Feb 12 – 14, 2024
We drove from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia, which took about six hours through pretty boring terrain. This part of the country is flat. Some farms and many ramshackle homes line the roads we drove on.
We stopped to see an ancient bridge at Kampong Kdei that was built at the same time as Angkor Wat by the Khmer Empire. It is still used by foot and motor traffic. The bridge railings depcit the Hindu holy snake Naga still intact.
We really didn’t like the look and feel of Cambodia’s capitol city. The hotel was nice with an excellent rooftop pool and bar. We spent both evenings swimming, watching sunset and eating from hotel restaurant menu.
We had one full day to explore Phnom Penh with our guide Ravutha. In the morning we toured the grounds of the Royal Palace where the 71 year old (never married) king lives with his widowed mother. and next door the Silver Pagoda, a Buddhist temple. I mention his marital status because it is something the people wonder about. They have a monarchy council who will pick the next king.
Within the Royal Palace compound is an extravagant temple, also known as Wat Preah Keo or Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The temple was built in 1892 and was suprisingly kept intact by the Khmer Rouge regime. Many of its treasures are on display though many were lost when the Vietnamese invaded (or rescued) Cambodia after Pol Pot’s regime. It is still an active temple where people come to worship. A statue of the city’s founding grandmother, Penh, sits to the left of the worship area.
For lunch we asked that we don’t go to another restaurant for Western tourists. Instead we had a lovely Cambodian meal at the Banana Tree Restaurant which also hosts a cooking school.
Afternoon part of the tour was hard but an important part of our touring to understand the recent dark history of Cambodia. We visited the Genocide Museum, a former high school turned prison during Khmer Rouge regime after end of Vietnam war.
As many as 3 million Cambodians and Vietnamese people were murdered during the late 1970s. It was a sombering afternoon. Our guide was a young boy when Pol Pot took control and his mother says their family lost 20 people. He was very honest and informative on his country’s recent history. For him it was a personal and emotional tour because he was a boy during this time and his family lost many aunts, uncles and cousins during the genocide.
The city sits on the Mekong River and we took a sunset tour.
On our last morning we took a walk in the neighborhood of our hotel and got some interesting shots of morning life.
We didn’t venture out at night but enjoyed two evenings at the Anik hotel rooftop pool and bar.
