PHNOM PENH #2

Monday, 3 April

We woke up early to make the most of the day. Since Phnom Penh is one hour late compare to Malaysian time, the sun is bright by 7 am and by 6 pm, everything is dark.

Not wanting to repeat yesterday’s night mistake by asking for 2 tuk tuks, we decided to charter one big tuk tuk for 6 people. Economies of scale, mah!

We were not surprised to see the same tuk tuk driver whom we thought didn’t turn up last night, waiting for us at the hotel entrance. I apologized to him and said, we needed only one big tuk tuk and his tuk tuk was too small for the 6 of us, especially when yours truly is grossly horizontally challenged.

He told us to wait for his brother to come over with his bigger tuk tuk. In less than 1 minute after he said that, a young handsome man turned up. His name is Wan Nak.

We were apprehensive that his tuk tuk could carry the 6 of us. Anyway, we relented as the tuk tuk driver seemed to be quite nice and reliable … and not to mention cute too! (Yeah lah. Menggataling lah) It was only a city trip – very short 10 minutes trip to almost everywhere. The price quoted (USD15 per day for city tour) was quite reasonable. Thanks to the helpful New York Hotel staff who gave us some pointers, when they picked us up from the airport the day before. (Short rides range from USD2 to USD3 if you take tuk tuks and USD1 if you take the motorbike)

Central Market (Phsar Thmey)

First stop was the Central Market since it is just a 5 minute ride away from New York Hotel. We would like to browse around first before we could start to splurge. This is indeed a market with so many things to see. The market smells like Chow Kit Road (I once helped my aunt to sell vegetables in Chow Kit Road market before) but selling more things other than perishable goods compare to Chow Kit’s market. The uniqueness is probably the huge yellow dome of French influence since Cambodia was once colonized by the French, followed by the Khmer Rouge and the invasion of the Vietnamese. Ms Popiah splurged like mad but the things there were indeed cheap, despite the traders refusing to budge when we haggled for better price the good old Malaysian way. I managed to get a nice t-shirt here.

Wat Phnom

Wat Phnom was the next destination. This temple was built in 1434 to house sacred relics. It seemed there was this lady, by the name Lady Penh fished out a four Buddha statue from the Sap river and built a temple at the hill to house this sacred finding. The pagodas are quite unique, less elaborate compared to the ones in Thailand, nevertheless, they looked quite Siamese to me. There were school children and young adults playing at the leisure park near Wat Phnom. You may go for elephant rides if you wish to. There were beggars everywhere, waiting at the staircases to the temple. I cursed myself for forgetting to bring along the ½ kgs of Mentos sweets I brought for this purpose, especially for the children. Entrance fees: USD3.

National Museum

National Museum has nothing much to brag about, other than housing some ancient stuffs from Angkor. Or maybe I missed a few display rooms. It was quite boring and dry. I guess if you really would want to see the real thing, might as well make a trip to Siem Reap – which is the norm. Well, don’t ask why I separated my trip to Cambodia twice! Entrance fees: USD3.

Independent Monument

Since it was already lunch time, and the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda closed from 11.30 am to 2.30 pm, Wan Nak suggested we go to Russian Market instead. We agreed and crammed into the tuk tuk. He made a brief stop at the Independent Monument to let us snap some pics. He couldn’t really operate a digital camera properly, maybe due to lack of experience. I told him, he should brush up his skills in taking photographs if he wants to be a good tour guide cum tuk tuk driver. He smiled shyly when I complained about the pics he took of us. Haha. I can be a bitch at times.

Russian Market is just like Central Market, only more chaotic. When we went there, there was power failure, which is a norm in Phnom Penh. We did some shopping in the dark. I wanted to get DVDs so bad as they were selling at USD2 per piece – but did not as we could not try the DVD before purchase due to power failure. The few of us shopped till we drop here and we had to remind ourselves, this is only the first day in Phnom Penh and we simply couldn’t afford to run out of money first day alone! Ladies! Always a shopaholic. I didn’t buy much, apart from a backpack and some post cards from a lady, whose face and shoulders were badly scalded. I was thinking of saving up some money till the last day.

Russian Market (Toul Tum Poung)

We had lunch in Russian Market itself. Not wanting to suffer possible purging due to unclean water, we stick to hot or canned drinks, except for Chubby and Amy who were adventurous enough to try the iced coffee. The coffee was surprisingly tasty. I guess it must be due to the condensed milk that they use; Alaska.

When checking out prices of backpacks, we bumped into a chap from Johor, Malaysia. He overheard me speaking in Northern Hokkien to my cousin sister, cursing that the backpack outside Russian Market is so much cheaper! As I was mumbling, he suddenly asked me, if I were from Penang? I was shocked and embarrassed. He introduced himself as JJ and he helps his dad, who owns a garment manufacturing company in Kandal – one of the smaller towns near Phnom Penh. When I told him I was on a holiday here in Phnom Penh, he offered to arrange for us cheaper trip to Siem Reap but I told him, I am only going to Siem Reap this July, and told him not to ask me WHY!

He recommended that we should go and get some genuine branded sports goods from Russian Market and volunteered to take us to his friends for a good bargain. We ended up following him to Russian Market again. He showed us how to check if the labels are original (Oh heck! I don’t really remember how) and bought a Nike blouse for my sister and a GAP shirt for my dad, both for USD4 and USD3 respectively. He gave me his name card, warned us in Hokkien not to be cheated by the traders and bid us farewell. It’s nice to have bumped into someone from home, this far away.

We extended our shopping at Russian Market for another half an hour. I had to blow the whistle and drag the rest to the tuk tuk as we were running late for Royal Palace. It was already 4 pm and Royal Palace closes at 5 pm!! As I was waiting for the rest to come, Wan Nak brought me some water. He is one heck of a tuk tuk driver with excellent customer service! I reminded myself to tip him at the end of the day.

Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda

Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda are on the same site, where Prince Sihanouk resides officially. Not much to see as I had been to the Grand Palace in Bangkok before, nevertheless a good place to snap some pics. The architectural designs are more or less the same as the Grand Palace of Bangkok, even with a mixture of influence of French and Khmer architecture. While we were there, there was a ceremony being held at the throne hall where coronation take place, and we were not allowed to go inside or make much noise. Entrance fee: USD3.

After one whole day walking around, frenzy shopping and photo-taking, Wan Nak sent us to Sisowath Quay for dinner. This time round, we decided to check out the dirt cheap Angkor beer – buy one at USD1 and get another one for free (Happy hours) at this pizza parlor. There were many pizza parlours along Sisowath Quay and we chose this Happy Herb’s Pizza. Not knowing what Happy Pizza is, I ordered a medium sized. The waiter asked me if I would like special herb to be added. Being the typical kiasu Malaysian, I asked him if the herbs are for free. He said yes. So I told him to add some.

He then proceeded to ask me if I would like the herbs to be mild, medium strong or strong. His question aroused my curiosity. I asked him, what is the name of this special herb? He sheepishly told me, it is actually marijuana. Good lord! I asked him then, what would happen if we take marijuana. He said, we would be a bit sleepy. Oh heck! I told the girls to have a go and ordered medium strong herbs.

Sisowath Quay

We were all very excited when we got the Happy Pizza, but the so called special herbs didn’t have any effect on me even when I took 3 slices. After we downed a few Angkor beers, we headed back to the hotel, totally pooped.

As I was soaking myself in a hot bath, I overheard my cousin sis saying loudly, “What??? Pengsan already??”. I quickly dry myself up and got dressed. It was Popiah. She was a bit dizzy and tipsy. This mangkok was okay till she took some Po Chai Pills as she was having a little stomach discomfort, less than an hour after we took marijuana and beer.

We made some hot drinks for her and told her to sober up before taking her bath and waited for her to come around. In half an hour, thank God, she was alright.

Actually, we were worried shitless as JJ warned us not to fall sick in Phnom Penh. The standard operating procedure (“SOP”) here is “Tiu sui” (intravenous tube). If you get diarrhea, fever or fell off the tuk tuk – Tiu Sui lah. The rest of us were fine. So I guess it must be Popiah herself who cannot take alcohol too much. I had 3 beers and I was fine. Angkor beer is quite bland and has no character. It was like drinking watered down beer.

After all the “drama” – Popiah refusing to go to hospital because of the SOP, and making hot drinks for Popiah and myself as well, etc, we went back to our room and called it a night.