We left Mui Ne with neither of us feeling great. We had taken another sleeper bus to Ho Chi Minh City and arriving still not feeling well, we decided to lay low for a couple of days before heading to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We a had a great little condo on the 18th floor of a newer building. We met the owner, a small young woman by the name of An, and she walked us thru the place….I had to giggle when I saw this:
Traveler’s sickness is something we knew was a real possibility. Terri was busy checking out our symptoms on the Internet-she determined that we probably had a combination of malaria, legionnaires disease, the Zika Virus, flu and the common cold. You gotta love the Internet!
Feeling somewhat better in Phnom Penh we headed out to explore the city. We rented a Tuk Tuk (comes with the the driver!) for the day. The Tuk Tuks in Cambodia are different from others we have been in. Basically, they are a two wheeled cart pulled by a 150cc motorcycle. They do not go fast (that’s a good thing!) but they are cheap and readily available.
We viewed the typical big tourist sights in Phnom Penh, the History & Culture Museum, The Royal Palace-very cool, the Emerald Budah and life size gold and diamond Maitreya Budah, the Wat Phnom Budah where many people were making offerings. Terri made an offering of two birds, she set them free.
a sad time…..We also went to the Tuol Sleng Museum. This is a very sad place. From 1975-1979, this was a secret prison of Pol Pot. It was originally a high school until taken over by the Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime. This was just one of many such secret prisons where dissidents and friends/family/acquaintances of dissidents were tortured and killed. There were an estimated 12 to 20 thousand people murdered at this one prison and only 12 survivors, one whom was there that day signing his autobiography. Cambodia lost almost 3 million people (25 % of it’s population) to murder and starvation during these 4 years not so very long ago.
It was time for a fast boat up the Mekong to Angkor Wat, our next destination.
Asian Detour 
Wonderful. Blog Matt. Can’t wait til you tell us about it at Kiwanis. Maybe we could work up a series of lectures etc, but don’t think you could get the pediacure, mancure and massage for 2 for under $4 per couple. See you around the end of Feb. I think!
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Sorry to hear you are/were feeling poorly. If it makes you guys feel any better – a whole lotta colds & flu crud going around here too…and it lingers. It really is great that your itinerary is flexible for that reason alone. I guess you will be in Thailand when you ready this. Hi to Tony & Joni from us (who?) Enjoy! And be sure to take some Thai cooking classes too (& write things down – tee hee) Hugs!
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Hope you feel better soon. We both had colds too. It’s going to be in the 80’s.here next few days! Have fun! Love you!
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Can’t wait for you to see Angor Wat! Hope you feel better soon! If it’s Zika, try not to get pregnant 😉
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Mardi Gras neighborhood party tonight at our place-third annual. Laissez bon ton roller!😊 Enjoying following your adventure! Laurel will have Hurricane in your honor but Cosmos still rule!
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I just learned that you can click on the pictures of your posts and see full sized images. Really amazing to see this detail-beautiful. Love the Presidential Palace et. al. I can just imagine from your post the staggering horror wrought by the Khmer Rouge will be a fresh wound for a long long time.
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I am definitely putting that sticker above all my toilets from now on…
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WOW!!!!!! Those are some beautiful pictures there in Cambodia. I have to say, that TukTuk you’re in looks more comfortable than some of those buses you been in….LOL 🙂 Hope you are both well, and keep up the great posts.
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those fake $$ are very bad ju ju……budah is watching….hope you are both recovering nicely from the plague (I also checked the internet….using symptoms you described)
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