phnom penh: sweat, rivers, and a whole lot of chaos
alright, let’s talk about phnom penh. i just checked and it's 27.62°C there right now, hope you like that kind of thing. honestly, it feels stickier than it sounds, like someone wrapped you in a warm wet towel and called it a day. the air smells like fried street food and exhaust fumes, which is weirdly comforting after a while.
the city’s built where three rivers crash into each other-mekong, bassac, tonlé sap-and you can feel the water in everything, from the humidity to the way the light reflects off the surface at dusk.
someone told me the tonlé sap river does this weird reverse flow thing sometimes, which sounds like magic but is probably just physics. whatever, it’s cool. the whole place is flat as a pancake except for wat phnom, this little hill with a temple on top. it’s 27 meters high, which isn’t much, but after walking through the chaos of the city, it feels like everest. the royal palace is all gold and glitter, but honestly, the real show is the streets-tuk-tuks weaving through traffic like they’re in a video game, monks in orange robes texting on smartphones, and markets selling everything from dried fish to knockoff sneakers.
if you get bored, siem reap (angkor wat’s there) and sihanoukville (beaches, apparently) are just a short drive away. someone told me the nightlife here is wild, but i was too busy eating prahok-this fermented fish paste that’s basically cambodian umami bomb-to find out. the food’s cheap, the beer’s cheaper, and the history is heavy. like, khmer rouge heavy. you can’t walk five minutes without stumbling on something that reminds you how resilient this place is. skyscrapers next to colonial ruins next to canals the khmer rouge dug for who-knows-what. it’s a lot.
also, the traffic will either kill you or make you spiritually enlightened. no in-between.
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