30 Hours in Cambodia (Part II)

I woke up at around 5.30 in the morning on the following day. I usually do not wake up so early when I travel. But since I have to visit another 2 factories, I feel that it’ll be better if I can go earlier, so that I would have more time to do my work. I went for my breakfast at this other restaurant in the hotel. The atmosphere was good, but the selection of food was rather limited. Just as well, I didn’t have much time to enjoy my food either!

It was drizzling slightly outside when I woke up, but it had stopped by the time I finished my breakfast. I went out of the hotel to look for taxis, and there were already tuk-tuks outside awaiting people to hire them. One driver came up to me, and I showed him the address which I wanted to go. He said he knew the place so I hired him. I was supposed to go to the second factory which I went to the previous night, and the staff there would arrange a transport to bring me to the third one. I expected the driver to take the same route as the other taxi driver the night before. However, this tuk-tuk driver went on another route. Initially I thought he was taking a shortcut to beat the peak hour jam, but later I realised that he has actually misinterpreted my address and had driven me to another quarter within the same district. By the time we reached the factory, I was thirty minutes late. The driver asked me if I need him to drive me back, but I declined as I wasn’t sure when and where I’d finish my job. He said he’d have to charge me double then, since he’d have to return to the hotel empty-carriage. That was a lame excuse I thought, but I had no time to reason with him (and I might not even win in argument), so I just paid him US$6 and left.

The third factory I went to was quite close to the second one, and I took about half an hour to finish my task. The factory got me a driver to send me to the last factory which was near the airport. My work there was rather fast too and I managed to complete my work at around 11am. The driver had left after dropping me off at the factory, so I had to go out onto the main road to take a taxi. As I had already checked out of the hotel, I was carrying my entire luggage with me. A few motorcycle-taxis tried to approach me, but I turned down their offer, as I did not think there would be enough space to put my luggage. I took about 3 minutes to get to the main road, but there wasn’t a single taxi in sight. It seemed that I had no choice but to hire one of those motodops (motorcycle-taxis). Hence I walked all the way back to the factory to look for one. Someone approached me asking me where I wanted to go. I told him I wanted to go to the airport, and he said it would be US$1. I immediately agreed. He went back to the factory and pushed his motorcycle out, and it was then I realised that he was a staff of the factory, and only working “part-time” as a motodop rider!

The journey to the airport was about 5 minutes. I have planned to just sit around at the departure hall of the airport, but I realised that there was basically nothing to do at all over there. Seemed to me that I had to go back to the city then! So off I went with another tuk-tuk back to Phnom Penh hotel. Before leaving, the driver offered to send me back to the airport. I agreed and arranged for him to come pick me up at 4pm.

I entered the lobby and asked for the receptionist to let me deposit my luggage temporarily with them. The staff that came to help me was the same bellboy who helped me check-in yesterday, what a coincidence! After depositing my bag, I decided to explore the surrounding of the hotel to see if there were any restaurants nearby where I could have my lunch. In fact, there were a few mobile food stalls outside the hotel (like those in Thailand and selling about the same things), but since I could not speak a word of Khmer, I decided not to patronise them. I found this small restaurant just by the side of my hotel serving Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai food and decided to just dine there. While I was eating, a group of middle-aged men came and sit by the table next to me. Judging from the language and accent they speak, I believed they were Singaporeans. I didn’t quite like meeting my fellow countrymen in foreign land, because many of those I came across behaved so poorly that I felt ashamed to be a Singaporean. This group was no exception. No doubt they came to Phnom Penh as businessmen, but they should not put on an “I’m of a higher social status than you” kind of attitude towards the waiters. Shame on them! Being highly educated but behaved more like a street punk!

I left the restaurant after my lunch and walking back to the hotel when I saw the tuk-tuk driver who drove me to the factory in the morning. He asked me where I wanted to go, and suggested some places for me, including the National Museum, Royal Palace and the market. Since I still had time left, I thought I might as well go tour around. I chose two places only, the National Museum and the Russian Market. On the way to the museum, the tuk-tuk passed by Wat Phnom, a beautiful Cambodian temple on the slope of a small hill. The driver asked me if I wanted to take a look there, but before I could decide, it started to rain and hence the answer was now obvious: no! The rain came so sudden and the driver had to park his tuk-tuk by the side of the road to secure the canvas used to shield the passengers from rain before driving off to my destination. I suddenly felt that it wasn’t easy to be a tuk-tuk driver, because they weren’t shielded from the rain at all if the weather is bad. Thank goodness the rain stopped as quickly as it came.

As we came close to the National Museum, I was surprised to see that the structure resembled that of the Thai National Museum, and the Royal Palace was just next to the museum, just like in Bangkok. Maybe it was natural for the culture of these two kingdoms to be so similar since Thailand was part of the Khmer Kingdom back in the 12th century. The national museum was a bore. All it featured were Buddha statues, pottery and carvings from all ages. It was an eye-opener, but I personally felt that the variety of exhibits were too small. I finished touring the place within half an hour, feeling a bit disappointed.

The driver then drove me to the Russian Market, which was said to be a favourite shopping ground for the tourists. It resembled a smaller version of Chatuchak Market of Bangkok, a maze of small shops with dark and narrow corridors. I walked for a few minutes and decided to call it quits, as I did not have the patience (and time) to really explore the area. Maybe next time when I have more time!

As it was still early, the driver brought me to Sorya Shopping Centre, the only shopping centre which I’ve ever seen since I stepped foot onto Phnom Penh. This shopping centre was rather decent in size, selling a wide range of stuffs. I headed straight for the CD/ VCD shop, as I have the habit of buying local CDs or VCDs when in foreign land. And guess what? The CD/ VCD shop had a wide range of Chinese albums! That came as a surprised to me, and what’s more interesting was that I even saw Chinese opera VCDs there. The selection was even wider than those in Bangkok. I also saw a small section dedicated to Thai CDs and VCDs, but I couldn’t find any discs to my liking. In the end I settled for 3 VCDs: 1 Khmer karaoke VCD, 1 Teochew comedic drama VCD and 1 ASEAN cultural dance show VCD.

I didn’t have much time to shop around in the shopping centre as it was close to 4pm, and I had to go to the airport soon. The driver drove me back to the hotel and I headed straight back to the hotel to collect my luggage, bided farewell to the bellboy and the driver. By then the other driver was already waiting for me at the gate. So I hopped onto his tuk-tuk and headed for the airport.

Now on looking back, I found that I had spent a lot of money on just travelling around, and I could have cut down a lot of the money spent if I had done some research on the market price beforehand. After a 30 hour stay in Phnom Penh, I’ve learnt a very valuable lesson: always find out more information about the place you want to go first, especially the market rates for the most basic things like transportation and food. Nevertheless this will not deter me from going Cambodia again if I have the chance to, or if required by work. But I’d have to learn some Khmer first so that I can negotiate with their locals and minimise extortions!