13. Phnom Penh Night Walk, Trip to Areiksart & 2 Special Parks
27.09.2023
It’s been already six days since I sat down verbally reminiscing my days – and you are asking yourself: what did Chris do since then? - Yeah, I realise nobody asked that but I have to pretend you do to justify this blog post. ;-) If you are already bored – I save you some time: No new near-death experience, nothing so outstanding that it would rock your world. So this will be just a regular post for those who also enjoy following my journey when it isn't all fireworks with accompanying outstanding images.
I am still in Pnomh Penh. The other night I headed out to a local vegetarian restaurant 2km away outside the tourist area. I took my big camera with me to do some night photography on the way. It was underwhelming. Some parts of Phnom Penh are simply not that attractive and interesting. Not super-dirty or extra-fancy, no crazy architecture...just some unexciting high rise buildings and even more commercial and residential buildings with 3-6 floors. The streets were rather dark and there was not much going on. Some people sat in small groups at the curb, eating, chatting, chilling. The meal I ordered was okay – local cuisine at a decent price but I already forgot what I ate ...some sort of soup with mushrooms I guess.
On my way back I was craving for some more photogenic views and I knew that in the city centre with cafes, bars and lots of shops opening until late I would find something that peaked my interest. - However, things didn't go as planned.
I have seen my fair share of typical tourist party/entertainment streets in Asia but my experience that evening was shocking. It was not that late, maybe around 8:00pm and plenty of girls were gathering in front of the bars and massage salons to start their shift and when I say plenty I mean 10-15 in front of almost every bar. There were not many tourists around and I became an absolute target. Already 10m before passing a bar or shop they started yelling – from both sides of the street. In Khmer and English but 95% was unintelligible because they all shouted at once. I don't mind a bit of attention but walking through a corridor of 20 yelling girls wildly gesturing me to enter their establishment was way too much and really unpleasant. I tried to avoid eye contact, walked in the middle of the road to keep maximum distance between me and them standing on both sidewalks and unsurprisingly I didn't feel like stopping for photography. It would have been a bad idea anyway ignoring their calls while pointing a camera at their face.
The sad part is that a lot of women with no job or qualification end up as a bar girl because they see it as their only way of making money. However, the unbalanced ratio of offer and demand means that there is no way each of those girls gets at least one customer per night, so they sit and stand there the entire night for nothing which of course increases the competitiveness, desperation likely the willingness to do anything for money. That isn't groundbreaking news and I am sure everyone has seen documentaries on television or read articles about it but it hits differently when you are seeing it live and in person. Those girls standing in droves at overcrowded entrances looked as if they were waiting for a bus that was supposed to come 2 hours ago. I felt a mix of empathy but also discomfort that made me want to get through that street quickly. I criss-crossed through some side lanes, made it back to the river and ended up in front of the Royal Palace. Not sure if there was a special event going on but tons of people and vendors were selling electronic toys, balloons and all sort of plastic crap blinking like Christmas season was just around the corner. From there it was only 250m to my hotel and I called it a night.
The following day was rainy and I spent most of it in my hotel room doing laundry, transferring images to my computer, buying salad ingredients from the market and rested. Those relatively unexciting days often fly by so quickly. Things that I think will only take a couple of minutes drag out over hours and at the end I am slightly dissatisfied with my lack of productivity. - Nothing else to do than hyping myself up to do better the next day. ;-)
The next day I rented a Dutch bike for USD$2.00 from my hotel with a saddle that was 30cm too low for me even at its maximum height. It felt like riding a toddler bike with adult sized legs (…because my legs ARE adult size. haha).
My destination was Areiksart which is already a different province than Phnom Penh but it is located closely just on the other side of the river. I will include a picture with a map in the gallery. I arrived at the ferry port and no one spoke English.
Apparently you don't buy a ticket for the ferry, you simply hand over 500 Riel (USD$0.25) and that's it. A women pointed to one of the ferries and I hopped on. Soon I realised that it wasn't going to where I wanted. Instead it brought my to a peninsula that I could have easily reached without a ferry by using a bridge less than 3km further upstream. If that had happened to me somewhere in Europe it would have been a costly mistake but due to the amazingly low ferry prices I didn't worry.
I took it as a surprise detour, cruised a bit around with the lose direction towards another ferry port that I hoped would bring me to Areiksart eventually. Well, it kinda did and did not. I disembarked at a ramp 4km north of Areiksart - at least I was already in the right province.
My goal was to see a local village unaffected by tourism and indeed things look very differently on the other side of the Mekong River. I cycled South on the only main road to the Ta Skor Village for over 13km and I would have gone even further if road construction hadn't halted my ambitions.
There was no going further. On my way back I aimed to ride on a smaller road running parallel and closer to the river than the one I had taken before. It was my fate that once again roadworks thwarted my plans. I unsuccessfully tried to enquire how to get around and access the Khsach Village. For at least 5minutes I talked to an old lady and showed her a map on my tiny phone but she only gestured I should go around. However, there was no other road shown on the map and in reality there wasn't an alternative route either - quite disappointing. My only option would have been to cycle back for 5km around the lake and then to ride for another 5km. At this point in time I was already starving and super thirsty. My focus shifted to avoiding more sun damage (my kayaking sunburn is still visible 10 days later with skin on my upper legs peeling snake-like off) and getting food asap. I rushed to the Areiksart Ferry Port, crossed the river and ended up in Phnom Penh where I had started my ferry journey.
I googled the closest vegan restaurant and made a lucky choice with the Bong Bonlai. Not only is it a 100% vegan business but they also have their own water filtration system and separate waste for recycling and composting. They support an elephant rescue project, help rehoming and fostering stray animals...(as you can read on a page in their menu). The quality of the food was excellent – homemade with great natural flavour.
After that I was ready for part two of my daytrip: checking out the two parks I got recommended by the cafe staff I mentioned in my previous post. Both parks were only 5 minutes away from my location. I passed by a quarter full of European-style residential blocks reminding me of the founding period in Germany around 1870-1914. Ok, the intersections in the windows didn’t match the style and there were some other no-nos from an architectural point of view but in general I have to say it appeared to be done well. Some blocks are still under construction, some are already finished. The streets where trees were planted and people have moved into the apartments looked pretty nice.
You might remember my rant about the big hotel development project in Ha Tien, Vietnam (Blog post 8.). This quarter in Phnom Penh feels much better integrated into the existing urban structure and its surroundings albeit clearly not having anything to do with local Khmer architecture. You see, sometimes I am abandoning my role as the ever-complaining perfectionist who’s always looking for a hair in the soup and give credit where credit is due. :-p
Down the road I arrived at Coconut Park. I was expecting a green area with a few trees and park benches...and yes, it has all of that but it is actually a full blown entertainment area (officially it is called a recreation centre) with a mountain bike track meandering through the park including elevated corners, bumps and little bridges going over the footpath. You have a patch of grass were people chill out, practising juggling, one women had set up a clothes rack with dresses and pants for sale. Additionally the park sports building with indoor roller skating and a bigger main building at the end of the park with a view on the river housing a restaurant, a cafe and several rooms for DIY activities for kids…aaaaand something looking like a library. They offer drawing courses and what not. The park seems to be popular by foreigners and locals alike. I really enjoyed walking through the park and overseeing the scenery from the building with internal bamboo cladding on the ceilings and lots of plants that transform the architectural concrete cuboid into a space with a warm and welcoming vibe.
I spent maybe 40-50minutes in the park before I continued in order to tick off my last scheduled stop of the day: the Treelion Park. After the Coconut Park that truly wowed me, I was sure the Treelion Park could only be a step down. I suspected it might be a regular park with benches to sit down and immerse yourself in nature. I was wrong – again – the Treelion Park is another entertainment park but very different from the Coconut Park. There are sculptures placed all around the park, mostly animals but also cartoon characters and more traditional statues depicting angels and heroes. The park has over a dozen areas with themes which merge into each other. There is a dedicated field made of sand to play boule/petanque/bocce and topping that they have created a freakin' 18 hole minigolf course. But we aren’t done yet - you can relax at a small pond with reed roof huts around it, over here there is seasaw, over there is a London double decker bus with integrated cafe. The park has many spots where you can sit in semi-privacy. I was too early for the night market and music that is allegedly happening once it’s dark but I saw some tents that gave me an idea what it could be like. It's a beautiful place for families and couples...and even singles like me can have a splendid time there - 5 out of 5 stars. :-D
The following day I stayed inside apart from having lunch at the Bong Bonlai restaurant again and a few errands In the afternoon such as topping up my SIM card with credit at a phone shop and finding at travel agency where I could buy few a bus ticket to Siem Reap for the next morning. And that marked the end of my stay in the Cambodian capital - bye bye Phnom Penh.
