find loads of craps being written about Malaysia in many travel blogs because they tend to write based on their assumption and personal thought within that very limited stay of theirs and not from the perspective of view of a local who’s been living there his entire life. *gasp
Oh well, I knew I had to get the hell outta there before they strangled me down to death. I was more worried to see Ulai’s shawl than anything else. I could already imagine the painfulness and suffering that I was going to get through if it is used to strangle and choke me to death. 😀
So, saying good bye to the local boy, we walked aimlessly around until we reached the riverbank of Tonle Sap and settled at one of the many restaurants and bars there.
It was probably too early for beer but what the heck. I was on holiday so I could drink beer whenever I felt like having it. Sipping beer while taking in the beautiful view and the cool breeze that blew in from the river of Tonle Sap had proved to be so relaxing I had to keep reminding myself not to fall asleep right there. Every now and then kids with trays of handcrafts and souvenirs would come up to us and try to at least get some bargaining started.
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I had always been BAD in saying NO to kids and that alone had cost me quite a great deal of money when I was in Sapa, Vietnam a few years ago. I guess I had learned a lot from there and I found myself keeping saying no to them when I went to Bali next.
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But there are times when your best of guards against kids’ innocent ‘WOULD YOU BUY SOMETHING FROM ME SIR?’ would just be stripped away and that was what happened when I was there, at the riverbank of Tonle Sap while waiting for the Royal Palace to re-open its gate.
But then, as I spent more of my days in Phnom Penh and shared more thoughts and views with other travelers along the way, I had come to realize that it is better to buy at least something from them then just giving them money just like that without getting something in return. Peddlers and beggars are different even in the way that we look (and respect) at them.
It’s amazing how time flies when you’ve having a great time and before we knew, it was almost 2.00 pm when the Royal Palace was supposed to re-open its gate again after lunch break. So, off to the Royal Palace we went…
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