My friends and I arrived at Phnom Penh Airport around 9am and immediately got a taste of “Cambodian taxi” when a tuk-tuk driver named Mon, offered us a ride to the hotel. The 30 minute journey gave me a chance to look at some of the interesting things about the Cambodian traffic. I guess the most prominent feature was the horn-happy drivers. Since the roads were mainly populated with slow-moving tuk-tuks and motodops, they tend to get in the way of other road users. Overtaking happened all the time, usually preceded by a quick beep of the horn. Then, there’s the traffic system that has very little stop lights or roundabouts and pretty much free-style. 3, 4 or 5-way intersections? No biggie, keep on surging forward until you get the right of way. Another notable feature was the range of vehicles on the road from tuk-tuk, Camry, Lexus to Hummer, Winged-B and even Bond’s DBS (no kidding!).

Streets of Phnom Penh

It’s still early when we reached the hotel. Naturally, Mon talked us into hiring him for a full-day tour, which we did. Later I found out that it’s actually a norm there. Even if it’s late evening, tuk-tuk drivers would still offer themselves to take you around for the next day. My recommendation, if you managed to find a trustworthy driver who allows some room for price negotiation and can speak understandable English, stick with him.

Mon asked us what we wanted to see. Too embarrassed to say we were mainly interested in the genocide memorials, we waited for him to reel off the sites. We then agreed to start off with a visit to the Killing Field at Choeung Ek followed by the S-21 prison at Tuol Sleng, and later in the day to the Silver Pagoda and finally Central Market for a little shopping. I’m not going to go into detail describing these places, read up TripAdvisor or Travelfish 🙂

S-21 Prison at Tuol Sleng

Most of the places of attraction charge a nominal fee between 1 to 3USD except Angkor Wat (20USD/adult). The unofficial main currency in the city is USD without the coins, which is complemented by the Cambodian Riel. Therefore, it is common when purchasing using USD you will be given the change in a combination of USD and Riel. It’s a good thing to have a few thousand Riel at your disposal but once you left Cambodia they will be useless because the currency is non-convertible. The standard exchange rate for Riel is 1USD = 4000 Riel. On rare occasion, some merchants will accept the Thai Baht as well.

Angkor Wat main complex

One of the impulsive things we did during our stay was abandoning Phnom Penh on the second day and taking a 6-hour bus ride to Siem Reap with the sole purpose to visit the national treasure, the one and only, Angkor Wat. We also stayed a night at Siem Reap to have a taste of the night life. Maybe it’s just us, but my friends and I think this little city is much more systematic and has been made touristier than Phnom Penh. The capital city, with its stunning colonial heritage, royal palace and remnants of war kinda gave the “historical” feeling to travellers.

The next day we headed back to Phnom Penh on a different bus company than the previous one. The previous bus was pretty much a tourist bus with a hostess and only stopped once at a large town. The second bus however, had cheaper fare and was boarded primarily by locals. It still uses the same route but had different pit-stops. Unlike the first bus, this one stopped twice at small village towns. These were the only places where I saw merchants quoting prices in Riel only and accepting Thai Baht. Not to mention seeing some bizarre things too. Very fascinating.

Royal Palace – Chan Chhaya Pavilion

Back in Phnom Penh, we spent the remaining of the day visiting the Royal Palace and the Russian Market for a final round of shopping. A note on shopping, price haggling is a must. Items such as woodcrafts can have opening price two or three times its original value. A vendor made me an initial offer of 50USD for a Cambodian Tro and eventually let go for 20USD. Don’t go overboard though, it’s impossible to haggle for a 3USD t-shirt if you’re just planning to buy a piece. Buy in bulk by combining the purchase with your friends and the price might go down a bit.

On the final day, back to the airport, we took the same tuk-tuk with Mon (already prearranged since the first day) and bid farewell to this enchanting and humble Indochina country. Honestly, I don’t mind a second visit.

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