City of Bones
Our last city before returning to Bangkok was the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.
Most tourists just go to Siem Reap to see the temples and maybe do Sianoukville to get some time on the beach before heading home. Phnom Penh is thus not as used to tourism as the other places, but there are always tuk-tuks available and they all have the same poster with the most interesting things to see.
For me the genocide by Khmer Rouge is such an important piece of history that even though I'd seen it myself before, I thought it necessary for my travel companion to experience this city and see some of the landmarks that still show some of the brutality and murders the regime performed.
These are not joyfull places and actually the people who upset us the most during the trip was two australians who went to the killing fields and sat there looking at youtube-videos, laughing and really missed the whole sinister feeling of the place and all the people around them who at least tried to understand the situation the cambodians had been under during these years.
Some markets and a visit to the riverfront was also done while in PP, but we only had just over a day here and weren't really able to do a lot more.
Heading back to Bangkok, we stopped by our tailor for fitting of our suits. Rajawongse clothing with their extremely professional owners continued to impress and I can't wait till our orders are finished. These guys have several former US presidents and lots of other high ranking people on the customerlist, and the quality we saw made it understandable. Their service level was however many times over what we could expect, but as Victor said, we are all just people at the end and there shouldn't really make a difference as long as we threat them in a friendly manner what their job is. I'm definetly returning here on my next visit to BKK.
As it was saturday, a trip to the weekend market was an option, and even though I had read that this both was huge and a very good experience, I wasn't really expecting it to be as fantastic as it turned out to be.
Getting there was easily enough, go to Mo Chit by the skytrain, skip through a park (well, just follow everyone else, because this is where people are going), and enter the numerous bazaars and hope you're not too lost if you need to find your way out. If you do get lost, just mention the word skytrain and all locals will know how to get there.
The market has EVERYTHING, from amazing and unique art, to both new and old shoes, to squirrels, shirts, soaps, sandals, souvenirs, scarfs, soups and other items starting with S.
Most of the products are priced, and most of the (very many) visitors are locals, so you're not really screwed over if you are bad at haggling either. Most prices can be reduced a bit, but don't expect them to drop to half as they often would at other markets. Personally I don't think we from the west should force the prices too low either, they will most likely need the extra 20 cent more than we would. That being said, I still haggle on the prices, but rather give them some extra after we have agreed on a price anyway.
