Wednesday 22 July 2020

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Trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia pt. 3


Assalamu’alaikum Hii Guys. Finally, we are here in the third part. How you doing, anyway? Hope you guys doing well ^^. If you have not read the previous parts you could just check it out so that you will know the whole story. Aaand here we go!

On the third day, we had already had an appointment which was in the morning and we found that the location was way further than the previous NGO we visited. So, we prepared earlier than yesterday. We ate not too much meals for breakfast, some of us even did not have breakfast. At 6.30 am we had already been in lobby to wait for our transportation. This time, we went to our destination by Remorque. It was ordered by our friend that is a part of the NGO we would like visit so that the driver knew the route well and we would not get lost XD.

I’ve explained about the Remorque in the first part anyway. So, it is like a cart pulled by motorcycle. It can contain more people than tuktuk. It has 2 face-to-face long seat. So, we were like 3 people in the first seat and 3 people in the second seat. And yes. It was divided based on our tuktuk group, called senior and junior hahaha. We were fit enough in that seat. We can barely move but that was not a big deal. You would not do anything while you were in the cart on the way to some place anyway. Some of us fell asleep because we could not even talk to each other. The wind was so strong that it caused the noise. We could not hear each other as well. The journey took for about 40 mins. We traveled from the city centre to the sububrs. Many buses and other vehicles passed by. Until finally we arrived at our destination.

We were warmly welcomed by them. One of them was Indonesian. She had lived in Cambodia for years and she taught children there. We introduced ourselves, discussed, they told us many things that it was very useful for us and gave other perspectives so that we knew the things from the different side. We were also offered to visit the islamic school near there. The way to that school, we passed the muslim village and there was a market too. We barely met muslim in the city, but we met many of them here. Many women there even wore hijab. The journey to the school took for about 15 minutes by walking. There were no students because it was holiday season for them. It was boarding school for guys anyway. But luckily, we met one of the administrator there to talk and share about that school and stuffs. The school and its area were so huge, there was not many trees, so it was hot there. Some of the rooms were equipped with air conditioner though. We spent for about 30 minutes there until we left and back to the NGO’s place.

Fig 1. One of the school they showed us

As we arrived there, they had prepared lunch for us. There were a lot of foods and it was various. It was like all-you-can-eat restaurant where they prepared the raw material like meats, the vegetables, and some seasons on the tables. So, before we had lunch, we had to cook them first. It was such memorable thing and they were very friendly. They said, it was common thing to there that they always try to serve the guests well. We then prayed on their praying room and met some kids there. They were so cute anyway. We chilled for a while there and played with the kids. After we thought we had enough of chilling and playing with the kids, we said goodbye to them, but before, they ordered us the Remorque again. It was so kind of them.

It was still 2 pm. We did not go back to the guest house. We planned to go to the Tuol Sleng Museum. It is a genocide museum where it was one of the centers for the torture and the execution that was established by Khmer Rouge. There was an entrance fee, it was 8 USD. the fee was different if it is included the audio. We bought 2 tickets with audio and 4 tickets without audio. The building looked so old and by seeing the building you could feel the sadness and the cruel things that ever happened before. We were not allowed to take a picture inside the building. There were a lot of room which inside, there were still things that was used to torture the people. There was a test that explain the story in each room as well. There were still cruel rules made by the Khmer Rouge for the people that were arrested. There was one building that contains all the pictures of the victims inside, with the detail like age, the occupation, etc. The way they tortured them using those things was also explained in audio so detail. So, yeah you can imagine it and it will make you hard to believe that it did happen. We had enough visiting all the rooms. Then we decided to sit for a moment, take a rest under the tree in that area before we finally went to the gate out.


Fig 2. Tuol Sleng Museum

We found that there was a big market near the museum which it sold many souvenirs. We had not bought any souvenir as that day was the last day of our trip. So, we dicided to go to the market first to grab some souvenirs. Because it was not too far, we decided to go there by walking, as always haha. After 15 minutes walking, we finally arrived to that market. Because we brought some bags that we thought that would attract some criminals or something, so we decided to go to the fast food restaurant near there. One of us decided to not go shopping, because she had another plan to buy the souvenirs in the other place. So, we kept our bags there with her watch our bags. Then, 5 of us left to the market to grab some souvenirs.

Fig 3. Shopping District in Phnom Penh

There were a lot of souvenirs available there with various range of price. Many sellers offered us to with nice offer. We finally got our souvenirs after spending some time to choose the best offer. There were bags, wallet, key chains, notebooks, shirts, etc. Then, we went back to the fast food restaurant to take our bags and order some drinks as well. Then, we left to mini market that sells Cambodian snacks. We grab some snacks too there as the snacks were unique and we barely find those kinds of snack in our country. After we got what we want, we went back to the guest house by ordering tuktuk. It was 6 pm anyway.

The day had not ended yet. We planned to meet our friends in the night market. ThE ReAl NiGhT MarKeT as we found the wrong night market yesterday. When we arrived at the guest house, we got some time to take a rest, change our clothes and have dinner.

Okay, I will continue tomorrow as the final part of this trip! So, stay tuned.


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