Cambodia Holiday – Phnom Pehn

Well the flight day was over, let the sightseeing day began!  We took a Tuk-Tuk from outside the hotel to the Royal Palace – for only USD $3, not that bad.  With hindsight, we should have booked one for the whole day, so we could visit a few sights and return in a loop to the hotel, but hindsight is an amazing thing – that would have only cost USD $15 for the whole day!! The Tuk Tuk is not really the ‘proper’ Tuk Tuk in the sense of the word, but it’s really a modified one with a bike added to the front, aplty named a Moto Tuk Tuk, but they still reference it as a Tuk Tuk here.

The National Museum:

Before going into the Royal Palace, we walked down to the National Museum just next door, but decided to take a few photos outside, and decided against going in…basically, we didn’t want to spend the USD $3 entry fee – ha!… 🙂

The Royal Palace:

Anyway, we visited the Royal Palace for USD $6.25 each (a nice round number, ha!). It’s quite an impressive sight, with intricate designs and fabulous architecture.

The Royal Palace was built in 1866 under the rule of King Norodom on the site of the Banteay Kev, a citadel built in 1813. There were various buildings included in the overall grounds, Chan Chhaya – which is where the Royal dance performers would train in its big hall. In front of the Chan Chhaya, there is a platform from where the king participates in public celebrations such as the water festival and dignatories would come. There is also the Napoleon III pavilion which was given to King Norodom by Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, who opened the Suez Canal. The French building was brought to Cambodia and reassembled here.

Other buildings inside the Royal palace are the prasat Khemarin in which the monarch lives and the prasat Samran Phirum where the monarchs ride the Royal Elephant.

The royal complex also holds the Silver pagoda (Wat Preah Keo Moroakot or the Pagoda of the Emerald Buddha) with a display of valuable objects, with over 5,000 silver tiles on the floor. Within the temple, is a small 17th century baccarat crystal Buddha (the “Emerald Buddha” of Cambodia) and a life-sized gold Maitreya Buddha decorated with 9584 diamonds, the largest of which weighs 25 carats.

Anyway, this place is worth a visit, if you ever find yourself in Phnom Pehn!

We then took another Tuk Tuk, and agreed on a 3-stop tour, to Tuol Sleng (S-21) Genocide Museum, Wat Botum and back to the Central Market. He told us that it would be USD $5 – what we thought was ‘in total’, but what he failed to fully explain is that it was USD $5 to each stop, totalling USD $15. At Wat Botum, this became clear to us when we clarified the cost, so we finally manage to haggle the price down to USD $12 in total. So we ended up back at the $15 day-cost, but without the correct approach in reaching this cost – grrr!! Lesson learnt, as they say!

The Independence Monument:
The Tuk Tuk was kind enough to make an additional stop, at the Independence Monument, and took a couple of photos of us in the Moto Tuk Tuk and I took another one just of the monument itself.

The Tuol Sleng “S-21” Genocide Museum:
You cannot come to Phnom Pehn without paying a special visit to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (or S-21 as it is more commonly known as!).

The Entrance to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

It’s a very moving site, which was formerlly the Tuol Sleng Primary School and Tuol Svay Preh High School. It was converted into a Prison to imprision those people that Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge ‘didn’t like’ – i.e. Government ministers or anyone of his population who acted against him or the Government of the time. It was a shocking testament of such a brutal regime, and I am so glad that I paid my respects to those that suffered and were tortured in the very facility that I found myself wandering around!

Wat Botum:
We left S-21 and re-joined our Tuk Tuk to Wat Botum (Temple of the Lotus Blossoms). We were expecting to stay for about 10-15 minutes, but the heavens opened, so we had to take cover under one of the shelters. Luckily we brought an umbrella with us, so we visited the Wat Botum – which is one of the original pagados of Phonm Pehn.

Central Market:
The Central Market was the main hub of the City, and it was a vibrant and lively place, with stalls selling almost everything here! There was even a open food court, so we decided to give it a go. We went for a a Stir Fry choice, and a Soup choice, accompanied by BBQ Squid – yummy!

We wandered around the food market and was ‘intrigued’ by some of the offerings…

Sugar Cane Drink Stall:
On the way back from the Central Market, we decided to stop off at a Sugar Cane Drink stall, and we decide to buy a freshly squeezed drink. Not only was the sugar cane ‘freshly squeezed’ in front of our eyes, but it was served not in a disposable cup, but a bag, with ice and a straw – very different indeed.

All in all, we had a really nice tour of Phnom Pehn and were ready for the next part of our adventure…