Phnom Penh. 4 years ago, it was part of the plan when we saw the magnificent Angkor Wat in Siem Reap. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, we came home earlier and chopped off PP from the itinerary.

Around Phnom Penh

We love Siem Reap. The sights were great, the people were kind, the food were good, the experiences were cool. Hence there were hopes of seeing Phnom Penh, after all, both the places are in The Kingdom of Cambodia.

Maybe it was the timing, maybe it the booming of tourism. Shrug. After all it has been 4 years since we stepped in Cambodia. Also that Siem Reap is a much smaller town. However I regret to say that I prefer Siem Reap a lot more.

Anyway, we were only in PP for only about a day, probably too soon to make a conclusion. Actually the only place we wanted to see is the Royal Palace. However unlikely that we would spend the whole day in the palace, and the Russian Market seem like quite an interesting place to stop by, we decided that if there is time, we would drop by there as well. However, that was optional.

The next morning after had our breakfast, we walked to the Royal Palace.

The Royal Palace - The throne hall

A huge area of the place was deem as no entry for visitors. Also no pictures are allowed inside the main buildings like The Throne Hall and the Silver Pagoda (so named due to the silver tiles though currently covered by carpet).

After finishing rounding the palace, we still have enough time to drop by the Russian Market. From the surrounding of the Royal Palace, we got on a tuk tuk which cost us 5,000 Riel to Russian Market.

Quite a reasonable place to hunt for souvenirs

We left the Russian Market after having our lunch at about 10 minutes after 1 pm. Did not anticipant that it could be rather hard to flag down a tuk tuk with reasonable price. Travelling from the Royal Palace to the Russian Market is about 2 times the distance from the Russian Market back to the guesthouse but we were charged 2 USD (equivalent to 8,000 Riel). The max that we could bargain was to 6,000 Riel which still doesnt really make much sense as we only paid for 5,000 Riel for about twice the distance.

We decided to walk and try to get a tuk tuk along the way. Wrong move. Somehow due to unknown reason, the nearer we were to the guesthouse, we were quoted an even higher price. Weird. There was one tuk tuk driver who doesn't know the way and after we showed him the map, he asked for 5 USD. = ="
Grumble. Taught him how to go and he charged even more expensive that the fella at the Russian Market.

To cut the story short, we walked all the way back to the guesthouse. We could tolerate the walk and the distance, it was just that we already make a booking with a tuk tuk driver to pick us up at the guesthouse at 2 pm to go to the airport. We didn't want to be late nor wanting him to wait for us. Anyway, we make it in time.

Bike with extension

This was the last stop. We flew back from PP to KL, reaching KL at about 8+ pm. Then my sis drove us to Subang and had a fulfilling dinner of bak kut teh. :P


Side note: Brilliant idea from sis for me to transform my bike to a tuk tuk and can tuk tuk-pool to work, and for some extra income, suggested that I give day tour = ="
P/S: PC dying... probably won't blog so often already, unless can find some substitute to go online.

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