The Heart of Darkness

Met up with an Aussie guy in the hostel in Phnom Penh. We got chatting and decided to go out to see what the city had to offer. Scott looked like a mix between Jesus and The Dude from The Big Lebowski. No bad thing.

I had had a day at the killing fields and other horrendous exhibitions so was up for something a bit more lighthearted. I'm not going to write about the killing fields - it's something you just have to go to and it's amazing to think that it happened so recently.

Anyway, we asked a local tuk tuk driver and he suggested a bar called 'The Heart of Darkness'. Didn't sound that uplifting, but we gave it a go anyway. Sure enough it was pretty seedy and after a quick drink and we escaped the local prostitutes and went to play pool until our tuk tuk driver, Rota, wandered into the bar looking very tired having waited for us for about 4 hours. We took pity on him and he drove us home.

Scott exercising

The next day Scott and I bumped into each other again over lunch and decided to do something cultural, so we went for a walk along the river where we found an exercise park. We gave it a go, but struggled on the monkey bars. They LOVE to exercise over here. Before and after work big groups of people do aerobics in parks.

Disappointed at The 'Silver' Pagoda

Anyway, we went to the palace. I just wanted to see The Silver Pagoda which I imagined to be silver. I was wrong. It's called the silver pagoda because the floor is tiled with hundreds of foot-square silver tiles. Impressive still, but not so impressive if you cover up the tiles with carpets. So we got to see about 20 tiles.

Cone envy

I was disappointed so decided to cheer myself up with a Çrunchy Cone (like a cheap cornetto) from the nearby ice-cream stand. It had no cone (which I guessed was just how they roll over here) so I had to eat the ice cream from the packet while I stood under a sprinkler to cool off. Scott liked the look of my Crunchy Cone so he went and got himself one. His had a cone. Mine was a dud. I enjoyed it anyway so didn't take it back.

Sunset over the palace

Later in the hostel they played The Big Lebowski which Scott, being The Dude, was loving. After the film we went out to a bar we'd heard of called Zeppelin's. They had stacks of vinyl, turntables and were playing some quality tunes, but then we realised they were playing it all off MP3. How pointless.

Said bye to Scott the next day and hopped on a bus up north to Siam Reap and Angor Wat. Phnom Penh was big, noisy and polluted but I loved it.

Mini Angkor Wat at the palace in Phnom Penh