Where two rivers meet: Tonle Sap Riverside Park

Type: Park tour

Tonle Sap River

Location: Phnom Penh Tonle Sap Riverside Park

Length: >1 km

Date: 26 June 2019

Mode: Walking, sitting, and conversation with locals

Duration: 1 day (less than 12 hours)

Expenses: Street food, alms, drinks, offerings

Difficulty: Heat of the sun, lack of green shades, somehow smelly

Highlight: Royal Palace and Park, Tonle Sap River, meeting point of Tonle Sap and Mekong river, Night Market, Local culture, Flags of ASEAN nations, near the post office, near night clubs, city centre

This is a continuation of my walking tour from Phnom Penh International Airport to the Central Post Office of Cambodia. The post office is near the Tonle Sap River. It is surrounded by buildings and just a few meters away are strips of parks. I just realized that I was already at the city centre as I saw the parks at the southern area. Speaking of sending post card, it was very fast and relatively cheap. I paid less than 5 USD for 3 post cards including the to 3 countries. I has reached UK just after 1 week (7 days).

After sending the postcards, it was already time to explore the city by the day. I stayed in the park near the Phnom Penh Night Market. The area is a plain grass and pavement by the day but it turns into a lively city by the night. Except for some countable street food vendors around the park, there are no other people around it. It is scorching hot too under the sun at the middle of the day - from around 12 noon to 6:00 pm. Then the sun slowly sets and people gradually populate the spaces, set up their boutiques and stalls at the wide pavement of the Night Market and life begun.

I also walked around the riverbank. There are some street dwellers there speaking in their own vernaculars. Some of them could also speak English well and confidently. One lady with a child introduced herself as a street dweller. She transfer from one street to another and begs for some money around. She does not look like there is disability but she uses stories of her hardship to gain some sympathy. I was tempted to give some amount for food and drinks. I ate some street food with them and have some a sip of beer too. Then she went away. I saw her again along the strip of riverbank when I went for a walk.

With her is a lady who looks simple and meek and seems like ready to go with a man who invites her. She said that she does not go with any man. She just want to go with me and that will make her happy. Most of our interactions are bodily signs because she could not speak English.

Some street food sell coconut juice still in its shell, roasted banana with sauce, balut, bihon noodles with traditional vegetable and meat toppings, pop corn, cotton candy, sugarcane juice, roasted squid, fruit juice, etc.

Majority of the people in the parks are of brown origin, some look like they just come from offices and are taking an afternoon rest and conversation before going home, others are feeding pigeons, playing with children and family, some are dating, some are alone, some are busy offering lotus flowers at a nearby small temple, others are lying or sitting down, some a jogging, running, and biking. It was an afternoon of observation and collection of memories and gratitude to God for letting me witness his creation so diverse, mysterious, mystical, lovely, pitiful, delightful, happy, and all kinds of emotions and inferences. My heart is filled with gratitude for God's blessing for witnessing people, his creation in this peace of land less of a paradise, less of heaven, but promises a bright new day.

I was able to talk to an old white man and he said he is from Sweden and beside him is a Turkish. He said that he wants to go to the Philippines but he run out of budget already so he was stuck in Cambodia.

I was able to make acquaintance with a girl who I added in facebook. I also asked her to add my Cambodian fb friend and I requested her tell that friend that I am already in Cambodia and is safe. They were able to communicate afterwards. She sells bottled street drinks and coconut juice all day until around 10 pm.

Near the parks are the Old Market and the Night Market adjacent to each other. There are several money changers around the market but the rate are very low. It is even higher in Siem Reap. The eastern side of the Old Market seems to be a strip where bars are but I never got the time to walk along those areas at night because it was already my trip to Siem Reap at 9:00 pm. At the night market, there is a live singing single. The sound is reverberating and I can feel the native Khmer beat while he sings lively and with all facial expressions.

The day is filled with perspiration. The sky never got dark nor dim. The clouds are cotton white and very high. As the night approaches, I can feel my body becoming sticky but I got nowhere to take a bath. Earlier, I reserved for my bus to Siem Reap and I am now back to the transportation office where I need to wait for the sleeper bus.

It was delayed for 45 minutes but it's alright because it is cold inside. I can sleep throughout the trip as it is a sleeper bus where I can lie down freely in my own private space while traveling.

I could not sleep immediately while riding the bus because I can imagine the view of the riverside park by the day where the towering flags of the ASEAN countries stand proud. At the foot of the flags are homeless people scattered along the park. I can see a tableau of an ASEAN who cannot reconcile the rich and the poor. It is a juxtaposition of the stiffness of the flags like the indifference of the rich and the stooping and wretched bodies of the poor as seen in the street dwellers silently begging for sympathy below.

An image of my shadow and the shadows of Cambodians cast along the street slowly growing long as the sun sets in the west and the shadows of the tall buildings and the Royal Palace overpower them. It was such a sweet riverside and park stroll until I reached the meeting point of Tonle Sap River and Mekong River. I imagine the day when the rich and the poor could meet together and live in harmony until they both reach the sea of their common dreams like how the two rivers meet and harmonise until they reach the the South China Sea.

I can still smell the beer from my gut and the discreet smell of urination at the river bank. My vision of the ceiling of the bus where I lie down rotates as I remember the  Ferry Cruise going around the river and coming back to the river bank. The ferry is dotted with light bulbs and blinking lights. It is like a girl who attracts attention by the luminousity  of her beauty and the sparkle of her smile. Yet my carefree heart never succumbs to the invitation to stay. My heart must go on and seek its destination.