I arrived after just 5 hours and a bit in the capital of Cambodia. The drive into the city was not very nice to watch, dirt, rubbish and poor people everywhere, you cannot miss it. As soon as I arrived at the bus terminal (right at the central market) I got overrun by tuktuk drivers, all offering a ride. Luckily my booked hostel (Nomads St. 108/#90) arranged a free pick up for me. So without any further hassle I checked into my lovely room. Well what do you expect for just 5$ a night?
Since I arrived quiet late I only went to the night market and had some lovely dinner and planned my days ahead.
Again I didn’t need to set an alarm; the construction workers next door did a fantastic job. At first I walked a little bit around the area and went to Wat Phnom and the Phnom Penh statue, very interesting to watch all the local pilgrims coming for a prayer. The only thing I looked at in disbelieve were the people seeling birds freedom, you give them a dollar and they let one bird free….not so sure if that even makes sense…
After this little tour I looked for an iced coffee to get my brain awake and next looked for a driver that would drive me around all day to wherever I wanted to go. Since motorbikes are cheaper I looked for one and funnily couldn’t see one when there are otherwise tons just standing next to you. A tuktuk driver asked if I wanted a ride and I tried to convince him to drive me around for 10$ which of course he refused, as I walked away he followed me and agreed to a price of 12$. Even though I prefer sitting freely on a motorbike, I couldn’t refuse such offer.
So we first started to see the Killing fields, which are approximately located 16km outside the city. Compared to Siem Reap this one was huge and offered a lot more in terms of history. With Audio you pay these days 5$, without 3$. Given that I read ahead this time I decided to go without. The signs and boards all around the place do offer you as well an explanation of the previous happenings around you. You will realise pretty quickly that all this happened not too long ago and the atmosphere was tight.
We continued to the S21 Museum, the Prison during Khmer Rouge where you can see loads and loads of pictures from imprisoned and killed (slaughtered more likely) people. I found this all very sad, but could not get the feeling away that you should rather learn from the history, maybe I am too cold hearted, but it just didn’t get to me as much as it should be.
Since the next destination, the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, opens at 2 pm, I still had 30 minutes to stroll around the river side and watch people, one of my favourite past time.
The palace is defiantly worth the 6.25$ entry fee, however, if you are not dressed correctly, you will need to rent clothes for 7$, which would make it totally a rip off. Learning from previous experience, of course I was dressed correctly :)
This was followed by a visit to the famous Russian market, where you apparently can get absolute bargains and haggle for the best price. But since I am not a big shopper and didn’t need anything, I just browsed and watched people.
The final ended at the Central Market, again, interesting to see, but for sure only something for big shoppers.
I ended the night sitting outside the hostel and having a great conversation with an American fellow traveller, of course we exchanged our blog address. I was 99% sure that I saw him already at Angkor Wat, since we were there at the same day and time. I might have been wrong though, not sure, nevertheless a great quiet and relaxed evening.
For the next day I booked a cooking class to learn more about the Khmer Cuisine. I arrived at the Frizz restaurant and waited with some other participant for the next thing to happen. When I saw a cockroach crossing the room and a guy stamping on it my stomach turned and I didn’t really look forward to the class anymore, but that changed later.
We first started to visit a local market and our chef for the day explained various herbs and local produce to us.
We then headed to the kitchen where we would cook our starter and main course (the full day class will do a salad and a dessert as well). It was located on a rooftop at a different location to the restaurant where we started and I sure was relived, it looked welcoming and clean.
I really enjoyed the class and can only recommend the course. The chef was great and of course the other participants too.
After we finished the class me and another girl and a guy from Australia decided to walk back to the river and sit down for a coffee. We agreed to meet up later for some dinner at the night market; little did we know it was closed.
Instead we walked around and headed to the central market (with a huge detour thanks to my sense of orientation) just to realise that one was as well closed. So instead we just decided for a restaurant nearby and enjoyed a chat until our ways separated.
This pretty much was my stay in Phnom Penh, which I really enjoyed, even beside the traffic, dirt and rip offs, all in all a nice city to see the Cambodian life style.
Oh and my sim unlocked phone was for some reason no longer working, it just didn’t charge anymore. But the lovely guys near the market managed to fix it and bring it back to live, thanks for that :)
If you do want to know more about the history of the places I went to, please be so kind and check on google, I don’t think I should rewrite history on my blog, there are loads of information on the web. And I am more than happy to answer any questions you might have, just leave a comment or send a message.
Good bye Cambodia and Good morning Vietnam :)
Happy travels!
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