Believe it or not, the following load of ill-informed, ignorant rubbish is from a website called 'Travel Intelligence'.
http://www.travelintelligence.net/wsd/a ... t_325.html
Arriving in Phnom Penh
Cambodia
By Anthony Healy
contributor
Cambodia is one of the most beautiful places in the world. It’s just a shame the people who live there insist on killing each other. Where the wide and silent Tonle Sap River meets the mighty Mekong we find that haunting and exotic shit-hole called Phnom Penh. It’s Cambodia’s Capital, but Cambodia hasn’t got any ‘capital’. The gross domestic product of the country every year is zero, so there are few sidewalks in Phnom Penh and there’s no drainage. When it rains the city is instantly flooded.
Public Transport is almost non existent. There are small, light buses, which are always crowded to overflowing [like one of those attempts on the Guinness Book of World Records], but that’s about it. After that, one has to rely on private enterprise: taxis and rickshaws pulled by bicycles and moped taxis. There is a railway station in Phnom Penh and there’s a man in an office who looks after the railway station. It’s a lovely art deco piece of architecture from French colonial days and the man in the office keeps it well swept with his special, government regulation broom. The problem is, the railway lines don’t go anywhere. The line is overgrown and the few trains that were shunted into sidings have rusted. Nobody ever visits the railway station because there’s no rail service, which makes life easier for the man in the office. There’s never anything to sweep up.
The airport at Phnom Penh doesn’t really have a Customs. There are administrators in white shirts, but it’s perfectly obvious that they are not in charge. Instead, there is a large presence from the Royal Cambodian Army. Actually it’s more of an airstrip than an airport, but it does have a terminal building into which you are herded at gunpoint. It’s at this delicate juncture in proceedings that you find out that you need a visa to enter the country.
You don’t have a visa? Walk this way.
The uniformed officials behind the counter scowl at your passport. They throw it around between each other as if to show their complete and utter contempt for somebody without a visa. They hand you a series of forms to fill in and then they scowl at you again. Since nobody on the plane has a visa, what you have is fifty people in a small room being scowled at by a bunch of uniformed Cambodians with Kalishnikovs. If the plane from Bangkok is full, there’s nowhere near enough space and you spend your time bumping into people whilst trying to rest your visa forms on your hand-luggage.
“Excuse me. Oh, I’m sorry, is that your automatic weapon.”
It’s complete chaos. If you’ve never done this before and you weren’t expecting it, the chaos can be intimidating. You don’t realize that the Royal Cambodian Army is under strict instructions never to open fire on passengers arriving at the airport. It’s very unusual for Cambodian soldiers to ignore their instructions, unless somebody upsets them, they get confused, or they’re in a bad mood that day.
Hatchet job on Phnom Penh
- marklatham
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No sidewalks?
I was cycling along the sidewalk in sihanouk today marvelling the width of probably ten metres.Of course in many places the sidewalks have been stolen by businesses but pnom penh still has many nice sidewalks and beautiful street trees.
Does anyone know the name of the trees on norodom that have been flowering for momths?
I was cycling along the sidewalk in sihanouk today marvelling the width of probably ten metres.Of course in many places the sidewalks have been stolen by businesses but pnom penh still has many nice sidewalks and beautiful street trees.
Does anyone know the name of the trees on norodom that have been flowering for momths?
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No there aren't! He's making it up.There are small, light buses, which are always crowded to overflowing [like one of those attempts on the Guinness Book of World Records], but that’s about it.
Really? So who were those guys in customs uniforms who asked to look through the box of Vespa spare parts I brought over from Bangkok last year? He's making it up.The airport at Phnom Penh doesn’t really have a Customs.
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i think they were looking for agent007.Mark wrote:Believe it or not, the following load of ill-informed, ignorant rubbish is from a website called 'Travel Intelligence'.
http://www.travelintelligence.net/wsd/a ... t_325.html
Arriving in Phnom Penh
Cambodia
By Anthony Healy
contributor
Cambodia is one of the most beautiful places in the world. It’s just a shame the people who live there insist on killing each other. Where the wide and silent Tonle Sap River meets the mighty Mekong we find that haunting and exotic shit-hole called Phnom Penh. It’s Cambodia’s Capital, but Cambodia hasn’t got any ‘capital’. The gross domestic product of the country every year is zero, so there are few sidewalks in Phnom Penh and there’s no drainage. When it rains the city is instantly flooded.
Public Transport is almost non existent. There are small, light buses, which are always crowded to overflowing [like one of those attempts on the Guinness Book of World Records], but that’s about it. After that, one has to rely on private enterprise: taxis and rickshaws pulled by bicycles and moped taxis. There is a railway station in Phnom Penh and there’s a man in an office who looks after the railway station. It’s a lovely art deco piece of architecture from French colonial days and the man in the office keeps it well swept with his special, government regulation broom. The problem is, the railway lines don’t go anywhere. The line is overgrown and the few trains that were shunted into sidings have rusted. Nobody ever visits the railway station because there’s no rail service, which makes life easier for the man in the office. There’s never anything to sweep up.
The airport at Phnom Penh doesn’t really have a Customs. There are administrators in white shirts, but it’s perfectly obvious that they are not in charge. Instead, there is a large presence from the Royal Cambodian Army. Actually it’s more of an airstrip than an airport, but it does have a terminal building into which you are herded at gunpoint. It’s at this delicate juncture in proceedings that you find out that you need a visa to enter the country.
You don’t have a visa? Walk this way.
The uniformed officials behind the counter scowl at your passport. They throw it around between each other as if to show their complete and utter contempt for somebody without a visa. They hand you a series of forms to fill in and then they scowl at you again. Since nobody on the plane has a visa, what you have is fifty people in a small room being scowled at by a bunch of uniformed Cambodians with Kalishnikovs. If the plane from Bangkok is full, there’s nowhere near enough space and you spend your time bumping into people whilst trying to rest your visa forms on your hand-luggage.
“Excuse me. Oh, I’m sorry, is that your automatic weapon.”
It’s complete chaos. If you’ve never done this before and you weren’t expecting it, the chaos can be intimidating. You don’t realize that the Royal Cambodian Army is under strict instructions never to open fire on passengers arriving at the airport. It’s very unusual for Cambodian soldiers to ignore their instructions, unless somebody upsets them, they get confused, or they’re in a bad mood that day.
the chosen land.
- marklatham
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My mate steve was here over xmas and he came up with an interesting theory about cambodia.
He thinks the whole country is an experiment on the effects of the legalising of drugs.
Lets look at the results-it is absolute chaos from the airport to the roads to the buildings to the politics.
It certainly seems that the americans were right.
He thinks the whole country is an experiment on the effects of the legalising of drugs.
Lets look at the results-it is absolute chaos from the airport to the roads to the buildings to the politics.
It certainly seems that the americans were right.
I don't buy into it.marklatham wrote:My mate steve was here over xmas and he came up with an interesting theory about cambodia. He thinks the whole country is an experiment on the effects of the legalising of drugs. Lets look at the results-it is absolute chaos from the airport to the roads to the buildings to the politics. It certainly seems that the americans were right.
The variety of good drugs here is mediocre at best although there is a plentiful supply of what is available ie. ditchweed and ice. You can get far better stuff in Europe when it comes to chemicals or good homegrown greenery and the roads are much better and the politicians seem more stoned there.
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