After the sun drenched beaches of Sihanoukville, it was going to be a brief stopover in Phnom Penh before catching another bus to Siem Reap. There was the somewhat dodgy option of an 11 hour mega bus peregrination to Siem Reap, i gave that a miss. But for those who want to try it, this exciting deal can be purviewed at some of the beach huts that clutter around Seredipity.
The road to Phnom Penh was blissful tarmac all the way, nothing really interesting happened. Fell asleep through the 4 hour ride, which soon pulled up in Phnom Penh's Psaa Thmei (Central Market), or Psaa Niek Mien (Rich Man's Market) as known by the locals. After fighting off the touts, it was find-a-place-to-stay-for-the-night time again. Having stayed at the somewhat more middle class (read:boring) area around the riverside during my first few days in Phnom Penh, i decided to give Boeng Kak, backpackersville aka the Lake a try despite its rather bad reputation even within a city that has probably the worst reputation in Southeast Asia. That said, i still love Phnom Penh for what it was - unassuming, messy, chaotic, without any of the facade commonly draped over mega cities that draw tourists by the plane loads.
Boeng Kak, was, at least interesting. Although the place i stayed in definitely wasn't. The i don't really care im only going to stay here for one night mentality is not a good one when you crawl back in at night to find youself surrounded be cardboard thin wooden walls, and a shower area that i wouldn't dare linger in, after even having braved Burmese toilets that were basically just a pit in the ground. It was dark, claustrophobic, slimey and dirty. And to top it all up, my room had a window. Yep, a window that opened out right into the lake, with all its algae and infestations (trust me guys, Boeng Kak lake is not somewhere you'd want to go swimming). That in itself wasn't a problem. The problem was that this was a surefire sign i was going to get eaten alive by half the mozzies on the lake that night. Thank God for insect repellant and mosquito nets.
The guesthouse in question (Dead Fish or Lazy Fish, i think it was the latter) was at least cheap at 3 dollars a night, and it had a pool table and something that resembles a bar overlooking the lake. This if of course balanced (i say outweighted) against the state of the rooms.
Back to pleasanter topics. I was having a nice quiet Beer Lao on the deck overlooking the lake when guess who decided to return to PP en route to Siem Reap and check into the very same guesthouse? We had a few drinks before going out to explore Boeng Kak for the night, and had some great naan at the Indian Curry Pot, which took us some time and asking around to find. But it sure was worth it. (Crane your necks a bit - it's upstairs, above some diver's bar or something that has a catchy blue neon sign.) Popped into a little souvenir shop and bought the little flags that now sit proudly on my pack.
Boeng Kak itself was labyrinthine, mazy alleys of banana pancake shops, travel agencies, money changers, restaurants that cater primarily to the backpacker. A self contained and sufficient backpacker community, ala Khao San Road, which has more than its fair share of detractors. My take on all this is that, once in a while, its fun to be in a backpackers ghetto, see similar people, have the much maligned banana pancake, get a drink or two, have fantastic curry (Indian Curry Pot!), but do this all the time and your adventure becomes a tad pointless doesn't it? Personally i treat these places as a bit of a Friday's night out place, where after say a week of exploring the city and roughing it, i can kick back and maybe feel a slice of home or just hang out with the backpacker community, and get some travel related stuff done - admittedly its much easier to sort out visas etc at these places.
Departure next day to Siem Reap, can't remember if i bought the bus tickets before hand. Probably not. So the next day i was crawling out of my mosquito net early in the morning, thankful i haven't got bitten (minor miracle at work here), got into a tuk-tuk and was soon on a bus to Siem Reap.
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