Phnom Phen, A Trip to remember

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia

I guess Phnom Penh is still scoring low in the popularity chart among tourists. This is a plus for you as a traveller since you can still enjoy the unspolied beauty of the places and not have a rush of tourists and over commercialization or local tourism. Locals are still very friendly in general and will not try to rip you off at all opportunities, like you might experience in other far east destinations.

Before stepping in to the country I was having a very modest expectations about the city, however I was taken by surprise to see all the modern expensive cars on the streets of Phnom Penh. However the roads were mainly ruled by two wheelers and tuk-tuks. Aparently the city looks nice, not very big or many high rise buildings, places are within easy commutable distance by tuktuks, however I may be seeing things from a very short perspective as my stay there was only for 3 days. I liked the city for its clealiness and friendly people. Phnom Penh may have developed over the recent years, however I was told by locals that it is quite a contrasting picture as soon as you go outside the city.

As we landed at Phnom Penh International Airport, we were led to this immigration desk to get on arrival visa. I guess the immigration officers were more accustomed seeing western tourists for whom on arrival stamp visa would be quite a straight forward thing. However they were quite surprised and were not sure at all how to deal with two Bangladeshi nationals, as we were. After quite a lot of checks and phone calls to whoever I was not sure, they agreed to provide us, me and my friend, visas. Even though all documents were in order we had to pay some lubrication money to have our stamped passports returned, well that was not something really uncommon to us anyway !!!

Exiting from the airport terminal we were flocked by loads of taxi drivers/agents however to much of our relief there were prepaid taxis, which costed us USD 9 to reach our hotel. I guess this is their standard rate regardless of hotel location in the town. I was expecting (thanks to all bloggers for info) the dollar would be widely used, however I wasn’t entirely sure that the local currency is virtually non existant. Even locals trade in dollars rather than their own currency.

Our hotel was not very far from the airport, took us about 30 mins to reach. The weather was not bad, considering the time of the year in September. It was not too hot as it was raining intermittently, however it was a bit humid. But honestly I was quite enjoying the weather. The hotel we booked from asiarooms.com was not far from riverside or from all the night clubs bars etc were located. Anywhere you go within the city is within easy reach by tuktuk and costs only USD 1or 2. The budget accomodations like ours are quite cheap still you get aircon, fridge etc in the room.

Right after we settled down with our stuff in the hotel we went out to venture massage as both of us were aching to have some pampering and relaxsation. There are plenty of massage shops around the city and they are quite cheap as well. Standard on going rate is 4 to 5 dollars per hr, however there are cheaper options available. However one needs to check the place before you agree to take any service as many are just in disguise of prostitution. We chose one near to our hotel right on the high street and we got quite a nice treatment. The girls came with a bucket of lukewarm scented water and a hot towel and washed off my feet, it was really nice. There was massage available in our hotel as well, a bit pricey though but you get the comfort being in your own room and have privacy.

There was no restaurant in our hotel so we had to go out to hunt for local food joints. There are plenty of local options available however people on the street speak very little english, therefore it might be a challenge while you order food. We found a very nice little restaurant called Halal Restaurant just by the riverside in St 130, Sangkat Phsar Kandal 1, owned by a muslim family who provide all halal foods. Luckily one of the sons speak english so it was quite convenient and good opportunity for us to have some local intel. There was this indian restaurant just opposite to this, which we were told was owned by a Bangladeshi chap, however we were so pleased with food quality there, that we never got the chance to taste the other food. We tried a few local varieties of soup, like Khmer Soup which had a very interesting flavor in it as they used pinapple in a chicken soup. If you would like to adventure with food then this is definitely worth trying. They also did chicken satay, which they grill right in front of you and was absolutely fantastic.

On our second day we did some typical touristy things, we hired a tuk tuk to go to several places like Killing Field, King Palace, Wat Phnom, Russian Market etc. The tuktuk driver was very friendly and helpful and for almost the whole day he asked for 15 dollars in total which was very reasonable. All these places were within the city except for the Killing Field which was a bit on the outskirt and took about half hour to reach. This is a must visit place in Phnom Penh, which still stands witness to all the atrocities committed during the Communist rule The Polpot Regime. There is a small museum which is also worth visiting. The entry ticket is 2 dollars each.

As for the sight seeing, there are not many places you can go in Phnom Penh, so one day in the city should be enough to cover all destinations. If you wanna shop a little bit then Russian market can be a good place to start, however one needs to bargain, if you know the art then this is the place for you.

From the riverside there are boatrides available which was very interestingly portraited to us by this guy who also was a tuktuk driver. Eventually we had to disappoint him because we didn’t have time left before our onward flight, however it sounded interesting. Since we were pressed with time, we decided to do a quick Fish Massage instead. This is quite interesting, where you would dip your legs upto knee and in a fish tank where there are hundreds and hundreds of small fish which would feed off your feet/skin. Its quite safe and a very interesting experience unless you don’t like tingling senstions. Good part is we were told that these fishes do not have any teeth. However after half hour my legs and feet felt sqeaky clean and smooth.

Even though my trip was really short I had a really nice experience at Phnom Penh, which was way above than I expected. Locals are great, girls are nice and things are quite reasonable pricewise. All in all a good place to visit, just to rleax and chill.

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