We got up this morning after a fairly good sleep. Still felt quite tired and could have stayed in bed like! Got sorted and went downstairs where the accommodation also has a tour desk, so we sent off for our visas with them, which were $61 each, which I wasn't happy about! We also booked a hopefully nice bus to Vietnam with Mekong Express for $12 each, booked a trip to the killing fields and the S21 museum for tomorrow and got our laundry done! All in a mornings work!
We spent the rest of the day following a walking trail around the city to different sights that were on a map we were given. The trail has the aim of showing the sights and taking in the real Phnom Penh, which it did seen to do. We saw many different sides of Phnom Penh with people with different attitudes and lifestyles- it was an interesting walk- even if sometimes we were out of place out of the tourist areas.
We followed the walk- getting lost sometimes- and saw the National Museum, Central Market (Phsar Thmey), Naga-adorned Faux Bridge, Wat Phnom, Phsar Chas (another less tourist market), the Royal Palace. We didn't pay to go in any of the sights but walked around and saw them all. We felt we had done enough temples and palaces for the time being. The Central Market was nice to walk around. It was massive! It had a huge dome in the middle, which had an inside market and then lines of markets coming from the dome and around the outside.
We walked through some very poor areas of the city and there were children and women begging on the street, which wasn't nice to see at all. It was an awfully poor place and we didn't feel very comfortable here at all for some reason.
Later we got a tuk tuk to a big supermarket to get some breakfast and some snacks and we decided we would walk the way back from it. It looked like a long walk and took us about 45 mins. We did get lost again and went into a very non tourist area where people were staring at us a lot and looked shocked, but happy, to see white people! They did look at us a bit like we were aliens, mainly me for some reason!
On the walk back we passed by some nice parks, which seemed to be the nicer area of town, but not with any tourists. Everybody was so polite though which was nice and made such a difference to the centre of town. We saw independence monument on the way back, which is a significant monument in Phnom Penh. The
sun was just setting when we got back so we watched it from the bedroom window, got showered and ready and made our pot noodles that we got from the shop and went and sat at the river front. We also got a dessert as well which was a nice treat. It wasn't the best idea to be honest sitting by the river with food. Two children came up to us begging, which was awful and we didn't have a clue what to do. It was so awkward and awful. It's so hard to judge if something is going to be a scam. We felt so awful about it after and then we saw them with a street vender later, then playing football with all their friends. There are so many street children around and never seem to be with their parents. There is a lot walking around on a night trying to sell things, but you don't know who they are selling for and what they will get from it. It's sad to think about and more so that it seems so normal here and no locals are phased or bothered about the children.
We quickly rushed our food after the children came over to us and we felt so uncomfortable. We were then approached by an old woman begging too. The river front is so busy on a night and there are tourists about too, but we just feel so uncomfortable and out of place here- it's not a nice feeling at all. I've never felt like that in any place we have been. Although it's really nice and nobody has been nasty with us, it just feels very shifty and I feel unsure about everything. We do get a lot of stares, which I am sick of by now, and we don't understand, but never nothing bad said, not to our face anyway!
We stayed sat at the river front for a while longer and were then approached by a local lad, around our age, who asked if we liked Phnom Penh and how long we had been here, where we were going next etc. Its awful really because I think he was just trying to be nice and wanted to talk to people, but you always think people have an ulterior motive and are on edge waiting for what is going to be next. The lad went on to tell us that although the river front and this area of town looked and seemed nice, Phnom Penh had been ruined by tourism. The prices had gone up for locals and their standard of living was not very nice and everything was basically for tourists. What it would cost for one meal on the riverfront, he could live off for 3 days. He explained that he didn't really like it anymore. It was awful to hear! Although we were already aware that it must be very difficult for locals, it wasn't nice and was more of an eye opener to hear it from a local.
After the weird experience tonight on the riverfront, we felt a little too uncomfortable and decide to head back to our room for the night. It was an interesting night!