Phnom Penh: Hari's Cliffs Notes

~As you may have gathered, we are running a bit behind on the blog so we could not turn down the opportunity for another guest blogger entry...Hari is a bit more on the ball than we are and has already completed his own Phnom Penh entry so we did a little editing and created the Cliffs Notes version for you. And with that, I will turn it over to Hari for a slightly abridged version of our Phnom Penh adventures:

Phnom Penh has about 1mm people and the Kingdom has about 15mm total population. Phnom Penh maintains a very small town feel with an extremely wealthy center and extremely poor fringes that are quickly reached. We pulled in and checked into the Okay Guesthouse. There's more to this later, but Mary/Sarah/Brad/Esther all had the dorm room upstairs (with a terrace), while I was placed in the dorm room downstairs. Setting my stuff down, I noticed black curtains segmenting every dorm bunk bed and remarked to myself, "this is nice, it offers privacy and darkness if someone turns on the light at night". Sometimes, I embarass myself with my naivety.

We set off along the Tonle Sap river north to the main restaurant and bar area. During dinner, there was a drunken motorcycle wreck about 10ft away from us and I ran to help the guy to his feet and make sure he was ok. This Aussie guy, who knew first aid, and I, an Eagle Scout, helped the man lay down, checked him for injuries, got him some water and cigarettes to sober him up and tried as much as we could to keep him from getting back on his bike. The local restauranteurs wanted him riding and out of there, but the man was clearly concussed and drunk as all hell. There's only so much we could do.
After a tasty dinner experience, we set off on foot to explore and find an art exhibition at a gallery that was closeby. Aimlessly wandering by the palace (glowing at night), a park, and many pagodas, we eventually walked by an SME bank many blocks away near Norodom Blvd from where we started. This bank was a palace fit for Tony Montana in Scarface. There were Rovers and Escalades, guard dogs, security, and more marble columns and statues than you could imagine. From this point onwards, I would realize that Phnom Penh, and Cambodia at large, was a city and country of two sides. There is extreme corruption, opulent wealth and conspicuous consumption juxtaposed with extreme poverty that I didn't find in Viet Nam. There are tons of shoeless and torn-clothing-clad children wandering the streets hungry and there is a plethora of orphanages within the city. Alas, our aimless wander through the city did not lead us to the museum and, after stopping at a chic French homemade rum bar, we eventually called it a night back at the guesthouse. The Kingdom of Cambodia is a Buddhist monarchy that is at the same time a rural, peaceful and beautiful country as well as the Wild Wild West. I would realize this that night.

Back to my dorm room at the guesthouse. Tired as all hell, I called it an early night and was peacefully asleep. For awhile. From the hours of 2-5am, my dorm room was transformed into a brothel as a bunch of British guys returned to the hostel with some purchases they had made locally and what ensued was an all-night orgy of debauchery that left me trapped in my bed (and I really had to go #1) and quite bleary-eyed the next morning. Not more than eight hours earlier, I was walking along pleasant and wide boulevards, looking at beautiful pagodas at night and then this. Only in Cambodia. I would not let this one night detract me from enjoying the country and I'm glad I maintained this open-minded and positive spirit.

The morning of Dec 2, we got bikes at Lucky Lucky (do not ever rent bikes here) for the five of us and set out to the Khmer Empire ruins of Tonle Bate with Mary and Sarah riding motorbikes for the first time in their lives. Slow and steady out of the city, I was very proud of the way the girls rode their first time on steeds and in and out of relatively busy traffic. Immediately upon leaving the city limits, you are in extremely rural Cambodia. Very reminiscent of rural India, there are spread out villages, fields everywhere with cows tending to the land and their keepers washing and watching over them, people bicycling through the countryside, pigs and chickens running everywhere and incredibly tropical and lush plains. We stopped at a delicious juice stand along the side of the road, where I tried out Esther's clutch and gear 250cc Honda dirt bike. I immediately got a grasp on the bike, on pavement at least, which bode well for our planned dirt bike tour that would allow me to fall in love with this country forever. We eventually made it to Tonle Bati, part ruined Khmer Empire temple and part modern pagoda. We couldn't find any peace and quiet for ourselves as there were these kids who accompanied us everywhere, but we made best of the situation and were friendly with the kids. Riding the 250cc Honda the rest of the day, I headed back to Phnomh Penh with the crew and we all successfully navigated rush hour traffic and had dinner (hmm, those Singapore noodles were grand) at a cheap Chinese joint.

Dec 3 was our last day all together in Phnomh Penh as the girls decided to head to the beach while we headed north on our bikes. We wrapped up another momentous day in Cambodia with our temporary goodbyes to Mary and Sarah (I would meet them later in Siem Reap) and by planning our route for our off-road, off-the-beaten-track, dirt bike tour...