Phnom Penh

For Columbus Day weekend, we made our first trip to Cambodia. We visited its capital, Phnom Penh, for two days. Most often, Angkor Wat is the first place people go when they travel to Cambodia, but we got an amazing deal ($0 seats!) on AirAsia and figured we'd go here first. We were pleased that we did as it proved to be a great contrast to Bangkok, sharing similarities but also scaling down in many ways. The city itself is alternately beautiful and ragged in a really appealing way and the people there were very welcoming. We had a great weekend.

It started off with our stay at the Amanjaya Pancam Hotel. We had a very tasteful and perfectly located suite, with a balcony that overlooked an intersection that defied explanation and made for hours of entertainment (the panorama at the top was taken from there).

The place also had a nice rooftop bar and the bartendresses were nice enough to take Shane behind the bar and show him the ropes.

We shouldn't neglect to mention the beautiful and ample granite bathtub in our suite.

Shane asleep in the hallway.

Our first stop in Phnom Penh was the Grand Palace, which is still the working residence of the King. Part of the palace is sectioned off for tourists to visit, highlighted by the Silver Pagoda which houses an emerald Buddha. No pictures inside there so we just have some shots of the beautiful grounds.

 

After that, we stopped by the neighboring National Museum. Again, no pictures on the inside, which included all kinds of 1,000-year-old Buddhas and pieces of Angkor Wat. Luckily, the outside was pretty cool, too.

After a quick shower and change, we hooked up with a tuk-tuk driver who carted us around the city over the next two days. When our airplane lifted off the ground, Eliana said goodbye to him.

Stopped at a place for lunch with delicious baguette sandwiches, a  French colonial carryover.

Then drove by Independence Monument, modeled after Angkor Wat's towers.

And then to Russian Market, which has a plethora of kids clothes, souvenirs, crafts, food, bootlegged DVDs and anything else you can imagine.

It was quite hot, though, so we had to take a break at a cafe across the street for some ice cream.

After hitting our shopping threshold, we headed back to our hotel which was located along the Tonle Sap River. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking along the river.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Friends, which trains street children to work as servers. They were all really great and it was an amazing experience. And the food was really good, too!

The next day, we visited Wat Phnom, the temple which the city is named after. It's located on a hilltop is 700-800 years old.

 

 

Across the street was a playground, offering a kid-friendly diversion that both kids were quite happy to take part in.

Then we went to Central Market which is housed in a 4-winged Art Deco building.

Finally, one last lunch at a Khmer restaurant by the riverside.

And a few random street scenes from our stay in Phnom Penh...