The ticket to Phnom Penh cost us cheaply, $ 5, and despite the fact that the bus arrived to pick us up late, and loaded and unloaded the million boxes, even the corridors, and that it was a pretty borreguero vehicle, I mean it was old and worn, the trip was pleasant and without major mishaps.

We arrived at 5 am to the capital, so as always we had to go in search of the best option to sleep. To do this we had to go to the center, with the references we had obtained from other travelers, we started the round of consultation-haggling. The best option we found was at Royal Guesthouse, where for $ 6 we had a room, double with fan, on the top floor at the end of a corridor with views of the city, and since it was the last room we could leave the door open while we were inside, making it much more pleasant.

Phnom Penh we did not like especially. Unlike Battambang, people are very tense, everything is more expensive or at least it is for Westerners … you see less friendly faces in which you can brighten up the day by receiving a smile … The center is noisy and busy, in addition … !! they repeated us everywhere that beware of the pulls of handbags and mobiles. Even our dear friend Toni, who writes the blog Motxilles Abismals, tried to steal the phone and bag … We did not have any clue, although we were cautious after so much warning from locals.

The streets of the center are full of restaurants, travel agencies and hotels, everything that a tourist center needs to get the tourist money … But what caught our attention is the number of bars with happy women in the area … but full! some bars are in the limit, you do not know if they are alternate or not … but others are blatantly puti clubs !! with the ladies outside chatting with the mobile … because in Asia (and I’m afraid that in the whole world) if you are not doing some obligation, then you are love to the mobile …

This area of ​​the city is impossible, all prices are swollen, more than usual, but only for the tourist. So you go to a local restaurant, with a lot of Cambodians eating, you ask the price and they tell you the triple … hahaha … sometimes even a slight laugh escapes them … As in almost all Cambodia or we could say almost all the south-east Asian There is a letter with prices for the premises and another letter translated into English for tourists, and both have different prices … Although in the center of Phnom Penh it is more brazen. You just have to go a few streets outside the center to have a price just slightly higher than the local … This is the game that we have to play … or you like or like …

In the center there is also the Night market, with souvenir shops, food that does not do anything good and little more … very little achieved, comparing with the offer of other cities. You can also take a walk along the river, pleasant and refreshing at night …

The main tourist attractions are Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, that the entrance is worth a pasta ($ 10) and we did not enter … with according to which palaces and temples are that fast … we saw them from outside …

What is a must see is the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a high school converted into a maximum security prison, known as the S21, in the era of the Khmer Rouge. Admission costs $ 3 and audio-guide $ 3 more. It is a prison feared in the period between 1975 and 1979, where they took the criminals against the party to interrogate them, torture them without any compassion, eliminate them, or confine them in inhuman conditions for as long as they could remain alive.

In the same museum you can see photos of the victims who passed through the prison, and also of the few survivors, only 12 people, in addition to utensils, letters, statements, confessions … The facilities remain as they were left by the Khmer Rouge, all It is very rudimentary, extremely simple, terrifyingly deadly …

Walking through this prison and hearing the history that is contained in it is shocking, how can we do such atrocities to each other …? Also, this did not happen that long ago so victims and executioners live together. The Cambodians do not hold a grudge against the facts, those who executed are recognized to receive orders without an alternative … everything is relative, but what is the use of resentment?

The problem is that until now there has not been any court that has condemned the facts, so the guilty continue to age unpunished, denying having been participants and saying that they were following orders or that they never ordered that …

How relative is everything, when the victims belong to the “underdeveloped” world a tremendous genocide can go unnoticed without a problem …

To move we rented bicycles at a travel agency, Solomon Travel, on 172nd street. He asked us for 3 dollars for 2 bikes a day and we ended up taking it for 2.5 dollars. In addition, and as always, it is interesting to visit the markets of the city, such as the Russian Market, full of “antiques” and curious replicas like souvenirs, as well as tourist clothes, local restaurants and other articles of a market.

There is also the Central Market, quite touristy, with a star shape and a high vaulted ceiling. It has paraditas of jewels and watches in its central zone, while at its ends it varies, among clothes, items for mobile phones, and vegetables, meat and fish.

And to visit a local market in full activity, the Boeung Keng Kang market is your place. It is a local market with all its charm where it is a pleasure to get lost among its alleys …

For eating, outside the center local restaurants may vary, you have to monitor their hygiene a bit, as always, although everything is of the style. The truth is that we did not find a place in particular, we changed to each meal because we did not try any to highlight … The price was between 1 and 1.5 dollars.

And if you want a little diet change, at Pizza Factory & Caffee, at noon you have a 2×1 on pizzas !!! so you end up costing about 4 dollars each pizza … and they are very good! In the center we found a very curious place … the smallest pizzeria we have seen in our life. It is a wood oven on a cart !!! We could not try their pizzas at $ 5, but we would have liked it.

Ah! when leaving the S21 Museum, we bought a salad covered by a rice tortilla that was very good for 3000 rails each.

Mention that we got the Vietnam visa at the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh. They take 48 hours (or you can have it in the same morning paying more) and it costs 30 dollars 1 month or 40 dollars 3 months … Very easy and very efficient …

And the day came to leave, we searched through all the agencies for a bus to go to Ha Tien, and it cost us to find it at a decent price … Finally we got it for $ 12 each in the company Champa Mekong, including a tuk-tuk that we He came to look for the hotel. The bus passed through Kampot and Kep.

So … we’re going to Vietnam !!!!! Ole Ole ole!!! We left behind Cambodia, a country that has treated us very well …