Phnom Penh - feeling happy at the firing range

[rawlins]

A few pics from a trip I did with my mate Neep to Pnom Penh a few months back...

Flights were booked on the net with Air Asia and made a booking at the Flamingo hotel which is just off Street 51. When we arrived at the hotel they had fvcked up our booking and only had one room for us to share... As much as I love Neep I didn't want to go this far so early in our relationship so we set off on a tuk tuk searching for a room....

After dragging our arses around the city, trying about 3 other places, we eventually ended up staying at 'The Walkabout' which is just around the corner from the Flamingo Hotel and has a 24 hour bar full of freelancers... They had just done up the rooms on the top floor and for $25 per night this is what we got:

A bed for sleeping and debauchery..



A nice shower for cleaning our bits and watching girls clean their bits:



A balcony for chilling out with some strange green substance that Neep found behind the bog:



A lovely view of ladies of the night getting ready for their shift at the bottom of the stairs:



Street 51 from the balcony... This street is one of the main areas for nightlife.




One of the days when Neep managed to get out of bed before sunset we decided to cure our hangovers with some 'Happy shake' and 'Happy Pizza' then head down to the army firing range to shoot guns and things....

This place looked like it might serve Happy Pizza:


Damn fine pizzas they were too for flavour:


Couple of shakes each to wash down the pizza...



Then it was time to sort out our ride off into the wilderness to the firing range....


The rules:


We got to some firing range bit where you could shoot some small guns but as Neep wanted to fire a feckin rocket we were taken off with some army guys further into the jungle and hills in some 4WD jeep... The 'Happy' was having a slight effect and I wondered if we were going to end up kneeling down somewhere with bags over our heads pleading for our lives..... That thought quickly passed as the 'happy' took further effect and a cow smiled at me....

Neeps Rocket... $200 to fire that bugger...



Due to me being a cheap charlie I just spent $50 to fire 50 bullets from this thing... (M60 I think it's called)..



Neep prepares to shoot his load....


The army guy next to him told Neep that he would count to 3 then he could fire it... When the guy said 'OK?' to make sure Neep understood, he thought that meant the signal to fire and prematurely shot his load, much to the surprise of the army guy who had not readied himself for the blast... I just managed to catch it on video.... (Not sure how to link the photobucket video clip on here - will suss it out later in the thread... )



Some other pics of the trip:

The market - got a good copy Porsche watch here for $15...



Riverfront area:










Obviously there are ladies to be found too in various places but I shall not go into any debauchery details on this respectable forum..... The trip to 'Sophies' was quite an experience though and highly recommended... A lot of other bars where done such as Walkabout, Sharkies, Heart of Darkness Disco, Rose Bar etc...

Pnom Penh... worth a look.

[Butterfly]

awesone, hotel seems nice, and the shooting range is kind of novelty, will need to try it

love the missile things, any americans hanging around for target practice ?

[rawlins]

awesone, hotel seems nice, and the shooting range is kind of novelty, will need to try it

love the missile things, any americans hanging around for target practice ?

... You can't buy Americans to shoot at but you can actually buy a cow... The army guys told us that same morning they had some guy from Australia who bought a cow and a rocket to fire at the thing... He kept missing though, eventually obliterating the cow on his 6th attempt... Not sure what the cow cost but the rockets would have knocked him back $1200... Nutter.


And at the smaller guns firing range you can buy a chicken to shoot at...

I had no desire to shoot any animals - a target would have done me...

[Butterfly]

^ jesus, a cow ? that's as bad as the Chinese zoo for animal cruelty,

[dirtydog]

^Not as bad as the French and their habit of burning lorry loads of cute little baby lambs to death

[Butterfly]

^ not sure they were lambs, but yeah, that one got a lot of people upset,

nice bbq though they had that day,

[Thormaturge]

jesus, a cow

Boy are you in trouble...Blasphemy at Christmastime.

[rawlins]

jesus, a cow

Boy are you in trouble...Blasphemy at Christmastime.

Why?... It wasn't a sacred cow...

[Mid]

nothing against burning ya freight at targets with Big Boy Toys ,

but ,

paying to eliminate a cow

that's just wrong on so many levels ........................

[dirtydog]

I think if they had someone to get the cow to run around a bit it might be more fair, and amusing

[rawlins]

paying to eliminate a cow
that's just wrong on so many levels ........................

I agree... But I was told that it wasn't a senseless waste of a bovine existance... The remaining fleshy bits are collected up for the army guys dinner that evening....

I think if they had someone to get the cow to run around a bit it might be more fair, and amusing

Would cost a lot more in bullets and rockets though.... Giving the cow a rocket launcher to fire back would be fairer...

[keda]

May be an urban legend though nothing would surprise me after Cambodia's living memories, but 7 years ago a Khmer acquaintance mentioned in reference to the previous 4 or 5 years, that not just livestock but also 'live human targets' were available at the right price. Note that the KR were in control and very much active in two strongholds until around 1996.

The way I understood at the time, and again this may be way off target (sic), young mainly Viet girls were either kidnapped or bought for unrestricted abuse by the paymaster, after which they'd be given a specified number of minutes start across a wide open area...

[Butterfly]

The way I understood at the time, and again this may be way off target (sic), young mainly Viet girls were either kidnapped or bought for unrestricted abuse by the paymaster, after which they'd be given a specified number of minutes start across a wide open area...

sounds like a cockup dreamed by some CIA agents to spice up their stand against the Khmer Rouge,

[keda]

Please explain why you think it 'sounds like' the CIA...?

Go ahead, follow your instincts, set aside common sense and despise anything remotely decent for all you're worth, but the KR didn't quite come out of the 70s as squeaky clean as some would like to imagine.

Sad crunt!

[rawlins]

^ You say yourself that the story may be 'way off target' so what's wrong with suggesting why it may be way off target?...

I'm sure nobody would ever try to stick up for the Kmer Rouge... Butterfly is just suggesting how the story might have come about....

[keda]

Sure the story I heard may be off target because I did not see it for myself, and sure the truly pedantic may argue that as both scenarios are unproven either or neither may be the truth...take your pick, and yes it could've been the CIA or even Mossad.

Still a sad crunt.

[voracious]

Thanks for the pictures. Great report. It looks like fun, though shooting at live animals wouldn't be for me either. The RPG looks like an interesting experience, but $200 a shot is pretty steep!

That's no M60 being fired there, it's a PK machine gun.


LINK to Wiki

[Neep]

I didnt fancy killing anything needlesly purely for something to shoot at.
Firing the RPG was fun enough, what a rush!
I've wanted to do it since i was a kid, and it didnt dissapoint.
The only dissapointment was when Rawlins failed to capture the explosion when it hit the side of the mountain, the useless crunt!

M60 or PK whatever, i loved firing it from a standing position, as it felt like something from a rambo movie.

Next time i go back, and there will be a next time, i will bring alot more money and will lob a few hand grenades.

Im not obsessed or anything, just a child of the 80's that loved watching war movies and the like.

[rawlins]

The only dissapointment was when Rawlins failed to capture the explosion when it hit the side of the mountain, the useless crunt!
.

If you weren't so trigger happy I'd have been better prepared.... We are just gonna have to go back again then.... Look forward to it...

[Zavier38]

Please explain why you think it 'sounds like' the CIA...?

Go ahead, follow your instincts, set aside common sense and despise anything remotely decent for all you're worth, but the KR didn't quite come out of the 70s as squeaky clean as some would like to imagine.

Sad crunt!

Khmmer Rouge - the world's first "Green" government. I reckon Pol Pot was just a misunderstood ecologist

Thanks for the info on PP, might take a look soon

[sabang]

The way I understood at the time, and again this may be way off target (sic), young mainly Viet girls were either kidnapped or bought for unrestricted abuse by the paymaster, after which they'd be given a specified number of minutes start across a wide open area...

sounds like a cockup dreamed by some CIA agents to spice up their stand against the Khmer Rouge,

The USA did not recognise the Cambodian government after the Viets kicked the Khmer Rouge out- they only diplomatically regognised the Pol Pot 'government in exile' (i.e. Thailand).

Hardly a stand against the Khmer rouge.

[beenaroundawhile01]

That is an M60 voracious. The PK was a copy of the M60 that was comonly used in Veitnam during the war by American GI's and marines

[EmperorTud]

That is an M60 voracious. The PK was a copy of the M60 that was comonly used in Veitnam during the war by American GI's and marines

Both incorrect. It is a Chinese made Type 67 7.62mm medium machine gun which has design similarities to the Soviet PK.

I've fired that same gun at that same firing range.

[Butterfly]

I might do a visa trip to Phnom Pen, for 1 day only, and try the shooting range,

[peterpan]

The bed looks like it has some "stains" on it already.