I felt like a Queen yet again with my personal driver and tuk tuk to the Russian Market and back – not sure the colours were too Royal though, I appeared to be the only person riding around Phnom Penh in the back of bright pink Barbiemobile tuk tuk. I spot some lovely old French villas on the way that at least survived the Pol Pot era. It’s a great market – hot, crowded, dark and the stalls really close together in places. Again selling everything you could imagine, with a section of “taylors” (sic) ready to run up anything you wanted too – but by the look of a pair of trousers one Westerner was trying for size, probably not up to Italian tailoring – perhaps they will look better when they’ve had a good press… And why do I always find myself in the meat section – probably as it’s always next to shoes. Great food area and I am also now something of an expert on tuk tuk spare parts as I managed to get lost for a while in that dept. But they’re not that technical – most fuel tanks of the tuk tuks appear to be empty one litre mineral water bottles attached somehow to the engine via a narrow tube. I asked the driver just to go one way to the Russian market but he insisted he’d wait even though I didn’t know how long I would be there. He would only be sitting outside the FCC with no other work all day he said, and at least that guaranteed him the return trip. So for my £2 I had my personal driver dropping me off and waiting for as long as I wanted, and, bless him, warning me in his broken English to take care of my bag. It doesn’t seem right somehow all the hours of his time plus the cost of the tuk tuk and fuel for the same price as a glass of wine in the FCC. A few purchases later- cheap tops, but no bargaining here, I come back into town (the Russian market is a bit of a way from the centre). I then go to Wat Phnom Temple – the place where Phnom Penh began. One big and lots of smaller temples on the top of a hill. One temple was particularly popular and the Buddah’s were in for a huge meal – lots of full plates of food including a complete roast chicken – I thought it was the restaurant! There was a temple elephant at the bottom waiting to give rides the short way to the top but he was looking a little anxious to me, swaying from side to side and picking up his sugar cane stalks in his trunk and then throwing them away; I kept my distance. There were lots of birds in cages waiting to be to be freed for a fee – I wouldn’t do it anyway but especially when I realised that you had to actually hold said sparrow and let it go yourself. So back to my old friend, the FCC to pack the bags for the next adventure, and if you want to experience a little of a pink tuk tuk ride arriving back at the FCC, just click on the attached video.
