[The following post is from the archives of my In Search Of Incredible blog, originally published on 23 March 2014. Minor edits have since been made from the original post to update some links and info.]

 

6 April 2012, Friday

Morning call: 8:30am

It was the penultimate day of my trip, and I just wanted to take it easy and relax. I had a nice medium Irish breakfast set at Rory’s, which consisted of all my favourite breakfast items – eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans, tomatoes, toast and coffee. All for US$5, quite a good deal.

I set off from Rory’s at 9:57am for Central Market, also known as Psar Thmei, which is 1.3km and a 16-minute walk away. It is an enormous, covered market housed in a colonial style building with a huge central dome and four wings. There are hundreds of stalls inside selling almost everything you can think of, and prices are quite cheap because of the stiff competition. The huge dome also keeps the market cool and well ventilated. This is THE place to shop in Phnom Penh. As always, be prepared to bargain and you can get some good deals.

At 11:30am, I departed Central Market and walked over to the nearby Sorya Shopping Centre for some air-conditioning and to check out what other movies they had in store. The best option was Street Dance 2 in 3D, so I forked out US$5 for a ticket.

After the movie, I departed Sorya at 1:50pm and chanced upon a nondescript shop and popped in for lunch. There were several locals eating inside, which is always a good sign. I ordered a plate of beef fried noodles for US$2, and it turned out to be really good. Goes to show there is always cheap and good food if you know where to find it.

As I continued walking, I reached Orussey Market at 2:20pm. I didn’t really plan to go there but since I had nowhere to go, I decided to just stop by for a while. Orussey Market caters more towards the locals, not tourists, so you’ll find that the stalls sell more quintessential stuff like household items, foodstuff, electronic goods, hardware and clothes. The pathways are very narrow and it is difficult to walk around. And it’s very stuffy and warm too. It’s not a place you’ll normally go as a tourist, but you can get a pretty good glimpse of Cambodian everyday life there.

The last stop for the day was City Mall. It was quite an isolated and quiet mall with not many shops open, and it had an abandoned feel. The only things of interest are the supermarket and the many pirated DVD shops. I didn’t hang around for long, and I caught a tuk-tuk back to Rory’s for a short rest before heading to the quayside for the evening.

I walked along Sisowath Quay and found Frangipania (located above the Bougainvillier Hotel), a nice restaurant with a rooftop bar overlooking the Tonle Sap River. There was free wi-fi, great views, pizza and Happy Hour 1-for-1 draft beer, what more could I ask for! So I gladly had my peanuts and beer, enjoyed the breeze and scenery while writing my journal.

However, the weather wasn’t up to mark and it soon started to pour. So I shifted to another table indoors, and chanced upon another fellow traveller who was also alone. Well, she wasn’t actually alone. She had some friends with her in Phnom Penh, but she didn’t really like them, so she found an excuse to be by herself that evening, haha.

She is a Norwegian studying Japanese in Japan, and she had also been travelling for about a month and was at the end of her trip. We marveled at how quickly the weather had changed, and struck up a nice conversation. And that, was the perfect way to end the trip, because I had been lamenting about the fact that I didn’t really meet any fellow backpackers in Cambodia, especially since I was alone for that leg of the trip. So it was nice to have met someone on a similar journey as me.

After a nice dinner, we bade farewell to each other and went our separate ways. I continued to walk along the quayside and spotted an outlet of The Blue Pumpkin, so of course I had to pop in and grab another scoop of my favourite mint chocolate ice-cream. The buns were at 30% off after 8pm, so I gleefully bought two.

As I referenced my map, I saw that there was a night market nearby, so I headed over to check it out. The rain had stopped by then, so there was a cosy crowd gathered on this Friday evening. The only thing that caught my interest was a booth with two guys drawing pencil portraits. I really wanted to get one done, to preserve the 30-year old me, but I hesitated because there were many people standing around, so paiseh. But I thought, “what the hell, I’m leaving tomorrow and I will probably not see these people ever again”, so I paid US$3 to get it done.

I can’t remember exactly how long it took, but it felt like an eternity. It was quite a nerve-wrecking experience to sit there while your portrait was being drawn. For one, you didn’t dare to move too much for fear of being scolded by the artist. Secondly, you had no idea how it will turn out. And there were many people gathered behind the artist, looking at his pencilstrokes and then looking up to compare what he had drawn with the actual person’s face, to see if the resemblance was close or not.

I sat there in nervous silence, trying to avert my gaze from the curious passersby and fix it at a spot far away. All the while, funny thoughts swirled in my head. I imagined that the people were sniggering at me. I even thought that the artist would present me a caricature instead of a portrait at the end. Or maybe my portrait would end up with an overlarge nose or something.

After about 15 minutes of torture, it was finally done. The artist handed me the sketch and thankfully it turned out ok. All the body parts were in the right place, and thankfully quite proportionate too, except I thought he exaggerated my sharp chin a little. It was funny how a simple portrait drawing would turn out to be one of the scariest things I had done on this trip.

With my 30-year-old imprint carefully stowed in my hand, I headed back to Rory’s for a final night’s sleep in Phnom Penh, and indeed, the last night before I head back to home sweet home.