Phnom Penh – Cambodia – southeast Asia
In the beginning of February 2009, my wife and I was travel with a boat from Siem Reap to the capital Phnom Penh. The ride over the Tonle Sap River took us six hours and coasted 24USD. A bit more than with the bus, but the view was amazing to the small fisherman’s village on the river. In the early afternoon we arrived at the Royal Highness Hotel in Phnom Penh. We paid 20 USD per night for two person include TV, air-condition, fridge and a warm water shower.
Monkeys in Phnom Penh
Our first “sight” was the Tuol Sleng Museum“. In 1975 the Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken by the clique of Pol Pot. The Khmer Rouges turned this school into the S-21 prison. Between 75 and 78 seventeentousend people are hold and lost they life by barbarism torture acts. When 1979 the Vietnamese army comes into Phnom Penh they found 21 prisoners, 14 dead and just 7 alive. We felt really bad after the visit of the security prison 21. We were driving back by a tuk tuk to the Royal Highness Hotel to relax and take a nap. In the evening we eat some Khmer food in a riverside restaurant and took a massage opposite our guesthouse. On the next day we had full program of sights, first we visit the National Museum of Cambodia.
National Museum of Cambodia
The Museum is home of many old Khmer sculpture. The building is built in 1920 in terracotta structure of traditional Asian temple design. One of the highlights is the eight armed Vishnu statue of the 6th century. In the middle of the national museum of Cambodia is a nice Asian garden with four lotus pools and a Buddha statue in the middle. The admission fee was 2 US or 8000 riel per person. After we visit the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda of Cambodia. All maps we used are from the Lonely Planet travel guide Cambodia. The picture shows the Chan Chaya Pavilion which build for classical Cambodian dance.
The Royal Palace in Phnom Penh
The tower of the throne hall is 54 meter high. It replaces since 1919 a wooden building of 1869. The Royal Palace from the Kingdom of Cambodia is built in classical Southeast Asian architecture. The silver pagoda is covered by over fivetousend silver tiles. Every tile is about one kilo heavy. Inside are the Emerald Buddha and a golden statue of Buddha with nearly 10000 diamonds. The heaviest of this stones are 25 carats. In the late afternoon my wife and i went up to a hill in the Southeast Asian capital to visit Wat Phnom. The first pagoda here was erected in 1373 for four Buddha statues. The name of the woman who discover was Penh. The temple that stands here now is rebuilt in year 26 of the 20th century.
Temple Drum of wat Phnom
On this evening we were going in the “Chiang Mai Riverside” restaurant at the Tonlé Sap River for dinner. The Thai restaurant was about 15 minutes away of our hotel. We pass a Khmer food market. The Asian market was busy, everywhere was stands with fresh fruits, meat, dead or living fish and clothes. Many locals buyed food here for cocking. An interesting spectacle for a European guy like me.
Market in Phnom Penh
The next day we travel back to Koh Chang in Thailand, the tuk tuk who brang us to the travel bus picked us up at 7o´clock in the morning. We arrived the center point ferry pier at about five pm. From the ferry to Ko Chang we saw a beautiful sunset at the mountains of Klong Son.
Sunset on Koh Chang
Phnom Penh on the Mekong River is one of the dirtiest cities in Southeast Asia I ever saw! Many traffic islands of waste are in middle of the roads. The kids are peeing and do their big business on the walking line, many organic waste rott on the streets and smell. But still the capital of Cambodia has many fantastic sights and a long history. It was interesting to visit this Asian metropole with about 1.5 million habitats.
Report by Travel Reports & Pictures.
Tags: Cambodia, capital, mekong, southeast asia, travel
