Upon arrival to Phnom Penh I have to say that We didn’t like it at all. Chaotic traffic on a larger scale than Siem Reap, crossing the street is when you put your faith into Buddha 🙂 After spending a couple of days in Phnom Penh We started to like it actually. I am really curious how this city will look 5-10 years later as it is developing rapidly.
We stayed at the Dara Reang Sey Hotel and We booked it through Agoda.com. This was a huge mistake. We paid $32/per night online, however if you walk in the hotel without any reservation they will give you the same room for like $22-25 a night. Our room was a dump, very old stinking furniture, balcony is shared with all the neighbours, and the free wifi was absolutely useless. The hotel staff was however nice and helpful.
Large part of town is really run down however the riverside, and the area around the Royal Palace is nicely done. Most pubs and restaurants have their own security guards simply for the purpose to chase away beggars and people selling all kinds of stuff. This is very convenient when you want to enjoy a pint and you do not want to be disturbed.
Tuk Tuk drivers are the same way annoying like in Siem Reap one driver even shouted at me if I need a Tuk tuk when I was having my morning cigarette on the hotel’s balcony. 😀
We managed to find a driver that had relatively good English he was driving us to the Vietnamese Embassy and the next day to do a sightseeing tour of the city. After a bit of haggling he accepted to drive us around the whole day for $16. He had this sightseeing tour already planned so we did follow that with a couple of exceptions. We visited the following sites:
– Killing Fields ( Entry $2 )
– Royal Palace ( Entry $6 )
– Independence Monument
– City Mall
– Wat Phnom
To summarize this: Phnom Penh is a developing city has its bad and good sides, it is more pricey than Siem Reap ( about 20% ) it is definitely worth visiting for 2-3 day however I feel that staying longer is not really a good idea.
Video of Phnom Penh’s riverside:
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