From Siem Reap to Phnom Penh

I admit except for running the Angkor Wat half marathon, I really didn’t have any concrete plans on what I wanted to do in Cambodia. But I figured while I was there, I should go visit the capital Phnom Penh and check it out.

It’s about a 6 to 8 hour drive from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh mostly because the roads are full of holes so you can’t speed along at 100 km an hour like in can in other places. But the drive is interesting as you pass through a bunch of villages and get to see some of the landscape. A really cheap why to do it is on the sleepy bus. The bus picks you up at 10 pm in Siem Reap and you arrive at 8 am in Phnom Penh. The cost was around $15 a person and we saw a lot of backpackers doing the trip that way.

But my friend and I took a more luxurious way. We asked the hotel how much it would be to hire a car to drive us there and the cost was $75. We thought about it and considering we would be recovering from running the race, the car had air conditioning and could stop whenever we wanted if we needed bathroom breaks or photo moments, we figured splitting the cost between two people was more than worth it.

The choice was the right one. The driver let us know when we were coming up to villages that had clean restrooms. And I one of the best soups of the whole trip at a little café he knew along the way.

Plus, when we got to this one area of the country, a little town called Skuon, where they have these giant black spiders that they fry and eat, he pulled into a market so I could see them.

The spiders are bred in holes in the ground and the spider-getter reaches into the hole and snatches them out.  They were big and the live ones were more than a little scary. But still I was fascinated and had to get a close up of them. Did I eat one? I was tempted, but then figured they were out in the sun all day and probably not the freshest choice – and I was really trying to be safe and not get food poisoning too early in the trip. Turns out, it didn’t matter. I got sick anyway, but more that in a later blog.

Anyway, back to Phnom Penh. Let me start by saying that it takes a couple of days to get used to it. Siem Reap is cute and touristy with just enough exoticness to make you feel like you ventured out on your own.

Phnom Penh is fast-paced, crowded, noisy, smelly and everything a city of 2.2 million in a hot tropical country is expected to be. They use their sidewalks for selling stuff, but walking on the street is an adventure as there are so many mopeds and motorbikes, you feel like you are in a video game.

 Crossing the street as pedestrian is a feat in its own. You can spot the expats in their big SUVs and we were amazed at how they could park those things in city made for bikes and Tuk-Tuks. Someone told us they are a hazard as you can’t see around them when on a moped and after being there for a few days I had to agree.

Traffic rules and passing lanes seem to be made based on “space”. In other words, if you think you can fit, then you can go. So passing happens on the left, on the right, and anywhere in between. What totally amazed me was how many people they could fit on their little motor bikes and the stuff they carried with them. I saw someone with live chickens. I saw someone with stuff strapped on the back, front and on their head. It was fun just watching them and seeing what would drive by next.

One thing I can say is that if you look, you can find anything and everything in Phnom Penh – from gourmet restaurants to sex-for-hire bars. And they may be located within a few feet of each other. Narrow dirty alleys are really streets and there are people everywhere. People are creative with their businesses. We saw a guy set up a chair in a little side alley and give people haircuts and shaves. Hotels, food and massages were a little more expensive than in Siem Reap, but still very reasonable compared to Western prices.

By day 3 we had the city under control. We even found an aerial yoga class held in a little building that was taught by an Australian expat. The cool thing, is once you find one expat, they can give you tips about the city that only an insider knows. She let us know which hotels you could visit during the day and for fee or for a drink, you could hang by the pool to escape the heat.

Phnom Penh is bizarre combination of poor and rich, modern and traditional, and all of these things are mixed together in a way that works for them. It’s really worth a visit.