Ok, Cambodia loving ramble over.^^
We are staying at Okay Guesthouse, near the grand palace, independence monument and the riverside area. It's in a good location and has a guesthouse and restaurant a few stores down that we've been to a few times called Lazy Gecko. LG has good, cheap food, beer for $1 and a pug named Chook, who you are absolutely not allowed to feed, no matter how long she sits by you and gives you swee puppy dog eyes. Our guesthouse is, as its name states, ok. We have air on, twin beds, hot water shower (not that we tend to use the hot water so much) but the layout makes me a little nervous. Our room is on the second floor amid a rabbit warren of other rooms. Our windows are all barred securely and there is only one, very narrow staircase leading to the upper floors. If there was a fire,it would be a veritable death trap. Mostly, I tried not to focus on the thought of burning to death in a budget hotel room that had reminders on the door and walls that having sex with children is illegal.
We've had some good food here in Phnom Penh, starting with awesome brekky burritos at Freebird, an American style bar/restaurant which we ended up at because the place we wanted to go, 'The Shop', was closed for the Khmer New Year. Other good places include The Blue Pumpkin,which has sofa/bed kind of seating upstairs and offers really good lemon & mint shakes. They're the best thing to cool off after wandering around the city- super refreshing! We've enjoyed having Thai options available and I made the most of having weetbix available at the Lazy Gecko!!!
Other things we did, besides eat all of the food~ went to Wat Phnom, the Central Market, The Independence Monument, The Grand Palace and Silver Pagoda (a rip off at $6.50 for what took less than 20 minutes to see), Choung Ek aka The Killing Fields, S-21 (a former school turned into interrogation center and prison under the Khmer Rouge), the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument.
My favourite things~ lemon and mint shakes, riding around town in the tuk tuk with our awesome driver, walking down to the river front on Sunday night and seeing all the families out together relaxing and playing on the lawns outside of the Grand Palace, the funky group dance aerobics that were happening on the riverfront on Sunday night, getting an sd card reader for my iPad mini for $15 at the central market instead of the $42 they charge at Apple stores.
*sidenote- I'd starting writing this post while we enjoyed a homemade hummus and salad pita at 'The Shop', but stopped after a fan fell on a girl and sliced her head open. This really happened. We heard a crash then some shocked noises and shortly after a very young (20 at the most), scared girl came out from the back of the cafe on very shaky legs, with blood gushing out of her head. A staff member had given her a wad of serviettes to staunch the flow, and was trying to help her out of the cafe. She didn't last long, and crumbled to the floor as the staff member went to get water and more serviettes, while another worker went out front to get a tuk tuk ready to take her to the hospital. The girls two friends came through from the back, one hysterical and in tears, and they followed their friend as she was carried out to the tuk tuk. I was shaken by the incident. Before traveling, I'd carefully perused travel insurance policies, expecting that I may need it for lost or stolen belongings, or, worst case scenario, for medical care if I got food poisoning, or was in some kind of traffic accident. Having a fan fall on you in a cafe is not something you anticipate! Days later, I still think of the girl, seeing her pale shaky movements as she slid to the floor while blood soaked through the napkins. I hope she's ok and, like the old lady I am, hope her poor mother is too once she hears about what happened. If I ever have kids, I hope they will, like me, have a love of traveling. I just also hope that they won't mind me tagging along with them and their friends because the worry would kill me otherwise!^^
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