Our first stop was the Royal Palace.
The grounds were pretty, but unfortunately, most of the grounds were closed to tourists, so that was disappointing.
Also, we were most excited about seeing the house that Napoleon gave as a gift but it was being restored and was completely covered with green tarp.
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| Through a small hole in the tarp. |
The entrance fee to the Royal Palace was $6.25 per person.
From there we walked to the National Museum. Many of the statues found inside Angkor Wat and Bayon reside there, and I found the visit to be worthwhile. There aren't many paintings or other forms of art, it's almost all statues.
My favorite exhibit (I don't believe it was permanent) was a collection of dancing photographs taken by a French photographer in the late 20's when it was feared that Cambodian traditional dance was going to become a lost art. One of the five dancers photographed had danced at the Palace 15 years prior and had been kicked out due to a bad attitude. She could still do all the moves, she just had to stop every now and again for cramps. She was in her 50's when the photos were taken and she still looked great.
We started walking north towards the Central Market and ate lunch at Romdeng, a place serving Khmer fusion food that teaches local at risk youth how to cook and serve. I had a crispy noodle salad topped with sweet potato filled spring rolls. It was huge and delicious and refreshing and I ate every last bite.
Hubs had a green papaya salad with beef, and it was filled with bright flavors.
The bill was $15 w/ tip. The restaurant had a lovely courtyard setting in complete shade, so it was the perfect place to escape the heat and support a great cause. Plus, the food was excellent.
We continued walking north to the Central Market which was in a really cool yellow art deco building. The market was huge and we wandered around for a little while but the only thing we bought was a large piece of sugar palm for 2000 Riel (about 50 cents).
Since it was hot, we took a tuk tuk back to the hotel for $3. Later, we headed out to FCC, a beautiful French Colonial building on the river. The second and third floors are open, so you can look out onto the streets and river below and its the perfect place to have a drink or two or three and they have great deals during happy hour.
People watching and sunset gazing while drinking a Tiger beer is the way to go.
After the sunset, we walked up the river, a cool breeze blowing us along. The Cambodians do a sort of flash mob activity in public places where someone with a boombox leads an aerobics class and whoever is walking by can join in. It's a free workout. I'm still scarred from line dancing in middle school, so I wasn't partaking, but it was fun to watch. We saw another one in a park on the way home.
We wandered around near the river trying to decide where to eat dinner. On a small side street, a large, white tent was set up in the middle of the street. It turned out, a large wedding was going on. We ended up eating near the tent at Noodle House and were treated to covers of American 50's songs courtesy of the cover band. It was neat seeing a full-scale banquet wedding set up in the middle of city street.
Dinner was good. Hubs had a beef noodle salad, which was very sweet.
I had Khmer curry with noodles. I loved all the stuff it came with to mix in.
One of the cooks stood at an outdoor station next to us and hand stretched noodles as we ate, so they were good noodles. We also had an order of pork dumplings which were fine.
salad + curry + dumplings + large water + tip = $12 -- Great deal!
On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped at The Blue Pumpkin, an ice cream chain in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. I had peanut, Hubs had caramel cashew. Mine was better. 2 scoops = $3.
We sat on the second floor balcony and watched the aerobic dancing next to the river. Geckos crawled around the walls above our heads. They moved like snakes, lurking after bugs.
Tired, we took a tuk tuk the rest of the way back to the hotel and I conked out immediately even with a nap.
In Phnom Penh, an average tuk tuk ride is $3-$4 without tip. Paying more than $4, you're probably getting ripped off if you're not going all the way across town.
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