Marady (Hell Hole) Hotel

I admit — maybe I should not have written this when I wasn’t hANGRY.

oh well.

I guess this is where I bitch about Phnom Penh. Not necessarily Phnom Penh but where I am staying in Phnom Penh. The Marady hotel sucks. Conveniently located next to a contaminated river that has white foam — why the hell is a natural river foaming? Or is it not natural? Maybe it is the sewage……? I digress — surrounded by probably the most populated, underemployed area in the city is the dashing Marady hotel. Walking anywhere means risking getting plowed by a rogue Tuk Tuk or a motorcycle/Vespa packed with 4-5 people (not exaggerating). So whatever, we take Tuk Tuks everywhere. But that means inhaling waves of shit and garbage that I’ve talked about so many times. Besides the location…the lobby/rooms were an issue.

The lobby…….which is basically a restaurant area where they serve sketch food from the “kitchen.” I ordered white rice and steamed broccoli. I meandered past the kitchen and saw the kitchen staff scooping white rice from a bag into the microwave…………………….with their hand. Without a glove. What’s worse than that? There was something crunchy in my broccoli. My broccoli. MY BROCCOLI. Why is my broccoli crunching? Why Why Why? So disturbing.

The room. Oh my god the room. To me, the bathroom is a place of peace and sanctuary, I could use the toilet in peace without worry. Not a place with old nails, sandals and pipes. Oh yea and the toilet and shower was in the same room. One large room. I’m not a fan of that so my showers were kept to a maximum of three minutes.

I will lightly touch on the issues of rats because the creatures appear outside and not inside. Yet. One day last week a rat hit my foot as I was picking up beers from the bar. Yes. It hit my foot. Yes. I cursed, ran, screamed, felt like the life had been sucked out of me. Fuck that. I’m not totally pissed because the outside is exposed. Nowhere to really protect the vicinity from rats, but STILL. DO SOMETHING 😦 😦 😦 😦 😦 😦 😦

However, this can’t all be negative.

We were blessed with air conditioning in the room.  It was the type that only worked when we were in the room, but we had air conditioning nonetheless. In Cambodia where it’s always always always hot, I was #blessed to have air conditioning.

Having a bar downstairs and a chill area to hang out with a pool table, karaoke and a pool was an awesome touch, especially when the beers were one dolla.

The staff were pretty rad too.

……….that is all. Rant over.

***I totally wrote this post after I got to Vietnam to make sure my living conditions were better. Which they are. Much better.