phnom penh

Day 50. Just arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, population 1 million. I'm checked in at the No.9 Guesthouse, Lakeside area (Room 4). My washing's gone in, and I'm now officially out to lunch.

Bad news. My Lonely Planet has sustained some minor water damage at the base. I've got no idea how. On the upside it gives character - makes me look like I've been on the road a while. Looks like I've lived a bit, and could be a prompter for some tall stories while waiting at bus stations: 'yeah, that stain on the spine's from when I was snorkelling with sharks in 'Nam. I was wrestling a great white when...'

The bus ride down here was peculiar in that it took the stated travel time, and the bus had good air-conditioning. We whizzed all the way down on well maintained tarmac (I was wrong in my previous blog to say that all Cambodian roads are unsealed).

A mother and her toddler sat next to me at the beginning of the journey, and the toddler took something of a liking to me. This was manifested primarily by it slapping me repeatedly and then squealing. The mother seemed powerless to put a stop to what I feel amounted to GBH, and no other passengers came to my aid. Thankfully, before I was beaten into a coma, the mother and her androgenous child were turfed out of their seat by an old lady who had boarded the bus at our first stop (she was the rightful seat holder).

When we arrived I jumped in a Tuk Tuk and headed for the No.9 Guesthouse, which is ten on ten. It's a complex of wooden huts sitting on stilts out and across Boeng Kak Lake. The view from the veranduh is calming and peaceful, and the lake is heavily covered in lush green plant life.

No.9 is a hippy-ish sort of a place. The hotel clientele are the same crowd of long haired, roll-up cigaretters I was hanging out with in Ko Pha-Ngan - funding their trips on their student loans and the money they would have spent on a 2007 Glastonbury weekend ticket. I've little doubt that when they visit the 'Killing Fields' in the next couple of days they will find some way to blame American Imperialism and the Bush Administration, even though the massacre took place under the banner of Communism back in the days when George W. Bush was just a failed Texas businessman flitting between alcoholism, bankruptcy, and drink driving charges.

I've already seen one of their number with a bloody guitar. Sent a shiver down my spine. If there's any 'Stairway to Heaven' in the communal area after eleven I'll be making a written complaint to the hotel management.

Haven't had a chance to explore Phnom Penh yet. I'll start on this tomorrow. My itinerary for the next few days is to visit: the Royal Palace, the Silver Pagoda, the National Museum, Tuol Sleng Museum (site of the main Khmer Rouge extermination camp), the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, and perhaps a few more Buddhist temples and the city centre, time permitting. I hope that over the next week or so I can learn a lot more about Cambodia's recent and bloody history - Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, 'Year Zero,' and the brutal death of millions. Like visiting the Bridge over the River Kwai I imagine it will be absorbing but very, very sobering.