Very interesting. Keep it coming especialy your stay in Cambodia. One of my favourate countries.

Looking forward to more. We are doing Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam in June.

(Continued)
Cambodia

Overall impressions The people we encountered were lovely, ever smiling, helpful and seemed happy that we were there. By lovely, I mean in spirit as well as physically beautiful. We used U.S. dollars everywhere except in the markets and English is widely spoken. However, the poverty, corruption, environmental destruction and trash wore me down. I realize that we visited well into the dry season and that there might have been prettier landscapes and less burning had we gone at a different time.

Phnom Penh
The traffic ballet from the airport to our hotel was a choreography of every imaginable wheeled vehicle, all moving apparently in sync, never a horn or a screeching of brakes to be heard. I was impressed, especially when I noticed a small tot teetering backside to the roadway. As if controlled by one guidance system the traffic formed a pocket around him and then gracefully regained its previous position in the flow.

Highlight We happened to be in Phnom Penh in the days leading up to the final mourning and funeral procession for the Father King. We felt it was a great privilege to witness this part of Cambodian and Buddhist culture. We watched as the park next to the royal palace gradually transformed into a stunning space where the cremation would take place: seemingly hundreds of workers building, paving, painting, landscaping, and steam cleaning the surrounding streets. No detail was left undone. One man spent the afternoon with a small paintbrush touching up the surrounding walls where they met the sidewalk. We watched as the final touches were put on the string of golden float platforms that would carry the casket, members of the royal family, monks, and a stack firewood.

Finally, we walked with thousands of others to watch the funeral procession as the casket was moved from the royal palace, through the streets of Phnom Penh, around the Independence Monument and into the transformed park where the cremation was to take place. Foreigners were asked to dress in black and white, or attire appropriate to their own culture. There were road blocks set up, with valet motor scooter parking, and we were asked to remove our hats. The crowds were quiet and polite. Free water and fans were available. We were able to get close enough to see quite well, and we often checked to make sure that no one was behind us who should have been in front. Many people were visibly grief stricken. Once the Father King’s body passed, the crowd was allowed to join the procession. Those who didn’t jammed the streets to make their way back to the multitude of large, open bed trucks they had ridden in from the countryside.

While these days of mourning meant that streets around the royal palace were closed to traffic, many shops and restaurants were closed and there were limited hours for museums, we would not have traded this experience for anything.

Hotels
Our friends stayed at Eureka Villas one block from the National Museum. This happened to be on a street that was closed to traffic in the days leading up to the cremation, but other than needing to meet our tour guides on the corner, rather than at the door of their hotel, it posed no problem for them. I did not see their room, but they were happy with its size and the made-to-order breakfasts.

We stayed at the 252 Hotel in a deluxe room for $60/night including a very nice breakfast. We were quite pleased with our large room overlooking the pool. There was plenty of storage space, the mattress was firm, the bathroom was large, the place was clean, the staff were great, the little restaurant was nice, the bar drinks were lovely. We were met at reception with ice cold cloths and yummy limeade . Even though it was on a block-long street, it was just off the main Monivong Blvd. and it was easy to find a tuk-tuk (remork) at the door. The 252 is about a 12 minute walk to the area of the National Museum and Royal Palace, requiring crossing busy Norodom Blvd, but we were able to walk along it until we came to a signal crossing.

Restaurants
Many restaurants along the quay and in the area of the National Museum and Royal Palace were closed, but we still ate very well.

Sugar Palm – very good, reserve a table upstairs on the open verandah. Order fish amok
Tom Yum Kung – very good Thai. Our friend said it must be good if the Khmer are eating here.
Khmer Sandoval – out tuk-tuk driver took us here one lunch when Khmer Borane was closed for the funeral. We had a great lunch of amok, curries and beer.


Activities

None of us wished to visit the Killing Fields or go to the Tuol Sleng Museum.

Other than the previously mentioned funeral, we toured the National Museum, the Central Market, ventured into several wats (Wat Ounalom, Wat Lanka), walked along the quay, window shopped (Mekong Arts)and waited for the Royal Palace to open. Visiting hours were limited, and unpublished, due to the mourning period. We were fortunate to be walking by the temporary ticket gate one afternoon just as they announced it would open in 30 minutes. Our visit was limited to the southern section of the royal complex (Sihanouk’s body was laying in state elsewhere in the palace grounds) but this is the section with the Silver Pagoda.

Another day we asked Eureka Villas to arrange a driver to take us to Tonle Bati. We were fortunate to have Bond, perhaps the slowest, most cautious driver in all of Cambodia. His Toyota Landcruiser was impeccably clean with wonderful AC. Bond is a wonderful young man with 4 children. Like many, his grandparents were murdered by the Khmer Rouge. His father was forced into the army at an early age and became an abusive alcoholic. Bond headed to Phnom Penh on his own when he was 11. He learned English and is now a driver working long hours during the tourist season in order to send his children to private school. He was open enough with us that we felt comfortable asking him how Cambodians viewed Sihanouk’s alliance with the Khmer Rouge. He said, “Everybody makes mistakes. It was a big mistake, but everybody learns from mistakes.”

The ruins at Tonle Bati were, perhaps, a good first glimpse of Khmer ruins, but the highlight of the day’s outing was our lunch on a pavilion built over the lake. We ordered fried fish, sautéed vegetables and roti chicken on shore before walking along rickety bamboo planks out to a thatch covered pavilion where we waited for our lunch in the lovely coolness of the lake’s breeze. As we waited, an occasional food vendor would make her way out to entice us with some little delicacy such as steamed coconut cakes in palm, or a boat would pull alongside offering up fruit, drinks or steamed rice sweets. This is the type of experience I doubt we would have found on our own. Sure, it is written about in Lonely Planet, but I know that on our own we would have taken one look at the dusty, hot scene and the muddy lake and would not have bothered to find out how to go about ordering a lunch and renting a pavilion.

We were treated to some interesting scenes on the way back to PP. A man was washing his cows in a stream while 3 little boys frolicked behind him. When we stopped for a photo, the little guys really started hamming it up. We were constantly amazed at the loads the motos took on. At one point we followed a moto with a casket strapped onto the back, wobbling down a bumpy road demonstrating remarkable balance on the part of the driver.

(to be continued)

For those of you who may be interested in the photolog while you wait for me to write this trip report:

https://picasaweb.google.com/114413210604778104209/SoutheastAsia2013?authuser=0&feat=directlink

It shows up in Google+. At the top center there is a link for Picasa which I find is easier to view.

more, please!

Yes, much more!!

What great reports!

Excellent and extremely well written report with great detail. I can understand people not wanting to visit Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields but I found both places to be extremely moving and a salutary reminder of man's inhumanity to man and the west's inexplicable capacity to turn its back on genocide.

Looking forward to reading more, particularly your impressions of Si Phan Don, probably the most relaxing place I have ever stayed.