Kingdom Of Cambodia - Part 2

Continued from Part 1.....

There was a big congregation there at the hotel for some kind of seminar. Either Taiwanese, probably Chinese and they occupied half of the hotel. Cambodia probably have strong political ties with China, Russia and North Korea.

I didn't like the hot dogs here but the bacon, stewed beef and fried rice were good. I love the usual omelette because you are never going to chop so many different types of ingredients just to have an omelette but this one was a little overcooked. I like mine a little wet.

I was not able to get a good shot of a very congested road as I was always on the move or having discussions even on the roads. The vehicles here are driven very close to one another. Many cross road junctions do not have traffic lights so every vehicle just inched towards to middle to converge and then swerve around one another to diverge. No honking, no middle fingers flashed. They know there is no point and that is the life. Crossing the roads take guts. You just try to cross and the traffic tries to avoid you. Motor cycles can go across dividers or roads too.

We have so much better roads and are so well regulated and then for no reason we have unreasonable drivers who flash fingers, honk all the time or people who get into fights. When one traffic junction's light conked out, nobody knows how to drive and soon a long jam will follow. It keeps me wondering why we can't do better.

I came across a decrepit building. It was probably already abandoned but I learned that Vietnamese settlers just came and occupied the place. The condition of the building is really bad.

I passed by the Hun Sen House, a huge compound of a house which is Hun Sen, the Prime Minister's house.

An an ancient monument at the round-about.

A smaller cross junction and this is how it is. Their trishaws are high seated for the rider and like a baby pram for the passenger.

They said the weather is so hot why not go for a hair wash to cool down before dinner. 

It was really good. Cold water going through your hair and all over your head and some head massage. I was dozing off when suddenly the lady started chopping my forehead. Oh, it was part of the routine. I didn't know I was heading for more, in fact, some frightening moments. There are 3 things I never allowed anyone to do to me. The only exception was when I was a little boy and my mum has to help me. 

Facial - I like my face to be rough. How else will people be frightened of me? I find it frightening and I realise that women are very brave people as they go for facial treatment often. So when they started I thought what the heck just try it. The face became so smooth that mosquitoes will skid when landing. Bitter sweet for me.

Ears - While cleaning my own ears, I have accidentally poke myself silly inside the ear before in the past. My eyes were closed and suddenly they were cleaning the ear loop. It was quite good actually but it became frightening when they went deeper into the ear canals. Those were skillful hands that pacified me through the ordeal. I tilted my head a little to take  peek at what they have dug out and thankfully they were just little weeny bits meaning that my hearing has been okay. When it was all done, I heard ants crawling somewhere. Clarity of sound.

Nails - My roller-coaster ride did not end yet. As I was settling down, they started snipping my nails. I never allowed anyone to do that for me as I have sensitive nails. Whenever they were cut to short, the part where the nail joins the finger would tear so I always leave them a little longer. To my horrors, when I looked at my fingers later, they trimmed it so short it was like high tide and the shoreline was gone. One finger with a tear is painful enough but ten? Fortunately nothing morbid happened and I thank God that finger nails can grow. I was expecting them to also dig my nose next but no.

I should not be sharing these because I am basically fearless. Like many Singaporeans, sometimes we fear we do not have enough, like money, etc. and if I have any enemies and they may now know my weaknesses - like Samson's long hair or Superman's Kryptonite. I forgot to add that I also hated golf and beer. If my enemies torture me with golf and beer I will be in serious trouble.

This is the look of The Phantom of The Opera.

We came to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. It is housed in a old styled bungalow. The food was great. We had so much food and some beer and it was just USD50 for 4 adults. 

There are places where you will see signages like this - No handguns. Some even says no grenades. I have heard stories of shooting incidents in the past when people have too much to drink or whatever and even once when someone actually lobbed a grenade. 

The same monument by night as we zoomed past. They have a casino there called Nagaworld. So be careful.

Back at the hotel, I like the way they make juice with oranges. Put them into the machine and they get crushed into juice just by pressing the lever. Sometimes, we humans can feel like squeezed oranges. After you get extracted, you get discarded like crushed ranges.

I opted for Asian breakfast. Their beehoon soup was simple and good. 

They have good bacon and I opted for Sunny side up.

Prime Minister Hun Sen came to my hotel. His motorcade was there and there were metal detectors there if you were getting into the hotel.

Security was all over too.

The Russian Market. Somewhat like Bangkok's Chatuchak. 

Lots of garments and footwear. It was too hot to stay in there.

We opted for some shops as we needed some air-conditioned comfort then of course went for more beer.

Finally, for lunch. We settled for Koka just next to the hotel. I noticed they use lime for their urinals.

We had char siew, duck and roast meat. 

We needed to refresh with a shower, packed our bags and ready for home. Along the way to the airport it was drizzling. First time it rains on the trip but it was short lived. We have a bit of time so we did what the Romans did. We have more Angkor. What do you do when beer is USD3.50 a jug? Is this cheaper and cleaner water than Coke or water?

I kept a piece of 1000 Cambodian Riel for souvenir.

I have to register my sincere appreciation to my friends in Cambodia who took care of me when I was there to make it a very smooth and pleasant trip. I wish Cambodia well with prosperity and success.