Exploring Phnom Penh

Start Your Day in Phnom Penh

It was tour day today as we had had a full day to look around the city and local area. Pleased to say neither of us had any nasty side effects from yesterday's food tour!

The trip was supposed to be a shared tuktuk but as we were the only people on the tour we got were upgraded to a minibus. More comfortable but we enjoy the tuktuk rides as you get the noises and smells of the city, however the van gave us air-conditioning so a good choice.

A Mixed Day

Our first stop was the Killing Fields memorial. This is the main memorial site in the country to those murdered by the Khmer Rouge, although one of several hundred Killing Fields that existed during the civil war. It is where prisoners of the Khmer Rouge were taken to be killed and is now a reminder and a place to remember. After this we went to the Genocide Museum which is where the prisoners were tortured and interrogated before being moved to the Killing Fields. Before it was taken over by the Khmer Rouge is was a school and seeing school trips there at the same time as us increased the awfulness of what we saw. We could understand the school children taking pictures for school projects but we also saw one tourist covertly taking a picture of a dead body in one of the cells, despite a no photograph sign in that cell. No idea at all why someone would want that picture..

Both these site have an audio tour with headphones which included sections by some of the few survivors as well as Khmer Rouge soldiers who were there and involved. The audio tour are excellent and also meant both places are otherwise quiet creating somewhere to reflect on it all.

After this the tour took as round stops in the city; of temples, palaces and statues. We also saw Diamond Island, a piece of land surrounded by rivers where Chinese money has created a new area. Lots of big buildings, we commented on how chilled it was compared to the madness of the rest of the city and the guide explained not many people can afford to live here so the majority of buildings are empty. However there is enough confidence this will change as they are developing another area nearby!

Curry, Cocktails and Confusion

Getting back to the hotel we took advantage of the 2 for 1 cocktails before heading out for a Indian style curry. The food was delicious, it seems a while since we've had this type of curry. We did stop for one more cocktail but got confused by the buy two get one free offer and missed out on a freebie, probably just as well as we couldn't work out a relatively simple offer.