Phnom Penh

I Continue From Here 

Backpacking Cambodia: Day 013 (24-Feb-2019) 

To The Capital

At 6:15AM, when the reception had not opened yet and the guards were still sleeping, I walked out my hostel and marched towards the Captiol bus office. My bus left at 7 AM, as scheduled. The entire stretch of road from Kampot to Phnom Penh is under construction. They are constructing a four lane. Hence, it was mud road for several kilometres. A few hours gone, we had dust enter the bus and in no time the entire bus was filled with dust. Apparently, the driver had not shut the doors properly. Anyways, except for that one incident, rest of the trip was pleasant. 

At Phnom Penh, I walked a long distance from the bus station to Onederz hostel. It is located by the river. Hostel offered good food, so I decided to have my lunch there. The fried noodles and mango smoothie I ordered was delicious. 

I had originally planned to visit the National museum but when I got there, I decided not to go in. I also returned back from the palace gates. Somehow, I did not like the place. May be it was the heat or it was the crowd. All I wanted to do was sit in a Café that had AC and sip on a cup of tea. 

I went to the central market to buy some silver. This place is filled with shops that sell nothing but silver jewellery for real cheap price. Bargaining is a must there. I go up to 50%  discount on two rings. I am not sure if these are original but for that price, it did not matter. 

While returning back to the hostel, I walked into a small store run by an old lady. I was in search of condensed milk. I began explaining to her in sign languages. She seemed to understand and handed me a Teapot condensed milk. I bought two of them. She was really happy to have made this deal even without understanding the language. I was happy too. 

Back in my hostel Dorm, I met a traveller from Taiwan. We had a good chat about our travels, work and life in general. He was about 50 years old and had recently quit his job to pursue masters in psychology and was planning to shift his career. We were thus on the same boat. 

At night, I went to the night market, that was just a few blocks away from my hostel. There were kids performing at the entrance, a live orchestra at the centre of the ground that was surrounded by shops selling all kinds of things. I found some good magnets. 

The food court looked interesting. There were carpets placed in the centre for people to sit and the food stalls surrounded them. Unfortunately there was hardly anything vegetarian for me. I decided to have some Coconut ice cream. It was delicious. Overall it was a happy atmosphere out there.

What I did not like about this city is that, prostitution is common here. You could be just walking on a street and several pimps would come over to you with offers. There are many night clubs and massage centres. The employees keeping inviting you as you walk by. However, they do not bother you beyond that request, which is a good thing. Also, a common site around here is that of an old man walking hand in hand with young Cambodian girls. Among them were a few Indians as well on their secret vacations perhaps. 

Continued Here