Phnom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia. It is important to visit Phnom Penh in order to understand the history of Cambodia. To do the same, we started our learning by visiting Genocide Museum and Killing Fields, which made us very depressed. It’s heart wrenching to know that the people of Cambodia have experienced such cruelty and inhumanity. And it is more depressing to know that all this happened very recently and there are so many people around you who have been through the dark times. One of them being our guide at the Genocide Museum, Chivy, she was 8 years old then and lost her father, brother & sister. But at the same time, it’s nice to see these people progress, how they have embraced peace and are gradually developing. It brings in a new spirit within you – of optimism.

Memorial at Killing Fields

Regulations at Genocide Museum

The other places of interest we saw were The Royal Palace, The Independence Monument, The National Museum and Wat Phnom, which were very typical. One can easily skip the last two.

The Royal Palace

National Museum

Exploring the town, specially the river front was a good idea. Evenings were lively and amazing at the river front with lots of good cafes to relax. The Central Market and The Russian Markets are good for buying petty things, but you should be good at bargaining.

Central Market

Us at River Front

Food scene is pretty good in Phnom Penh. You can get almost all kinds of cuisines at amazing prices. Vegetarian is no problem at all, as almost all restaurants have a special vegetarian section in their menu. Places recommended by us will be – Friends, Phnom Penh India, Ramdeng.

Yummy Indian food @ Phnom Penh India

For stay, Hotel Blue Lime is a very good option. Modern and clean rooms with friendly staff and a beautiful pool. Also it is located very strategically in the city, behind the national museum. The only problem is, it is in a small alley, which can be difficult to find for the first time. A landmark to find it would be the ‘Alley Cat Cafe’ board on the main road.

This is it, about Phnom Penh. It is a city of historical and future importance for the people of Cambodia and a good landing place for orientation of tourists.

KL was looking amazing from the flight, but then which city doesn’t? We had landed @ 12:30 local time, and it was so hot and humid outside. LCCT is the least of the infrastructure you can put in an airport. We were joking that they might ask to walk in a queue once you disembark the flight, and it was actually the case . We were waiting for our luggage for a long time, luckily we saw our bag on another flight’s belt and saved some time. Next day, when going to Phnom Penh, we were very confused. The LCCT is very disorganized and we had to ask couple of times for directions in order to finish the check in and immigration. Anyways it’s like what you pay is what you get.

In our short 10 hrs stay in KL, it was not much different from any big city in India. The only notable difference was the roads – very good and broad. Didn’t have much interaction with locals here, but looking forward to mingling with them once we are back from Cambodia.

The Phnom Penh airport was at least better than LCCT. The biggest airport in Cambodia was still very small, but well organized. We did not face any trouble in getting visa-on-arrival, in spite of the fact that Kosha had forgotten her passport-sized photo (it was taken care of by two 1 $ bills ).

While going from airport to our hotel, we were amazed to see so many high-end SUVs like Lexus 480s, Rovers and Cruisers. Surprisingly, there is a complete lack of small and medium car segment in this country. It’s either plush SUVs-n-Sedans or the humble mopeds. It shows that there are less number of people in the middle-class range.

In a nutshell, Cambodia is in many ways like India. This is just a first impression. But we are eager to know more and interact with locals here.