Landed safely - At Phnom Penh International Airport - with our luggage
Ann holding the "Kotex-look-alike" envelope package which contained all the USD for our meals
Yaw Heng couldn't control his surprise that I actually carry a bottle of medicated oil wherever I go - and he laughed non-stop... Grrr... Shouldn't have passed the bottle to him for his mosquito bites!
A weighing machine in the supermarket - control your weight. Don't buy too much snacks!
The yummy kampong fried chicken rice which I like!
The path to The Royal Palace, where the King of Cambodia lives... Shhh...
At The Royal Palace
1) Enjoying (natural) sauna everyday…
Talk about losing water…
I’ve been told that it would be very hot in Phnom Penh. I checked out the weather forecast before the trip and it said it was between 25°C to 32°C; hence, I thought it should be similar to Singapore’s and that Yaw Heng and Ann-marie were trying to exaggerate…
Are you complaining that Singapore’s weather is hot, hot, hot these days and really unbearable?
Wait till you arrive at Phnom Penh. It’s basically soaking yourself in a sauna bath everyday! The HOT Singapore weather is like air-con to Phnom Penh’s.
No kidding.
During the four days, I could feel HUGE beads of perspiration flowing/dripping from my forehead, to cheeks, to chin; from neck, to shoulder, to chest, to belly button… Eeewwww…
I’m glad I brought along a paper fan and a face towel, despite Vanessa and Ann-marie asking me not to ('cos it’s so auntified)… But it turned out that my flimsy paper fan was the savior for all of us!
2) Enjoying massage and spa everyday…
I’m starting to believe I am really not cut out to be a tai-tai. Unlike many other girls, I don’t enjoy massage and spa. I don’t really fancy a stranger’s hands roaming freely up and down my whole body. And not forgetting, massage can be painful and ticklish at the same time.
It all started with the other two ladies ranting about wanting to enjoy massage and spa to escape from the hot weather… We went to Cham Pei Spa and Salon. Ann-marie and I took a full body aroma massage, and an exfoliating body scrub plus honey milk bath package. Cost us US$40.50. The exfoliating body scrub was good, I must say…
The honey milk bath was in a Jacuzzi bath tub filled with flower petals. Looked pretty and smelled good! But somehow, I could not just lie down and rest my head comfortably, like Ann did! For some reason, my butt and lower body kept floating, regardless of my sitting position! Ann had a good time laughing at me, seeing how I was trying to balance myself in the Jacuzzi tub. She concluded it was because of my light bottom and heavy top, which acts as a pair of natural floats! What the &#*$&*#^%^%@!!
The masseurs who attended to us did not know how to speak English and whatever we said or asked, the answer was a smile, nod and “Yes.” And they always “refused” to give us disposable panties – that is, until we asked them by playing charades and even resorted to showing them what’s underneath our shorts…
Everyone enjoyed the massage and scrub so much that they decided to return again for the next two days. And being the only one casting the “no more” vote, I could just follow the majority's preference…
Did a full-leg massage on Day 2 for US$10.50 and a full body aroma massage, and a coffee body scrub plus honey milk bath package on Day 3 for US$40.50.
By Day 3, I started to really enjoy the entire process that I almost fell asleep, instead of cringing in pain during the massage.
Fresh after our spa retreat!
The snacks we had after the pampering session.
3) Mosquito/houseflies murderers
Our mini-van was infested with mosquitoes and houseflies on the first day and on other days too. Think it was the hot weather (and the filthy environment)…
Ended up having a mosquito/houseflies killing competition in the van.
Our driver must have thought that we were mad with all the clapping, slapping and stomping of our hands and feet.
The winner was Ann-marie, followed by Vanessa and Wee Kiat. I tried but always missed them. Ended up only waving my hands and shaking my legs, shooing the pests away…
These pests were also a common sight at restaurants, orphanages and practically everywhere.
4) Visits to two orphanages
Children at the orphanages were very friendly. Some of them ran up to our vans and greeted us with warm “Hello!” and smiles, while some were very shy and just stood around.
The first orphanage was Unicas. The children were very obedient and sat down (similar to a classroom setting in the open) and waited for us while we talked to the director of the orphanage and discussed how to go about distributing the presents to them.
I don’t know how the others felt but I felt awkward when I was distributing the lollipops, stationeries and cartoon face towels to them. I felt even more uneasy when I handed the presents to orphans who were already teenagers.
If you ask me, my heart goes out more to the teenagers than to the younger kids. Why? Because it breaks my heart to see that they are physically an adult, yet you could see that they are as delighted as the younger kids when you hand them a lollipop or a pencil or a cartoon face towel.
And most of them were running around barefoot.
The simple things in our daily life that we took for granted are such treasures to them.
Spoke to two girls who were 19 and 20 years old. They told us they want to be a nurse and a pharmacist. I sincerely hope they would be able to achieve their dreams.
Can you find me?
Kids waving goodbye to us when we left. They even ran all the way to the gates and continued running behind us, after our van...
The second orphanage was New Phnom Penh. We were actually way behind our schedule for the day, and Queen Vanessa already gave orders in the van that we only had 20 minutes to spare at this orphanage.
However, it turned out that the children actually prepared three five-minute long dance performances – complete with costumes and make-up – to welcome us!
I was touched.
Throughout the performances, Vanessa was getting grouchy and impatient, and kept shooting us looks that we were running out of time. However, the rest of us figured we could still afford another 30 minutes and ignored her.
With the kids who performed for us
Honestly, I think we would never be able to fully understand what these kids are going through. Some of them are not exactly orphans. They have parents but their parents are too poor to support them and have no choice but to send them to the orphanage. Some have parents who are diagnosed as HIV-positive.
Learnt that one boy was knocked down by a moto on his way from school back to the orphanage the day before our visit. And while in the hospital, they were worrying about the hospital bills. Sad.
5) Miscellaneous…
a) We were trying to find a restaurant but when we reached there, the place did not look at all like an eating place. Turned out that there are two places with the same address! How weird is that! I bet the two places must be receiving each other’s mails!
b) A pity that the Central Market was under renovation and I did not get to see the famous dome-shaped structure. Did not shop much at the Central Market and the Russian Market as the weather was so scorching warm and the temperature seemed to have risen even more as we trotted down the many narrow aisles of the badly-ventilated and low-ceiling markets.
c) Something spooky… We were all getting ready to zzz, lying on the bed and chatting/giggling away on our last night in our apartment when suddenly, Vanessa and I saw a bright red/white flash across the ceiling.
It was only then that Ann-marie revealed that she already kind of saw the flash – from the corner of her eyes – for the past two nights but since Vanessa and I did not mention anything about it, she thought it was taboo and decided to keep mum. She only realised that the two of us did not see it until the third night. According to her, it always happened around the same time.
The weird thing was our apartment was on the third level (already considered one of the highest levels in the city) and we drew the thick window curtains. Even if the Khmers living in the super lok-kok building opposite us were rich to afford a camera, we don’t think a photograph shoot would warrant such a strong light flash. And we don’t think they own a camera anyway. I was just glad I managed to fall asleep fast for the first two nights.
d) Talk about Earth Hour. I think Phnom Penh should take the responsibility of spearheading this world event from WWF. Black-outs were a common sight in Phnom Penh. We experienced black-outs at all the restaurants we visited. Visited Malis, one of the supposedly high-class restaurants in Phnom Penh, and the moment we stepped out of our van, the restaurant went dark. Turned out that a tree fell and pulled down along with it the electricity poles and wires. Visited the Chinese restaurant opened by my daddy’s friend, the Khmer Surin restaurant and a few other places, and we also dined in the dark for a good five minutes or so. By the third night, I ended up giggling non-stop when the posh pub we were at also experienced the same thing and the rest laughed, saying “I was expecting it, right?”.
At Khmer Surin restaurant
Don't ask me what Vanessa was doing tying the red napkin over her head...
e) It was raining elephants and hippopotamus shortly after we arrived at S21 museum. Hence, we did not really explore the place except for the building we were stuck at, while waiting for the rain to stop. Not a very pleasant place to visit because it was kind of depressing and spooky too. There was a photo exhibition by a photographer who took pictures of the place and – whether it was unintentional or the photos had been edited or it was due to the angles that the photos were taken – the photos seemed to have captured and reflected stuff from “the other world”.
The memorial at The Killing Fields...
f) Many of the Ang-moh tourists were also trapped in the same building as us and after a good 15-20 minutes (and no signs of the rain changing to a drizzle), they decided to just run in the rain to their vehicles. As for us, we actually figured out a smart way to stay dry. We called our driver, made him drive up the kerb, onto the walkway to the building and boarded the van. Before Wee Kiat closed the van’s door, he actually shouted to the other Ang-mohs looking at us, “Stoopid Ang-mohs! Run in the rain! The Asians are the SMARTER ones! Woo hoo!” Wah!!! I bet most Asians wouldn’t have the guts to do that!
Leaving International Phnom Penh Airport
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