Phnom Penh – Welcome to Magaluf

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Each hour that passed in Phnom Penh seemed to be a more vivid step towards the atrocious state this country has got itself into, full of greed, uneducated citizens, begging children and pure tack. Well, this blog article has started of quite positive. To be honest, there was nothing positive I could admit to share. I don’t even really want to dedicate much time to writing about Phnom Penh in specific. My true experience involved me getting ill, no one helping and spending one of the two nights in a local medical centre, as well as being charged ridiculous amounts for anything apart from the odd beer. Our first impression of Cambodia told us that it was greedy (they’ve mostly switched to the dollar for tourists and are pricing everything as high as it would be in Europe), there are too many single middle aged men with “other things on their mind” and the whole place is tacky, mix between the seaside of Blackpool and the sun of Magaluf. All I can say is that it’s disappointing to see a country that’s gone through so much, such pain to run like it does. Other Mentions: – Don’t go – Seriously, don’t go – They sell pairs of sandals with Facebook written on them – Most alters light up like some tacky Christmas decoration from the 70s – We saw the Cambodian version of the pigeon lady from Home Alone – The good thing about being in a Tuk Tuk is that you are not constantly bombarded with the question, “Tuk Tuk?” – The accept dollars, but give you change in Riel, but then they don’t want to accept Riel – They’ll make up costs as they go