Cambodia - Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, industrial, and cultural center.

How did we get here? We flew on Cambodia Airlines. Our choice was a super cheap 5-6 hour bus ride or a 40 minute flight. We upgraded to row 4 seats and the plane was probably less than 50 percent full. Apparently most Cambodians have never flown in an airplane. Every time we fly, we have to shuffle items from our carry-on bag into our backpacks to get them to 7 kg (about 15 lbs). Supposedly both our bag and backpack are supposed be a combined 7 kg but no one has ever weighed our backpacks.

As soon as we stepped out of the airport it was time to find a taxi. You don't have to find one. They find you. $15 for a 30 minute ride to our resort. 

Where did we stay? At the Plantation Urban Resort and Spa. They upgraded us to a deluxe studio which was plenty big and included a buffet breakfast. 

What did we do? Sadly, the two big things to do are two genocide museums. In April 1975,  (we were both 10 years old) the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot took over Cambodia. Roughly one-in-four Cambodians died -- either from execution, disease or starvation. Anyone with an education was murdered. Basically if you had soft hands or wore glasses you were killed. Pol Pot`s paranoia got so bad that he didn't stop with the 'educated'. Wives, children, babies all killed so they couldn't take revenge. 

First we visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. This was the S21 prison and former high school. Here the inmates were brutally and relentlessly tortured. There are graphic paintings of the tortures and photos, hundreds of them, of the victims.

Jail cells

After that "uplifting" experience we took a 30 minute tuk tuk ride to Choeung Ek Genocide Center aka the Killing Field. S21 prisoners along with others were brought here at night to be killed and dumped into mass graves. Keep in mind bullets were expensive so they were hacked to death with machetes, axes, hoes, throats slit, whatever they had to kill. Babies were ripped from their mothers' arms, swung by their ankles, heads cracked into a tree and tossed into a mass grave. After the mother watched this, she was gang raped, bludgeoned to death and tossed into the grave with her baby. At this point in the tour we were both fighting back tears. 

Almost 50 years later, Cambodia is still struggling to recover from the Khmer Rouge but it is resilient and learning from the successes of other countries.

Our same tuk tuk driver was waiting to over-charge us for our death ride back to our hotel. I don't know how we managed to get the most aggressive tuk tuk driver in all of Phnom Penh! I said dozens of hail Mary's and I'm not even Catholic!

That was our Christmas Eve. We were both already a little down being away from family and friends. A call to Tony and Michelle the night before and video call with Brenda and Flo helped. We also received our one and only Christmas card and gift, courtesy of the hotel.

Chocolates were divine!

Christmas day we went for a long river walk and spent the day lounging at the pool. There was a Christmas tree 🎄 and Christmas music playing. I was greeted with, "Happy merry Christmas". That brought a warm smile to my face. Best part of the day was talking to our kids.

What did we eat? There was a really popular restaurant on the corner about half a block from our hotel. We ordered two beers and they brought us a bucket! The beer was warm and served with a cup of ice. The second beer and subsequent beers were cold from sitting in ice. The first night we had BBQ shrimp and stingray. The stingray was OK but will probably never eat it again. The second night we had BBQ shrimp, fried crab with green pepper (Cambodian peppercorn is supposedly the best in the world) and fried frog. 🐸 Sharon and I both ate a frog! It tasted similar to chicken. Probably something else we will not eat again. 

Bucket of beers

Cucumbers 🥒 and carrots 🥕 

BBQ Shrimp

BBQ Stingray

Shrimp

Crab

Crab

Frog

Khmer Kor Ko Soup with rice

Rice

Palm fruit

Christmas dinner burger and fries 

Phnom Penh is crazy busy like Bangkok. Crossing the street is like being the frog in Frogger. There's a lot of begging here -- something we didn't experience in Thailand.

"Same same, but different."