Whew … this trip has been a whirlwind! We started in Hong Kong and have made our way around Vietnam with a trip up the Mekong River. After clearing customs, we left our boat around 1230 with a full day of tours still ahead of us!
This part of our trip had some adjustments to it and we didn’t realize what it was until we were actually in Phnom Penh to see the annual Water Festival.
This is a 3-day event that culminates with large boat races on the river. That’s why our river cruise was delayed and we ended up docking away from the city. Check out this video of the boat races. The boats have up to 77 people rowing in unison. They race downstream and then make their way back up to the starting point.
Our tour guide picked us up and took us directly to the National Museum in Phnom Penh. There were some excellent exhibits (a couple photos below) followed by a quick lunch at the Museum Cafe. Deb had this excellent coconut fish dish, served in a real coconut!
We were joined by an Architect to give us a driving tour of the city to check out the different architectural styles incorporated in Phnom Penh. The recent past in Cambodia has been quite difficult (to say the least), and led to an interesting scenario of many people ‘squatting’ in old buildings. Many of these squatters divided the buildings into housing units, adding any type of material to these old heritage homes and they’ve been like that for the last 20+ years. A fascinating look at the city … especially when you are cruising around in vehicle and see someone carrying some chickens on their moped. Maybe 30 of them. All still alive! Check it out …
After our architectural tour, we joined the first tour guide for a cyclo-tour of the city — the place was absolutely crowded because of the festival. There was mass police and military presence to maintain the peace. Let’s just say that we were happy to arrive at our hotel for the evening.
The place was fantastic and we could easily have stayed here another couple of days. If you are heading to Phnom Penh, I recommend it: iRoha Garden Resort … so peaceful. However, the next day we were already heading out of town, driving to Siem Reap. If we had this to do over again, we would probably have extended an extra day in Phnom Penh.
That post is coming up next!
Stumblingpiper
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