Asian Adventures - Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The quickest and smoothed border crossing we had was from Vietnam into Cambodia. We travelled from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh with the bus company Cambodia Luong. The whole border experience was pretty much stress free. We had been dreading each journey that had a border crossing as we knew that meant hanging about waiting ages in queues to get your stamp for leaving a country and your visa for entering the next. It worked out great as our bus company basically did everything for us. We gave our passports and visa payment of $35 to our guide on the bus and he filled out the forms for us and handed our passports in to the immigration officers. All we had to do was go up to the Vietnam immigration when they called our name to show we were leaving the country. All in all, it only took us about half an hour which was such a relief!

Our journey into Phnom Penh was absolutely fine. We arrived into the city centre and got a tuk tuk to our hotel Home Chic Hotel. The people in Cambodia are extremely friendly and more than willing to help you with anything. Our tuk tuk driver warned us about 'bad guys' on motorbikes who will try and drive up beside you and grab your bag or phone right out your hands and drive off with them. As our tuk tuk driver was about to leave he offered to be our driver whilst in Phnom Penh. This is something most tuk tuk drivers offer as obviously they want to make money. You can haggle a good deal with them if you want. Most will take you somewhere and then wait around until you have finished to take you back to your hotel or on to your next stop which is handy. 

The staff at our hotel were so welcoming and genuinely really wanted to help you; giving advice on what to do whilst in Phnom Penh. Our room was lovely with a massive shower. For food that night I was really craving a burger so Rory got on Tripadvisor to see what restaurants were recommended. He found Cousin's Burgers that had lots of good reviews and was about a 15 minute walk from our hotel. My burger was amazing with crispy chicken, lettuce, tomato, pickles and black pepper sauce. Rory ordered a hot dog which was nice but my burger definitely topped it.

On our first full day in Phnom Penh we started the day at Banh Mi & Bros as we were already missing banh mis from Vietnam. Unfortunately this happened to be the worst banh mi we had had. It had the most disgusting processed meat in it and I couldn't even finish it.

After our banh mi fail we went on a walking tour that we read about on travelfish. Travelfish is a brilliant website that recommends things to do, places to stay and places to eat and drink in South East Asia. We used it loads whilst we were away. First we walked to The Grand Palace which was beautiful. It looks really similar to the one in Bangkok so we decided not to go inside but just admire the architecture from the outside. We also went to see The Friendship Statue and The Independence Monument. We had a walk along the river front too which felt like you were walking along a boardwalk in California as there were loads of palm trees all along the river.

 

The walking tour started from near The Grand Palace, walking up Street 13 to The French Quarter where you reach the main Post Office. We stopped at the Post Office to send post cards. Rory sent one to his mum and I sent one to my uncle. Street 13 isn't touristy and doesn't have any famous landmarks on it but it is definitely worth taking a walk along to see local life, the food markets and the white buildings the street is known for. It's good to see parts of places outwith the tourists areas.

 

 

After our walk around the city I face timed my family as it was my sister's 21st birthday. It was the first time I've ever not been with her on her birthday. I spoke to my family for a while before we headed down to the pool. We had the whole pool to ourselves and took advantage of the pool side bar.

 

 

We went for Khmer (Cambodian) food for tea at Mok Mony. It had a simple set up inside but had really good food. We chose a dish that seemed similar to a Thai massaman curry with potatoes in it and a beef dish. After dinner we went to a jazz club that was across from our hotel. The band playing were from Southern America and had some great easy listening songs.

 

We found Cambodia a lot more expensive than we were expecting. You can use Cambodian currency there but US dollars are more widely used. Some meals we had there were as expensive as back home which is not what we had been used to up until this point. We used US dollars whilst there but sometimes in your change you would get Khmer notes too.

 

 

 

On Day 3 in Phnom Penh we went to The Killing Fields and S21 Prison where Pol Pot captured and killed thousands of people. We went to the prison museum first and got a guided tour round it. It was really horrible hearing all the brutal things that happened there and being in the cells where they took place. There were three survivors at the end of the tour who spoke to the group. The tour guide explained to us that people only survived if they were useful to Pol Pot. One survivor spoke to the group about his experience and how he ended up surviving by hiding in a pile of clothes. The other two sat at tables at the end of the visit. I felt sorry for one who had no one round his table as the other one had written a book and was trying to sell it to everyone in the tour group. He had an agent trying to co-ordinate visitors getting a picture with him and buying his book. Bit too showbiz for a genocide survivor!

 

  

Next we went to The Killing Fields where people were brought to to be killed and buried. We got an audio guide to walk round and listen to. This was less hard hitting than the prison as all the original buildings weren't there anymore and the field was surrounded by nice trees and flowers. It was awful seeing bones in the soil that are still today randomly appearing from the ground. Usually after lots of rain the workers will find bones coming through. There is a big monument near the entrance filled with the skulls of the victims. Each skull had a coloured sticker on it that referenced how they were killed. This is a really interesting tour to do about the history in Phnom Penh.

 

 

On our last night in Phnom Penh we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner. We made the mistake of ordering a huge flatbread to start before having pasta for main so we were absolutely stuffed by the end of our meal but it was delicious! The streets surrounding our hotel were lovely at night as they all had fairy lights across them.

 

 

 

We had an unfortunate end to our trip in Phnom Penh as our bus company forget to send over our bus confirmation to us. We had emailed Bamba to book our bus to Sihanoukville for 9am. We got a reply saying they would book this and then we never received a confirmation email like we usually did. We emailed them asking what time to be in reception for our pick up and also whatsapp'd them as this was their emergency contact number, but they never seemed to answer it before an email. We sat in reception waiting for our transfer to turn up and no one ever came so we emailed Bamba asking to be booked on to the 1pm bus and went out for breakfast to waste time before we left.

 

We went to a near by place Feliz for breakfast that was actually a hostel. From the look of the restaurant it looked too fancy to be a hostel though. I ordered home made hash browns as part of my breakfast that were great. The staff were really nice and one guy who hadn't been working there long asked if he could read out his Phnom Penh essay to practise his English on us. This was slightly strange listening to this as his essay was so long but it was really sweet that he was so keen to improve his English.

 

 

After breakfast we headed back to our hotel to get Wi-Fi to check if Bamba had replied to us. They had replied explaining they had booked our original bus under another Hannah and they had now booked us on the 3pm bus as the 1pm one was already full. We were both annoyed about this as we now had to wait around even longer to get our bus and had basically wasted a day just hanging around. However, we eventually got on our bus and were on our way to Sihanoukville, our next stop in Cambodia.

 

We had a really great introduction to Cambodia from visiting Phnom Penh and were excited for the rest of our trip there.

 

Recommendations -

 

Home Chic Hotel - http://www.homechichotel.com/

 

Cousin's Burger - https://www.cousin-s.com/

 

Street 13 Walking Tour from Travelfish - https://www.travelfish.org/sight_profile/cambodia/phnom_penh_and_surrounds/phnom_penh/phnom_penh/2716

 

Mok Mony - http://www.mokmony.com/

 

The Killing Fields/S21 Prison - http://www.killingfieldsmuseum.com/

 

Feliz - http://www.felizhostel.com/