Phnom Penh again

National Day in Vietnam falls on 2 September and commemorates the day in 1945 when Uncle Ho declared Vietnam to be independent of French rule. This year it fell on Thursday with many companies giving employees Friday off as well to make a long weekend. So ... I also took advantage of it by accompanying Bao and An on a 4-day trip to Phnom Penh.

The border crossing at Moc Bai-Ba Vet was very busy, and as there were a number of foreigners on our bus it also took some time to get Cambodian visas issued. Unfortunately it was so busy that the leader on our bus forgot to submit my passport and fee to the visa office! I thought something was different from the previous experience but it took 20+minutes of queuing to get to the immigration counter before I found out what it was. Luckily I found him straightaway and was in possession of the visa and entry stamp in about 10 minutes!

Expecting Phnom Penh to be very busy with Vietnamese holiday makers we had already booked a hotel, which turned out to be within walking distance of most points of attraction. So essentially we spent a weekend alternating between walking a lot and doing very little. As with my previous visit to Phnom Penh the heavens absolutely bucketed down on two occasions for several hours.

We spent some time on Friday morning at the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. Both are inside a large compound that includes the Throne Room and various other buildings. The actual royal residence is off-limits behind high walls, although visible. This is a peaceful sp0t to go and there are a number of exhibits detailing Cambodian culture and the political career of the King Father Sihanouk.

We also visited the Killing Fields at Choueng Ek which provide the counterpart to Tuol Sleng in commemmorating the terrible impacts of the Pol Pot era on Cambodia's people. While the classic image of Choueng Ek in the past was the wooden structures housing skulls and other bones of the people slaughtered here, they were actually replaced some years ago by a tall, elegant but sombre stupa. To date approximately half of the mass graves of more than 20,000 people have been excavated.

The graves were not dug deeply. With Cambodia's heavy rains bone fragments, teeth and even pieces of cloth continually emerge in the surface of the soil. In the small museum I was surprised to discover that at least one Australian had been killed and buried here - David Lloyd Scott. You can visit a couple of other blogs to learn something more about him: http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com/2007/07/week-6-in-phnom-penh-milestones.html and http://blog.andybrouwer.co.uk/2009/08/aussies-at-s-21.html. The records are a bit hazy on whether he and Ronald Keith Dean died at Tuol Sleng or at Choueng Ek, but they appear to have been at both infamous sites.

The legendary birthplace of Phnom Penh is Wat Phnom perched on the only hill in the city. This is the place to which Madame Penh brought some Buddha images she found floating in the river. There are a lot of cats here!

A little bit of shopping in the Russian Market rounded off our visit. Bao was keen to see the Independence Monument at night and also go to the Nagaland Casino/Hotel to help him recapture memories and photos from his tour in Cambodia last year. Unfortunately he had lost all the photos he took on that tour to Siem Reap, Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh. Gambling wasn't on anyone's list of things to do, but the casino decor is quite impressive. One large room is decorated as though it is actually outdoors, with a 3-storey ceiling painted with sky and clouds and brightly lit. Quite the opposite to the experience of Sydney's Star City or indeed most gambling dens in the average Australian club.