Pnomh Penh

The often overlooked capital

In England I had contacted a personal driver who had received great recommendations and arranged for him to do the driving for our trip. It’s a five hour trip from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh and we ended up spending 3 days there in total, one on the way down and two more we decided to have on the way back. 

Many people miss the capital out on their trips but I absolutely loved it. Having visited Bangkok from the late 80’s it was so similar -  chaotic, vibrant and exciting. Life is on the streets with every kind of shop and business spilling out and adding to the colour of the city. There is also a creative and interesting arty feel to the place with artisan markets  such as F3 in the heart of the city. Street 240 is the place to go for upmarket clothes, home and giftware (p?), and coffee bars and restaurants.

We stayed at The Pavilion hotel  which was a charming colonial style boutique hotel with two beautiful swimming pools, lots of shady areas amongst the greenery and a room that was nearly the size of my house. Simply but beautifully furnished we had lunch there twice which was good and great value as were drinks etc. It’s worth saying that PP hotels are much cheaper than SR - another reason to go there.

Food wise we hung out twice at David’s home made noodle bar which was as good as it sounds and full of backpackers enjoying the $5 plates. The Lak san beef and the duck noodles were fabulous. At the other end of the scale we went to Malis on our last night where the food was excellent and although more expensive was only $70 for two with beers. 

If you are in Cambodia and you want to understand about the history of the country and the relatively recent genocide by the Khmer Rouge then going to the museum - S21 and the killing fields is something that needs to be done. It’s a chilling, brutal documentation of one of the greatest massacres/ war crimes that have happened