Wouldn’t go again – Phnom Penh

There has not yet been anywhere on this trip that I have regretted going. Everywhere has been unique with different places to visit and different sights to see. Although I do not regret visiting Phnom Penh (the Capital of Cambodia), it is certainly not on the list of places that I will be going back to.

I know that when travelling you need to be careful and observant of your surroundings, however I have never felt in danger on edge before coming to Phnom Penn. On our first day here we spend the day chilling out by the pool in our hostel and only ventured out for the first time that evening to find ourselves some dinner. As it happens we found a really nice Japanese restaurant and had a really good meal. Everything seemed to be going just fine until we were about 3 steps from the entrance to our hostel. A moped with 2 guys on it was driving really slowly down the street as if it was going to pull into the space in front of the hostel. Now a dodgy moped rider is something that you get here all the time so the fact that he almost hit me wasnt too suprising. He carried on past me towards the space that Ursi was standing in and within the blink of an eye grabbed her purse out of her hand and rode away before we could do anything. I tried to chase them but they had already gotten a headstart so then launched my water bottle at them which unfortunatly came just short of the target. Ursi wasn’t hurt at all and only had some cash in the purse rather than her cards and mobile phone that are usually in there too so all in all we got off quite luckily.

In an instant our opinion of the city had changed and from that point on we all started to look at it with a bit of a jaded view. It soon became apparent that there were a lot more pickpockets and thieves about and I myself had to tell people walking too close behind me to back off as there was no need for them to be that close on an empty street. It isn’t a nice feeling when you have to make sure you are wearing shorts with zips and start getting jumpy whenever a little kid bumps into your leg (as the kids were also going for our pockets).

Everywhere else that we have been in Cambodia has been great and the Cambodian people have also been great with us all but Phnom Penh certainly has a few bad apples that have infected it and really tainted the way I see things. Cant wait to get out of here and continue my travels.