Well, I made it to Phnom Penh. Talk about culture shock! Siem Reap is a sleepy village compared to this. But the best way to show you – and to experience it — is from the back seat of a tuk tuk. But first a story….as I sat there, I held my camcorder up and videotaped lots of what went by, as you’ll see. Some of this was the various embassies I passed, Japanese, Malaysian, French, British and, well, all was fine until I passed the US embassy when we were pulled over. Who are you? What are you doing? Why are you doing it? I should have known. Even the US Embassy in London would have stopped me if I was filming them. So I and my guide started jabbering in English and Khmer and they told me to wait until the Head of Security came by. Was I nervous? Well, a bit. More angry with myself for not thinking (I know my parents will be reading this — you never get too old to worry your parents). But anyway, the Head of Security came by who was an absolutely lovely Cambodian woman. She asked all the right questions. I gave all the right answers. And I told her I would happily show her the film and delete whatever she wanted me to delete. She kept patting me on the shoulder and said “Don’t worry. Relax. You are American. I believe you.” But she took my name, and my passport number and the hotel where I was staying, and she watched my video and asked me to delete the 6 seconds of footage of the outside of the building. All part of the experience, eh?
So here is my seven minute video of a trip (sans any footage of ANY embassies) through the streets of Phnom Penh, with some stuff all tourists would see and plenty they wouldn’t. To be honest, I still love this city. It is absolutely exhilarating. Decide for yourself. And just in case this doesn’t play for you, you can view it on Youtube here.
Really? I’m afraid I wouldn’t have known not to film an embassy…
Great to get a little taste of Phnom Penh. I didn´t mind missing the embassies!
Agree with Mr. Horwood. Seen one embassy, you’ve seen ’em all…