Phnom Penh, beyond the stopover
Most people give the capital one night. Give it two and it becomes the most interesting city in the country.
7 min read
Phnom Penh sits where the Mekong, the Bassac and the Tonlé Sap rivers meet, which is why it exists at all. It is loud, fast, hot and far more elegant than its reputation: French colonial villas, a golden royal palace, riverside promenades and a food scene that has quietly become the best in Cambodia.
The two mornings that matter
Give one morning to the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, then the National Museum next door, which holds the finest Khmer sculpture anywhere and explains everything you are about to see at Angkor. Go at opening; both are outdoor-ish and become punishing by eleven.
Give the other to Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek. They are not a sightseeing stop and should not be treated as one — take the audio guide, allow half a day, and plan nothing demanding afterwards. Understanding what happened here between 1975 and 1979 is not optional context for a country where nearly everyone over fifty lived through it.
Where to base yourself
Riverside (Sisowath Quay) puts you next to the palace and the promenade, at the price of noise. Daun Penh, one street back, keeps the location and loses the bass. BKK1 is the leafy embassy district — quieter, better restaurants, a ten-minute tuk-tuk from everything. Toul Tom Poung, known as Russian Market, is where the independent cafés, tailors and design shops are, and where a longer stay makes most sense.
Eating
Start with breakfast kuy teav, the pork-broth noodle soup Cambodians eat before seven. Then work through the Khmer restaurants around BKK1 and the street grills of Toul Tom Poung. The capital also has the country’s only serious international dining, largely because of its diaspora and NGO population — you can eat superb Khmer food at lunch and excellent Japanese or French at dinner without moving neighbourhoods.
The river at six
The single best free thing in the city. As the heat breaks, the whole riverside fills with families, aerobics classes, food carts and kite sellers. An hour-long sunset boat out to the confluence costs a few dollars a head and gives you the skyline, the palace roofline and the two rivers meeting in one go.
A half-day out
Koh Dach, the silk island, is thirty minutes north by tuk-tuk and ferry: weaving villages, sandbank beaches in the dry season and a rural Cambodia that starts unreasonably close to a city of two million.
Common questions
Is Phnom Penh safe at night?
Broadly yes, with normal city caution. Bag snatching from passing motorbikes is the one real risk — carry your bag on the pavement side, or not at all.
How do I get to Siem Reap?
A 45-minute flight, a six-hour day bus on a good road, or a slower but scenic boat in high water. The day bus is the best value.
Keep reading
Siem Reap and the Angkor temples
Tickets, timings and the order to see them in — how to spend three days at Angkor without spending them in a queue.
The southern coast and the islands
Kampot, Kep, Sihanoukville and the two islands worth the boat — which stretch of coast fits which kind of holiday.
Battambang and the north-west
The country’s second city is its most charming: colonial shophouses, an art scene, and rice fields that start where the pavement ends.
