Phnom Penh - Day 1

4,000 Islands to Phnom Penn

I took a bus with a number of other travellers from the 4,000 Islands in Laos to Phnom Penn in Cambodia yesterday and was told it would be an 8 hour journey. We were also told it would be a VIP bus but as per usual we were lied to on both accounts. To make matters worse, as it envitably would when you take this many old buses.... it broke down. Fortunalty our driver also seems to have some expertise in fixing vehicles so when I went outside to see what was going on he had a tire off and was beating something with a spanner. The good new was this obviously did the job and after about an hour we were on our way. What made this situation worse was that whilst he was fixing the bus he tortured us by leaving the Laos Karoke on the telly. After about 30 minutes we all had a discussion and took the matter into our own hands and turned the TV off.

The Royal Palace

Anyway the journey turned out to be 13 hours but I arrived safely and made my way to a hostel. I had to use my negotiating skills, which have been forced to develop during this trip, to get a tuk tuk to take me at a reasonable price and I suceeded in getting him from $5 to $2!!!

The town is very busy but has a great feel to it. I've done all the major walking sites around town including the Royal Palace, which was very pretty inside but unfortunatly I couldn't take any pictures. I also went ot the national museum which has some good sculptures, a number of markets, Victory monument and took a explored the river front with all its bars.



The Phnom Penh traffic is nuts!


On the way back to my guest house I could see a huge thunderstorm coming in quick so I spotted inside a sports bar, I has a good chat to the owner who was Australian who has been running the bar for 7 years... He had some great stories. There was a quiz on a 9pm and I managed to get chatting to a small gorup of people - who happened to be English teachers in Phnom Penh and joined their team. Iwasagreat evening and good to chat to some teacher whoare doing what I'm going to do. They all love it and really love Phnom Penn.

Victory Monument

The city does have a really nice feel to it and after one day I can see why they like it. The locals are friendly and there is alot to do. I must however have politely said 'no' to at least 150 tuk tuk and moto drivers today. There is so much traffic here and when you cross the street you take your life into your own hands. You have to just walk into the road and the bikes go around you. Although its a 100 times busier than anywhere in the UK the people just take things a bit slower and are more accepting of people breaking the traffic laws which I think people only really see as guidelines.


I'm off to see the killing fields and Tuol Sleng Museum tomorrow which isgoing to be tough but interesting. Also ive added some more pictures which I took today around town.