Arriving at our booked hotel they had no record of our reservation. I wasn’t worried as i’d seen there were rooms available, we took a seat and waited to find out more. It turns out though the Owner had discovered we were on our Honeymoon and upgraded us to his “quieter more relaxed” sister hotel.
It was really lovely, we’d gone for a small room with shared bathroom at the original hotel and now we had a huge bedroom with our own bathroom, there was a really nice communal lounge and outside area and the food was AMAZING.
We were very lucky and very happy.
Ed looking pretty chuffed about the upgrade!
Over the next few days we spent time learning about the Khmer Rouge, we visited the S21- a former school turned into a prison during the Khmer Rouge’s power (1975-1979). It was very moving, because it is such recent history everyone here has been touched by it, it affected every family here in some way or other. Big thanks to Lucy for lending us her book, it made so much difference and allowed us to have a much better understanding of what happened, thanks chica!
The following day we went off to the Killing Fields where they took the Cambodian’s after torturing them at the prison to kill them. It was pretty grim. Each rainy season fills the pits up with water and the buried rise, so slowly over the last 30 odd years more bones and things are rising up. We had to step over some teeth and a bone. It was a pretty hard place to take in, it all seems too surrel.
It’s also pretty real to us as they were killing any educated person, so if we had been around in that time it would definitely have affected people we know. We didn’t take cameras with us to these sites so our pics of Phnom Penh are not many.
On a lighter note, the food in Cambodia is AWESOME. For me it beats Thailand. Current faves are Amok, which is a lemongrass flavoured curry, between us we tried it three times, each time the flavours were the same but the consistency was different. The first time it had a thick curry like sauce, the second was a drier version and the third was meat in a much more liquidy sauce. Anyhow, it was bloody gorgeous and we shall endeavour to learn it on our return. Other goodies were Ngoam, which were crispy noodles with a coleslaw like salad on the top with a yummy Tamarind dressing and when we hit Siem Reap we tried Lok Lak which was beef in a great sauce, similar taste to a black bean sauce. The flavours in Cambodian food seem very clean and you can really taste the different flavours, lots of lemongrass, ginger, lime...lush lush lush!
The Royal Palace in Phnom Penh
The view from the FCC in PP over the Mekong and Tonle Sap
Royal Palace
No comments:
Post a Comment