Phnom Penh

Time flys when your having fun or so the saying goes! and our first two days in Phnom Penh have certainly lived up to that on both scores. After a day and half sat on a variety of planes and hanging around in airports, it's been a joy to get out on Shanks's Pony and see some of the city. However the transition from the cold wet gloom of the UK to around 36 C of tropical sunshine, together with a bit of jet lag thrown into the mix, served to temper our enthusiasm on Saturday. But it didn't take long for us to get into the swing of things.

One of the many Buddhist temples in Phnom Penh 

Our Hotel, The Bright Lotus, is situated just across from a park and only a few hundred yards from both the royal palace in one direction and the river front in another. Once we sorted ourselves out it turned out to be only about a half mile walk to Angkor Motor cycles from where I have arranged to hire a Honda 250 Degree. It's similar to an XR250, although to be honest I hadn't realised how much lower the seat height was... Although that's never a bad thing given my short fat hairy legs! I left them with the conundrum yesterday afternoon of try to get some pannier frames fitted to it for me. So hopefully I should get a text later today telling me it is ready to pickup.

On Saturday evening, after an abortive attempt a./ to find the the bike shop on foot and b./ to find a TukTuk driver that could find it, we gave up and found a second TukTuk to take us back to our Hotel. "Peter", our driver, a very young looking 45 year old,  was a mine of information and so nice that we arranged for him to collect us from our hotel on Sunday morning to take us out to the "Killing Fields" and the Genocide museum. After a pleasant breakfast

taken at the hotels restaurant, Peter duly collected us at 9am and we headed off to "S21" as the Killing Fields were known. It was rather like having out own personal guide as well as driver. Peter was the only survivor from his family during the terrible times of the Kymer Rouge killings, with his mother, father and brother all having been slaughtered after being taken to the dreaded camp. The emotion was plain to see as he explained the working of the system; as was the fear that even today. "ears" were listening to our every word! It seems that he wasn't allowed to actually show us around the Killing Fields site as they were protecting their own guides, so we sat at one of the little restaurants by the gates as he poured out the harrowing tale of a ten year old Peter torn from his family. From S21 we headed back into town to the Genocide museum but to be honest we both found it almost too much to bear so it wasn't too long before we'd had enough and asked Peter to take us back to the hotel for a shower, a siesta and a very light lunch; although not in that order.

The memorial Stupa at the Killing field where
in rest thousands of skulls of those that were
slaughtered by the Kymer Rouge

Evening saw us wandering around the grounds of the Royal Palace to witness the locals who were out in force, picnicking on the grass before we headed off to a nearby River front bar for dinner; where guess what! We met TOWIE... you can take the boy out of Essex but you can never take Esses out of the boy!!! Lloyd and Angela were from, of all places, Rayleigh just up the road from where I grew up, and where I used to wait for the school bus to and from home each day (if I wasn't on my bike). There was also a local  duo singing live in the bar who were really nice, with the girl, Marylou. coming over to talk to us and then singing "Living next door to Alice" especially for Alison, changing the lyrics at the appropriate points!

Today (Monday ) will be time for another wander around, sorting kit ready for the start of our adventure proper, and of course collecting the bike . All in readiness for an early start tomorrow.