1. On 14 May afternoon, I am off to Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia via Mekong Express @ US$11 for single trip with complimentary mineral
water and snacks. It was quite a comfortable 6 hours drive with a 20-min stop at mid way. I bumped into a British lady who has been teaching in Phnom Penh for a few months and she advised me not to miss the Amok at Frizz café during my stay in Phnom Penh. The coach arrived in Phnom Penh at 7 pm and the hotel sent their own tuk-tuk motorcycle to pick me up. I stay in Paragon Hotel, recommended by E8ightroom Guesthouse. It is a very popular budget hotel of 50 rooms located at Sisowath Quay facing Mekong River, the bustling riverfront area with many economic hotels, pubs, restaurants and shop
s. The counter staff by the name of Roh, is a very friendly and hardworking young man who kindly gave me a discounted room rate @US15 per night. As I am new to Phnom Penh and it was already way passed dinner time, and just wanted to quickly have a bite and rest after traveling whole day, so I went next door for the nice Indochine food recommended by the hotel staff, and it turned out to be excellent with cosy ambience.
2. I have been given a comprehensive guide book of Phnom Penh before leaving Siem Reap, hence I mapped out the tour route for the next 3 days – important historical and cultural attractions, social attractions in the city area, and outlying ones.
3. As the weather is quite humid and hot, I started a little late for the first day and wanted to first visit the Royal Palace but am told that it only opens at 2pm because of King’s birthday. However, I accidentally walked into the compound of Wat Ounalom and happened to witness and join the birthday celebrations and blessing ceremony for the Cambodia Minister for Commerce who is a well-respectable official according to his staff at the site. Many Commerce officials are there to celebrate the birthday with him. So, that is the bonus.
4. I then proceeded to the famous boutique and souvenir street 240. There is quite a good mix of fashion, restaurant
, café and accessories outlets along the entire street (not too long) with quite a lot of falangs and some of the shops are also operated by them with Cambodian service staff, very enterprising foreign lady bosses. Surprisingly, it is not that crowded as I expected, and the sales staff are courteous, patient and polite, it makes shopping enjoyable.
5. I am particularly interested in the quality quilts made by the Mekong Quilts which has a wide range of very lovely hand-crafted bed covers, home accessories, gifts and decorative items for home. Bought a simple classic design queen size quilt to do my minimum to this non-profit organization which aims to provide employment and increase family incomes for the women who have created every single item in the store. Then strolled down the lane and found some very nice Cambodia scarf, interesting accessories and unique Japanese top at special discounted rate
6. Met up with friend Lav Heng for lunch at Frizz. We have good discussion over Cambodia social/economic and travel trade performance during the current recession. Cambodia economy is doing much better than decade ago, and the people are hardworking and eager to learn new things. The hotel staff and tuk-tuk drivers whom I met are all taking night classes to learn English or business administration. Tuition fees are not cheaper but they all know that this is the only way which they can have better after acquiring the skills and knowledge. The middle income group of people aged below 40, mostly own cars especially the second hand Japanese car Lexus (about S$20k). The new ones are owned by bosses.
7. Visit to the Royal Palace, National Museum, Silver Pagoda, Independence Monument, Street 240 and Art Street 178 are a must-do things. This 178 street is quite an interesting street where all kinds of art carvings can be found here, and the end of this street actually linked up all the way to the riverfront area where you can find a mix of ethnic and modern fashions plus café in the vicinity.
8. Got a good tuk-tuk motorcycle @US$4 brought me around the city, streets 178, 240, 278, quayside, the famous Russian markets, Mao Zetong boulevard etc, interesting, sp
eedy and enjoyable journey on a motorbyte, an experience which can never be found in Singapore. Happened to walk into a good massage outlet Sawasdee (reommended by a American who just enjoyed his massage) @ street 57, US$8 per hour for Thai massage. And they also run a nice boutique hotel next door at reasonable rate but the location is not as centralized as Paragon.
9. The Soriya Shopping Complex (not much of appeal to modern shoppers) can give it a miss. Central Market is must go, but it is under retrofitting, hopefully it can get done fast. The temporary huts are too crowded
and hot for comfort. Have a good taste of the Cambodian-style local coffee shop with nice beef or seafood
noodles soups and coffee at street 188 and met a helpful Chinese speaking Cambodian lady Chun Ai, her hospitality and the setting and operation of the coffee shop reminds us of our social setting in the 70s. Russian market is also a place not to be missed, plenty of goods from slippers to tailoring, DVD, cooking pot to souvenirs etc, whatever things u name it, they have it. When thirsty, remember to pick up a bottle of the “Thai” icy orange j
uice (very tasty and nice) at nearby drinks stall.
10. The 3rd day, we hired a tuk-tuk @US15 to visit the Choeung Ek killing field and S21 facility which the Khmer Rouge used to imprison and interrogate its victims. The volunteered guide told us that other than the one we were visiting, there were some 388 killing fields
scattered throughout the country under the ultra communist Khner Rough led by Pol Pot from Apr 1975 to Jan 1979, but not all have been exhumed. At this killing field, some 20 000 people were brutally murdered and buried.11. S21, a former school with about 8 buildings, was converted to become a prison and interrogation centre for "peop
le who needed to be re-
educated". Here, you can see the entrance to the facility. The signboard gave the dos and donts for prisoners when they were captured here for torture.
12. It was a very sorry and eerie experience visiting the 2 sites. This historical event just reinforced the importance of having the right leaders to lead the country, a small group of people deciding on the destiny of millions and millions of people. One bad decision could be so disastrous, dramatic and painful for the entire generation and beyond. A bad taste we and Indian tourists experienced at the S21 was that the guide service there is controlled by a few lady guides who pick and choose their customers and asked for rocket-high fee per person (higher than our admission ticket) without even giving a professional and adequate guiding service. This incident spoilt the awesome impression we have on Cambodia.
13. We have some difficulties finding a good Chinese restaurant for our dinner as none of the tuk-tuk drivers could recommend one, at last we settled for one near Art street, where we followed Jim Roger’s advice to speak to the chef to order our food, and the restaurant chef actually attended to us attentively.
14. Overall, we have a good and enjoyable time in Phnom Penh. It is always good to have some regrets, and mine is not having more time spent at the quayside area, Russian market and miss Sihanouk Ville, Kep etc, so I promise to visit Cambodia againJ
From industrial to tourism, Singapore- Suzhou Tourism Cooperation sealed in 2004
Extended wing to Wuxi Education and Tourism from 2005 till now
1st site inspection in cold snowy spring with our CEO Neo Chian in March 1998
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