Capital of Cambodia

On the way in to Phnom Penh the roads took a chance for the worse, narrower and bumpier.  We have no idea to expect but were hoping things were more pleasant than the Vietnamese cities.  Initially everything seemed calmer and horn beeping on the roads is much less.  We pulled up at the bus station and were warning things get a bit hectic with tour guide and tuk tuk offers etc.  It certainly did, I grabbed my bag off the coach (last again) and we jumped on the smaller private type bus that took us to our hotel.  The best hotel room by far with the comfiest beds, smelly toilet though!

The hotel was centrally located near the national museum and royal palace complex.  Both of these buildings are the most beautiful I have ever seen.  Similar in style to the pagodas we have seen all over the place, but these have set a new bench mark for me. 

We are visiting both of them properly tomorrow.

We all went for an evening walk together which took us down the river side, lots of locals chilling out releasing birds for luck and kids playing on the streets. 

Here are some of the sights from the riverside:

Everything feels nice and calm, most people seem happy.  We get the usual offers for cheap tuk tuk rides and books etc.  Like Vietnam nothing is over the top hassle.  The evenings here are warm with a lovely fresh breeze.

We saw some bats and a monkey walking / hanging on the telephone cables, passed through the night market with FRESH fish, i.e. still flapping!  Saw people sat around a table eating duck egg embryos!  Cracking the egg open and eating it whole!!!!

We had a slightly dodgy dinner that evening, but not too bad.  It didn’t make us ill.  Anna didn’t finish her beef noodles but I did mine!  The food is always tasty, but we are still adjusting.

While eating dinner a child came up to the table and started to beg, I realised he was leaning on my pocket right over my wallet quite quickly so covered it with my hand.  The kid took our spare bananas and drinks cans for recycling.  Not quite sure how innocent the encounter was as our guide seemed to signal to an adult from the other side of the bush behind us to take the child away.

We all had a cocktail in a bar next to our hotel before turning in.  Anna and I bartered with a child selling lonely planet guide books for the Cambodia one we need down from $8 to 6$.  Could have easily got down to $4.  As a rule 50% is easily achievable when bartering, but I felt comfortable with $6 for a £15 book.  It’s clearly a copy but a really good one.  This unfortunately seems to open the flood gates though and we didn’t get any peace from sellers and beggars after that!!!