Phnom Penh

Giant Ibis Bus

Travelling by bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh was a revelation. I had booked GiantIbis bus from hostel reception at Lub D for 17$. I got picked up about half an hour before the departure time of 1230pm (one has to be ready one hour before for the pick up). The pick up van dropped me at the GiantIbis main bus terminal from where the bus departed for PP at sharp 1230pm. The bus was decent quality – air-con and pushback with a water bottle and a croissant for each customer.

What impressed me most was the service from the bus company – the bus had two drivers for a short 6 hour long journey and a steward akin to flight steward letting us know the regular updates about the journey progress, stops and navigation details in proficient English at a top notch quality. Overall I have not seen such standards of buses plying in Thailand or Vietnam. Cambodia continues to surprise me on a positive note time and again.

Giant Ibis is highly recommended for all your inter-city travel needs in Cambodia.

Stay @ Onederz Phnom Penh

Onederz was hardly a 2 mins walk from GiantIbis bus terminal which was one less hassle and made me happy obviously. Decent rooms with multiple washrooms outside the dorms – well maintained with tissue, toiletries and blow dry. Great hospitality and amazing views of the Mekong river from the swimming pool and restaurant area.

Food in the restaurant is decent and priced quite modestly – 5$ for a main dish and a shake. I did end up eating here multiple times and wasn’t disappointed.

Sunrise views from Onederz terrace

I was so tempted with the beautiful view from the hostel rooftop that I wanted to wake up at sunrise to witness it. For a person not waking up before 8am, this had to come at a huge price 🙂 One fine morning, I mustered up the courage and woke up at sunrise time. I rushed up to the restaurant area and was treated with a beautiful sunrise and a wonderful view of it by the river. The lost sleep was well worth it.

Dorms at Onederz

I got super lucky with my dorm bed as I had great views of Mekong view straight from my bed – what a delight 😁 Some dorms do have great views – mine was 209(bed 60)

S21 Prison Museum – Transport

Onederz provides a shared tuk tuk return ride to S21 and Killing fields together for 7.5$ which I promptly booked. They need a minimum of two people for this price to be applicable. I tagged along with two others going at the my convenient time. The tuk tuk driver would give us the visiting time of an hour for S21 and 1.5 hours for Killing Fields.

I compared the private transport option by Grab and it would have costed 15$ on a tuk tuk. I would say this is a good option if you want to truly soak in the experience of what Khmer Rouge did in the dreadful years of 1975-1979. The time that I got on the shared ride wasn’t enough by any means and I felt getting rushed all the time.

S21 Prison Museum

10$ is the ticket price inclusive of an audio guide. One can exclude audio guide and get the ticket for 5$, however, I would say one must take audio guide to understand the history better. In the case of this prison museum, I would say those extra 5$ would be more than well spent.

The moment I stepped in and started playing my audio guide, my mood changed to grim and the feeling was surreal. S21 was a former secondary school which was converted into a prison-cum-torture centre by Khmer Rouge. The things I saw and the details I heard on the audio guide were bone chilling. You can get an idea on the wiki page of S21 also known as Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. However being there personally and listening to the guide while you wander on the alleys of the buildings of the school is altogether a different experience. I would say this is a must do on your Phnom Penh itinerary to see what fanaticism and dictatorship can do. S21 was one of the hundreds of such prisons across the country.

Killing Fields

Killing fields are located around 10kms outside the city centre. The ticket inclusive of audio guide is 6$.

Killing fields stand witness to around 20 thousand people brutally murdered – men, women and children alike. Inmates from S21 were brought here when they were sentenced to death by Khmer Rouge officials and killed the very same night they arrived at Killing fields. Earlier in 1975, a truck full of 70-80 people will arrive every 3-4 days, however by 1978, 300 people would arrive in a truck multiple times every day. The officials were not able to kill them all the same night such was the magnitude of genocide. They would be kept alive until the officials would get time to kill them. As bullets were costly, the officials would use anything and everything which could be used as a weapon such as wooden rods, iron bars, axes etc. To mask all this, they would play folk songs in loud volume and all executions happened in the night time.

All that is present here now are mass graves and a stupa in the centre in the remembrance of those who were killed here. Earlier, there used to be multiple buildings which used to serve as office for records of people being brought here, storage places for DDT to mask the smell of decaying corpses and for weaponry.

After the Vietnamese forces chased Khmer Rouge out of Phnom Penh in Jan 1979, there was so much hunger and poverty in the country that people from the nearby areas took whatever they found valuable in the buildings located here and after a while all these buildings collapsed.

However, the mortal remains and clothes of some 20 thousand people buried in several mass graves here keep coming out whenever the soil weathers away due to rain, so much so, that the staff working here have to collect bones and such every 2-3 months and keep it as designated places.

The centre stupa has around 9000 skulls stored in the 10 levels and the other bones are stacked on the levels above that. There are a total of 17 levels inside the stupa. The bigger bones are left in the mass graves as there is no place to store them in the stupa.

An evening on Preah Sisowath Quay

The beautiful smile on almost every Cambodian face that greeted me is a testimony of how we can and have to move towards our future no matter how grim the past had been. If one is not told about the genocide, they wouldn’t get any idea if at all it happened by observing how lively the Cambodians are. I found them to be very warm, welcoming and humble. As a Indian, I felt no discrimination at all in Cambodia and I am loving every day of my stay here.

Preah Sisowath Quay is the road which runs next to Mekong river in the heart of Phnom Penh city. Most happening strip of the city, this road has almost all Phnom Penh nightlife in close vicinity. The wide lane between the road and the river is well maintained and many people can be seen jogging and walking here in the evening – locals and foreigners alike. Several street food options can also be found whereas cafes/eateries are located on the other side of the road. One gotta stay closeby to be able to observe all the glitz and glamour of Phnom Penh city.

Royal Palace

It is located on Sisowath Quay and looks splendid at night.

Kanika Cruises

One of the highly recommended cruise options, I discovered it while strolling on Sisowath Quay. Substantially cheaper prices if you book sunset cruise or dinner and yet has great reviews on google. I personally did not go for the cruise, however for an illustration, they charge 8$ for sunset cruise with dinner. The same was 15$ at Onederz, probably by a different company.

Wat Phnom Daun Penh

Phnom Penh Three Rivers

I tried their Khmer chicken curry with rice and coconut shake. Chicken curry was great while the shake was okay. Everything is priced modestly ~5.5$ for a main dish with a shake. Service was great and hospitality nice. It is walkable from Onederz located at about 10mins by walk.

Phnom Penh Nightlife

I have composed a detailed list of bars and nightclubs in Phnom Penh on my blog post here.

Some more shots of Phnom Penh city captured while leaving for Saigon