This was our last morning in Phnom Penh – and that meant a Tuk Tuk tour of the city and a stop at the Central Market. These motorbikes with a three-wheeled “carriage” are a blast to ride in, although we cringed as we dodged between trucks and buses, ignored the center line in streets and blithely drove through red lights. That’s just the way it’s done here. First stop – the train station: this is the first train running again in Cambodia – the tracks are in poor shape due to the wars and the heat. It’s still really slow – apparently driving to a destination takes 4 hours, a bus takes 5 hours and the train takes 8 hours! But the station is very modern with kiosks and electronic notice boards and with Japanese assistance they hope to eventually have fast rail travel nationwide. We returned to our tuk tuks and toured the city, including an area packed with new and continuing construction – mostly Chinese investment. We made a quick stop for gas – about 45 seconds. A “gas station” can be a place on the side of the road with 20 or 30 containers (old coke bottles and water jugs) filled with gas and pouring a liter of diesel into a motorbike only takes a moment!
Last stop was the Central Market, a confusing maze of goods for sale by hundreds, or maybe thousands of local people. There is clothing of every variety, jewelry, souvenirs, food, snacks, household supplies, baskets, paintings, furniture, toilet paper, school uniforms – you can find anything! Getting totally lost is definitely an option. However, we all managed to find our way out, eventually, cross the streets without being hit by motorbikes, bicycles, buses, cars, tuk tuks, or other pedestrians and return to the Toum Teav.
After cruising several hours, we arrived in Kampong Tralach. After the usual transfer from our small ship to a small barge, we pulled up to the pier (a tree to which the barge was tied) and saw our next excursion – ox carts. Hmmm. The oxen were calm, the drivers friendly and the fleas were few, but I can’t recommend oxcart for the fragile of bone or kidney! It’s a bit. . . . .bumpy, but we arrived at the Kampong Tralach Leu pagoda more or less whole. This old but off the beaten path pagoda is lovely and surrounded by small children trying to sell us drawings and lotus blossoms. Inside the pagoda, we viewed beautiful wall paintings and had a blessing from the Buddhist monk there. Escaping the children, we returned to our oxcarts and then to our barge and then to our ship.
journeys 