Day 8 : National Museum & Walking Tour

Day 1 at Phnom Penh. This was a pretty relaxed day as we changed our initial plan of going to a nearby beach (which was a distance from the city and we had enough of WATER and BOAT RIDES for the past 2 days to last for the entire trip!) to lazing around at guesthouse plus light sightseeing later in the day. As the food portion for breakfast/lunch/dinner for the past 2 days wasn’t quite satisfying, Princess and Ex-irish ordered 2 rounds of breakfast! Any item that we ordered was recorded down in a notebook with our room number and we only had to settle the bill when we checked out. Very convenient instead!

View of restaurant. Loveflower with noodle soup only


Princess with omelette and club sandwich


Ex-irish with cheese sandwich and pancakes

Having had our fills, we decided that Okay Guesthouse was a good place to stay in after all… USD15 per night for an air-conditioned room with 3 beds, hot shower and cable tv.. and there’s also a good and affordable restaurant right at the doorstep… Cool! We settled the bill for the dinner last night, checked out from the previous room (which was kinda small and with no cable tv) and moved to our new room (which was much bigger and better).

Room in Okay Guesthouse

We decided it’s time to begin our sightseeing and walked to our first destination…

Hotel Cambodiana (opps our guesthouse)


Statue at the roundabout


Buddhist Institute and National Buddhist Education


Ministry of XXX (forgot the name, oops!)


Sisowath Quay, an attractive boulevard running along the banks of the Mekong and Tonle Sap.


Royal Palace

First stop: National Museum
Cost: USD$3; No photography.

Frommer's Review
What the British Museum is to the Elgin Marbles of Greece's Parthenon, the National Museum of Phnom Penh, opened in 1920 by King Sisowath, is to the statuary of Angkor Wat. This important storehouse holds artifacts and statuary from all regions of Cambodia. The sad fact is that many pieces didn't make it here -- they were plundered and smuggled out of the country. Nevertheless, this grand red sandstone edifice has a beautiful and informative collection of Khmer pieces. From the entrance, begin on your left with a room of small prehistorical artifacts. A clockwise loop around the central courtyard walks you through time, from static, stylized pieces of stiff-legged, standing Buddhas, to contra-posed and contorted forms in supplication. There are good accompanying descriptions in English, but this is not a bad place to have a knowledgeable guide (ask in the lobby). The central courtyard features a shiva lingum and large temple fragments. At the more significant works, the statue of Jayavarman VII for example, elderly ladies, looking like museum docents, hand out incense and flowers and instruct visitors to place them on makeshift altars. Don't feel obliged -- kind of off-putting to some -- but feel free to do so and just drop a few Riel or even $1 (ignore entreaties for a larger donation).

National Museum from the park


Central courtyard



Front facade and garden of National Museum

Second stop: Khmer Architecture Tour (well, sort of…)
Cost: FOC. (Note: You can download the walking tour map online)

I found a walking map for a tour around Phnom Penh's fascinating but rapidly vanishing architectural sites… We only walked through the streets which were on the way to our rest stop…

Block with concrete roof pergola. Apartment block.


Apartments with an internal courtyard. Loveflower infront of bright colored apartment block.


Blue glass and pink paint building. 2-storey apartment block.

Third stop: Sorya Shopping Centre.
The largest modern shopping complex in town, it houses a super mart, stalls selling local fashion, electronics, books, gift, etc, food and entertainment. On the top level, you can get a skyline view of the city, pretty cool. And there’s a very happening rollerblading ‘ring‘for youths to rollerblade to pop music, nice.

Tea break at Swensen


Rollerblading ring


View of the city (rain again!)

Fourth stop: Phsar Thmei (Central Market)
Built in 1937, this huge dome with four wings would be an amazingly cool place to seek refuge in the middle of the day and is also a fascinating market to wander through. By the time we arrived, it was late and most of the stalls had closed for the day… Time to head home for dinner and rest!

Princess and Ex-irish infront of Phsar Thmei



Tuk tuk home



Dinner