When doing the Vietnam-Cambodia tour, one may go directly to Siem Reap from HCMC. The trip would cost $17-$20 USD and will take 15 hours travel time. For our group, we decided to stay for at least a night in Phnom Penh before going to SR. It was a very brief tour and meant one less day of stay in SR, but I would say it was worth the detour.
We took one of the earliest bus trips from Vietnam thru Mekong Express. We were supposed to be in PP around noon but ended up arriving to PP at 3PM. We just dropped our bags in our hotel room and immediately went to the Royal Palace. According to the tuktuk driver we hired, the gates of the palace closes at 4pm.
The Royal Palace in Phnom Penh is a complex of buildings which serves as the royal residence of the king of Cambodia. The King’s living area, however, is closed to the public.
The details on the stupas are very intricate, I wonder if they were carved by hand or by machines.
Miniature Angkor Wat - cool sneak peak at our next destination.
It was still early when we were asked to leave the palace so we decided to do some city tour. Instead of hiring a tuktuk driver, we just walked from the palace to the independence monument. Good thing our hotel is near the monument.
We also selected a random restaurant on our way back. Forgot the name of the place but the food was amazing and the prices were reasonable, around 5$ for each rice meal.
I read in a travel site that one of the must-dos in Cambodia is to try out their local beers. We passed by a mini-grocery store and decided to try these three out. I'm not a beer drinker, but I liked the Anchor one best.
