Day 16 – The Final Stop
I’m only ‘alone’ on this trip for these first 18 days, then
maybe a week or so total at the end. The rest of the time I am with my Mom, or
with family in India/Australia. This 18 day stretch along three countries in
two continents is the longest stretch where I’m alone on the trip, and somehow,
someway it is close to over. When I was sick, the days couldn’t go quick
enough, the clock mockingly ticking slowly through the day. Yet, the time still
seems like it has flown by. Admittedly, 18 days isn’t that long, but still it
should have felt longer than it was. I’m glad to be nearing the end of this
portion of the trip, in no small part because I’m not the one paying for
everything starting in two days. One part sickness and one part of paying
closer attention has led to the Vietnam/Cambodia legs of the trip being quite
economical, but the after effects of my gorging in South Africa will be felt.
Anyway, this morning I got up nice and early, as I should have yesterday, to
get to the bus station for my final bus ride, a 6-hour haul from Siem Reap back
to Phnom Penh.
The bus-ride back was pretty uneventful. In lieu of
describing the bus-ride in detail that it doesn’t merit, I’m going to run a
piece I forgot to on the blog today detailing my overall takeaways from Cape
Town. I wrote it but never posted it, as by the time I exited my final flight
on the day I left South Africa, I was sick. As far as the bus goes, it was more
comfortable than the bus there, and I got some good reading done, both
finishing up ‘Catch-22’ and also doing some more research on Thailand and
Malaysia, which I will be leaving for on Wednesday. Add in to that about two
more hours of sleep, and I was in Phnom Penh before I knew it.
The tuk-tuk ride from the bus station to my hostel, The Mad
Monkey, was my first good look at Phnom Penh, and I have to say it seems better
and more modernized than I initially had thought from the brief views I got
from the bus on the way to Siem Reap. There are few tall buildings, but it
seems very much like Bombay, with large streets, good roads, nice sights and
gardens, but a little dirty. I will venture near the waterfront in the next
coming days, so let’s see if the comparison holds to that part as well. It was
also noticeably cooler here than in Siem Reap, but I have no real explanation
for why that is. The Mad Monkey is a nice backpacker, that seems more than any
place I’ve stayed on this part of the trip, to emulate just what a backpacker
hostel should be. It has a lively young staff, two bars (one on the ground floor
and one on the roof), two restaurants, and a good location. There were a few
backpackers at the restaurant when I got there, but the kitchen is closed for
renovation. They told me that they would be hosting a Barbeque on the rooftop
at 7 for all guests, and I was welcome to join. Since I realized that this was
my final night where I could go out late (my flight Wednesday morning is
early), I took them up on their offer. I couldn’t wait till 7 to eat, though,
so I decided to go out for a late lunch.
I chose Khmer Surin, a restaurant that is quite known in the
area and in the guide-book (I didn’t come across it during my research), and is
also quite close to The Mad Monkey (just 250m), which was perfect for a quick
bite. Like every restaurant I’ve been to in Cambodia, it has outdoor seating.
It actually has three levels, with the bottom and top being normal restaurant
seating (but Cambodian style, so low to the ground around nice tables) where
you are surrounded by plants, fountains and fans. The middle floor is
party-seating only. The food was in that standard price-range of everything
being between $6-8 dollars. I’m interested in knowing why food is so
discounted, but beer is not. The beer here is about $2, which also seems pretty
standard. I guess the 1:3 ratio is kind of the same, but I’m surprised, if not
a bit saddened, that beer isn’t less.
I ordered the Laab Squid in an appetizer portion. Laab is
essentially a spicy salad with some spices that I don’t know and mint leaves.
I’ve had in with beef in Siem Reap, so I was curious to see how it worked with
seafood. I also ordered Chi Goureng Beef as my entrée. That is a Cambodian
Paste made from peanut and pepper, available with any meat. Both dishes were
about the same portion size, despite one being an appetizer and the other an
entrée. The beef was more of a curry than I expected, so I ordered a rice
later, but that filled me up so much that I couldn’t finish the squid. The
squide was cooked well, but the spices added made it extremely crunchy, in a good
way. The mint was strong, but sparse, so it added a nice kick. The Chi Goureng
had a heavy peanut flavor and a heavy chili flavor, which really was the best
of both worlds. The beef itself wasn’t cut all that well, but I’ve found that
in Asia, beef rarely is. Overall, it was a good meal, and with its proximity to
the restaurant, I may eat here again, and I most certainly would have had I had
more than two days in Phnom Penh.
I went back to the Mad Monkey and rested up in preparation
for the Barbeque at 7. I went up around 7:05 – never wanting to be the first to
a party – and was the third person there. In the end, it was 10 of us. There
were two other singles, so I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know anyone. To my
surprise, everyone spoke English, though three of them were from Colombia. The
food was decent, and the drinks were readily flowing, which made it a pretty
enjoyable time. A group of them were meeting up later to head to the City
Center and then go pub-hopping, which sounded like my type of evening.
We met up around 9:30 downstairs, and took two Tuk-Tuks to
the city center. Phnom Penh central is far better than the outskirts of the city,
which I guess is no real surprise. What was a surprise was just how lit up the
city was. The pubs we went to were all near the waterfront, which resembles
Marine Drive in Bombay, for better or for worse. It was a good time, and many
of the pubs had happy hours that extended well into the night. For my last real
night alone, it was a home run. We got back to the hotel around 1:30, and I was
asleep by 2:00, ready for tomorrow, my last day of solo sightseeing for 8
weeks, until Cairns comes a knocking.
