With only one day in Phnom Penh before travelling north to Siem Reap to board our cruise ship, I asked a friend, recently returned from Cambodia, if I should visit the Killing Fields. His reply: “You can’t go to Cambodia and not visit the Killing fields.”

How I spent One Day in Phnom Penh

Decision made. I would spend my day in Phnom Penh visiting the Killing Fields, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum ( Security Prison 21, better known as S-21) and Phnom Penh’s Central Market. 

The Killing Fields

The Killing Fields is, as expected, a sombre place. People walk slowly and silently along the path, heads bowed. Couples and groups split up, each following the audio guide at their own pace.  A young woman dabs her eyes with a tissue, another’s eyes well up in her red face. Hearing stories from survivors and listening to a haunting composition, written specifically for the audio, I too choke up.

S-21 or The Genocide Museum

The Khmer Rouge created S-21 in the buildings and grounds of a secondary school. A place of torture and deprivation S-21 is right in the heart of Phnom Penh.

Our driver suggests that we allow two hours. We don’t need that long. Besides the photographs of Cambodians tortured and killed here I find a photograph of a New Zealander and an Englishman. When their boat strayed into Cambodian waters, they were captured, tortured, and killed in S-21. 

Soon the torture, deprivations and horrors that happened here become overwhelming, and I join our group after just over an hour.

Later, on my travels I spoke to a survivor and others whose lives were directly affected by the Khmer Rouge. Even though this happened in the last century, the horrors experienced by millions of people lay just beneath the surface.

My friend was right. The Killing Fields and S-21 are tough but important places to visit.

An Afternoon in Phnom Penh

Lunch beside the rooftop pool of our hotel, the Anik Palace Hotel, is a time for quiet reflection. In the afternoon, seeking light relief, we hire a tuk-tuk to Phnom Penh’s Central Market.

Near the central dome of the cross-shaped market, a woman sells fried crickets, grasshoppers, cockroaches, silkworm pupae and tarantulas. I’d read that I’d find tarantulas in Phnom Penh’s Central Market and planned to eat one. This sounds so weird as I write this from my quiet desk looking out at the Hawkesbury River. Who in their right mind would seek out a tarantula vendor?

Faced with the prospect of enacting my plan, I find I’m not ready. Instead, I explore the market. A row of jewellers tap tap away shaping silver and gold trinkets stabilised on what looks like reddish brown sealing wax.

Jewellers in Phnom Pehn’s Central Market

A young traveller approaches one, hoping he can fix his broken silver chain. Without a word, the shirtless man, delicately picks up the ends of the chain with a pair of tweezers. He arranges the chain on the table in front of him and peers at it through a small round eye piece. Reaching behind him he grasps a red felt tipped pen and marks the chain.

I move on. When I bump into the traveller later, he’s beaming. “You can’t even see the join,” he exclaims. He paid US$1 and, he says, “I have a story to tell.”  

It all happens in Phnom Penh’s Central Market

Everything happens in this market. Women lean back on reclining chairs to have their hair washed, dyed and styled. A pump and hose provides clean water, a big plastic drum collecting the wastewater. Women relax as others provide manicures and pedicures.  

Another woman sits on a low chair, a semi-circle of playing cards spread out on the table in front of her. Her female customer listens intently to what she has to say. Seamstresses sit one behind the other against a wall, focused on the fabric they’re feeding through their electric sewing machines.

Young children accompany their mothers to work. A baby laughs, his first two bottom teeth bright in his little face. I pick him up (with permission) and hold him high in the air much to his amusement. I ‘high five’ a little girl. A three-year-old runs across the shiny tiled floor his mother has just cleaned – and playfully skids back on his bottom towards her.

Eating a Tarantula

If I’m going to eat a tarantula, I must do it now. I’ve read that I must only eat freshly cooked spiders. Sometimes they are sold days or weeks after cooking. As the vendor has no English, I seek the assistance of a nearby woman. She’s intrigued and happy to translate for me. The vendor says that the bugs were cooked this morning.  

Starting Small

I start small – with a cricket. My translator takes the head and legs off and passes me the body. Cooked in a salty sauce, it’s crunchy and not at all unpleasant. Next up, a grasshopper. Again, I eat only the body. It’s crispy and tasty. The silkworm pupa has been steamed. It has a soft texture similar to that of a ripe peach.  The taste is nothing to write home about. Neither interesting nor horrible.

Now for the tarantula. The vendor offers me a leg. I put the thin hairy black ‘stick’ into my mouth and bite down. It is like eating a dry twig. I cant’ swallow it and the vendor thoughtfully provides a tissue. She’s had experience with foreigners.

However, I’ve read that the body is the best part, and don’t stop there. BK looks on with horror, scrunching up his mouth in disgust as I put the tail into my mouth. It’s big, black and round, the size of large grape. I crunch down and chew. Nothing like a juicy grape, it feels like there’s a teaspoon of sawdust in my mouth. Disappointed, I swallow, thank and pay the woman, and leave.

Another day, another Tarantula

On another day, in Siem Reap, I try a freshly fried tarantula. The experience is quite different. Read more in this post on One Day in Siem Reap.

What is it with me? When travelling I seem to do things I’d never do at home.

Is One Day in Phnom Penh Enough?

I’ve hardly touched the surface in Phnom Penh. There’s plenty more to do there, some of which I’ll do when we stop in Phnom Penh for a day on our cruise through Cambodia.

NOTE: I stayed in Phnom Penh as a guest of the Anik Palace Hotel and cruised through Cambodia and Vietnam as a guest of CF Mekong Cruises.