29 to 31 August - Phnom Penh (Cambodia)

Fuel costs : Petrol – 5650 riels/litre (£0.87/litre), Diesel – 5150 riels/litre (£0.81/litre) with the exchange rate being £1 – 6400 riels and US$1 = 4071 riels. Driving is on the right hand side of the road. With regard to the money used in Cambodia there was no need to change money as everything has a dollar price and is actually preferred that way, or so it seemed. The result was that things were more expensive than either Vietnam or Laos, nearly twice the price in many instances, mainly on the food side.

As soon as we passed over the border from Vietnam (at Moc Bai) into Cambodia at Bavet, I counted at least nine casinos on the side of the road, some very big ones. Rather strange I thought!

The Cambodia Border Post

We stayed in the fabulous Encounters Hostel in Phnom Penh, a cheaper and more miserable place, including the manager, I think could not be found. No beds anywhere only mattresses on the floor and these mattresses were actually two sheets of foam which meant just about the same as sleeping on the floor. Yes, I had an air conditioning unit in the room which was worse than having none at all while the ceiling fan was so noisy that the three of us in the room had to have individual floor mounted fans with cables everywhere across the floor. (One other room had seven people in it and they all had individual fans on the floor as well). The top sheet was raw cotton with no sewn edges but there was cupboards of some description in the room. The reception area was a tip with chairs that looked as if they came from the local rubbish tip. Sitting there or in the entrance way in the evening provided human flesh for the bugs and things that went round biting people so it was not possible to sit round and there was no other place in the so-called hostel where anyone could sit and use wifi. The manager played cards on his computer (so it seemed) from dawn to late evening and was so miserable it was difficult to talk to him. Ask him to fix the lights or anything else was asking for the moon. I would think that if he was to fix up the place he would lose custom from Madventure/UKTOOZ, (he would have to put up his prices then), as I cannot imagine any other place being so cheap and miserable, the sort of place we have been put in sometimes on this trip. What would Madventure/UKTOOZ do then poor things! Oh! and the shower leaked as well. And the builders next door started work at 0630 hours.

Bedroom

The Reception Area

  

Tuk-Tuk's or scooters with trailers

There is a scooter under that lot

Sheltering from the rain

The Olympic Stadium was built in the 1960's for an Asian Games that  never happened. The complex was sold off to the Taiwanese by the Cambodian Government and has since been renovated. In the evenings it is possible to see hundreds exercising or having dance classes in the stadium. There is also an Olympic sized pool and diving pool across the road.

Olympic Stadium

Plate marks - Ste Franco-Belge, 1912, No. 1873, Raismes-pres-Valenciennes-nord-France No. 131-106.

  

Views of the National Museum

This was definitely not a boring museum with broken bits of carvings. The carvings and the photographs that were there gave me a good idea of what I could expect to see in Angkor Wat and kind of built up the excitement of going to Angkor Wat later.

The Entrance

The internal courtyard

Not boring

Fighting Apes

A bust of a giant

Head of Devata

Botum Watsi Pagoda

The Royal Palace

A model of the Palace

Wat Phnom Pagoda

 

Fake money