12. Arrival in Phnom Penh
21.09.2023 (the date always tells when the post was written, not when the actual events happened. Usually those two are just a few days apart.)
After my cave/mountain adventure (see previous post) I bought a ticket to Phnom Penh via minivan at the bike rental shop that doubled as a travel agency
I got picked up from my hotel the next morning at 10:00am, the ride took roughly 3 hours and the was uneventful. An honourable mention goes to the road from Kampot to Phnom Penh. It was excellent except from the initial 20-30km.
At the bus station in Phnom Penh where the van terminated I booked a tuktuk using once again the Grab app that conveniently works in Cambodia as well as it does in Vietnam. It was considerably cheaper than going with one of the tuktuks or motorbikes that are located at almost every larger street corner.
Phnom Penh yet is the capital of Cambodia with 2.2 million citizens, busy but not as crazy as Saigon or Bangkok, very touristy in the city centre and sports a lot of surprisingly huge temples within the city. So far I haven’t made up my mind about the city yet since I have only walked around for 2km including a stroll at the nearby promenade along the Tonle Sap River that merges with the bigger Mekong River.
Everywhere you see exactly the same sign advertising oli massage for $5.00 and casual massage for $3.00...and sometimes they even spell oil massage correctly! lol
Budget-wise I am overspending on food at the moment. Reason being that Phnom Penh is a bit more expensive but also because there are many intriguing Western food options for vegans available that I would either not get in Australia at all or would have to pay the double price for. I haven't found a Cambodian restaurant with exclusively vegetarian/vegan food yet but it is only day 2 here and I shouldn't jump to the conclusion that type of restaurant doesn’t exist in Phnom Penh.
My first hotel room in was a fail: aircon only cooled just enough that is was bearable to stay in the room but not more than that. There were a bunch of mosquitoes zigzagging around, the mattress was hard and sagging in the middle but most importantly I could smell cigarette smoke – in the bedroom and the bathroom. I had booked a non-smoker room so I asked for a different room the next morning and a few hours later I was offered two new choices. The first was one floor up and I didn't have to fully enter the room to tell that it smelled even worse. The second choice was on the 6th floor and not too shabby with acceptable air quality. The lower ceiling height of only appx. 2.60m means the aircon has an easier job cooling the room down, there are 2 windows instead of only 1, the mattress is a slight improved version of the one I slept on the night before, the fridge is bigger and features an ice compartment.
The staircase of this hotel is again an odd one. It becomes narrower the closer you get to the top end . It is maybe 1m wide at the bottom but only 75-80cm at the top. What were they thinking??? Due to the hotel not having a lift I will have free but inevitable mini workouts in the upcoming days by conquering the 82 steps (plus minus 2) every time I want to go out and come back to my room.
During my walk today I got inundated with sightseeing offers by tuktuk drivers advertising their services. Apparently the Royal Palace, the Killing Fields, the National Museum (entrance fee for locals: 500 Riel, about USD $0.13, entrance fee for foreigners: USD10.00, ...almost 77x more, say whaaaaat?!) and a few temples are all must see attractions and I was tempted to give in to being the average tourist, telling myself I should participate in those tours to learn about Cambodian history and culture...but then I said to myself: Why? I am simply not that interested and prefer to see places not tailored or modified for mass tourism (having said that I definitely will visit the Angkor Wat temple complex in Siem Riep), so I decided to give all those must-do activities a miss.
Instead I asked restaurant staff where they like to hang out in Phnom Penh. They understood what I was after and recommended the Coconut Park and a second park with a night market, both nearby and close to each other. They are now on my to-do-list and I am excited to explore those insider recommendations.
