Phnom Penh

10th March - Checked out this morning at 8am expecting to be collected by our guide who told us that he would be accompanying us on the drive to Phnom Penh. What we got was a car with a driver that didn't speak English. The hotel staff kindly called the guide who just told them "change of plan, they just go with the driver!"
In one respect it was good in that we didn't feel obliged to make conversation for five hours but equally we weren't able to ask questions about the areas we were passing.

Derek likened the scenery to Malaysia, wooden homes on stilts and little sign of material possessions. It's upsetting that the littering is just as bad rurally - you don't often see cows in the UK sharing their fields with piles of plastic bottles and plastic bags. The cows try to get to the grass amongst the rubbish. Saw a few rice fields and people spreading out the rice to dry on large mats on the roadside. Lots of bicycles especially around the schools, no mothers doing school runs here, it's bike or walk.

A couple of comfort stops along the way (top travel tip is always have toilet roll in your handbag, you'll need it)! One place had a food market going on and their were several fried insect stalls (including fried tarantula) but we didn't give it a try! It was noticeable that as time went by the faster he drove. I assume he just wanted to get it over with as he had to drive back again.

First impressions of Phnom Penh weren't great, the traffic is horrible the main road in became a dirt track due to roadworks and our hotel is not in the quiet residential area we were led to believe! Building work going on directly opposite and next door so relaxing by the pool is accompanied by the soundtrack of very loud drilling and hammering. In general the hotel is not as nice as the one in Siem Reap and the staff a lot less smiley but the pool is lovely and cold.

We went for a walk but, keeping to a theme, turned in the wrong direction and ended up in an area that was not at all nice. Dirty and smelly (man weeing in the street - yuk) and there are no pavements to walk on as the cars and mopeds park on them. This means walking in the road and risking being taken out by a Tuk Tuk or motorbike. We eventually found a coffee shop near the river to get out of the heat, calm down and rehydrate.

This evening we got a tuk tuk to the National Museum as we knew

there were generally a lot of restaurants in the area. Our Tuk Tuk is named 007 so obviously the driver is James Bond! Food was distinctly average but we did manage to get a seat out front which was ideal for people watching. Very upsetting seeing the disabled beggars.

11th March - James Bond insisted on driving us today and we arranged to meet him at 9:30 to go to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. Really glad we got a guide there for $10, his English was excellent and he was very informative. He explained that the current King is 64 and has never married, he became King four years ago after the death of his father. We heard all about the Coronation and saw the ceremonial paraphernalia. There are several different buildings all used for different things, for example, entertaining foreign dignitaries. There was a row of seven female mannequins dressed in the same outfit but all in a different colour. They represent each day of the week and the staff change their colour of uniform in line with the day of the week so today, being Saturday, our guide had a burgundy shirt on! Grounds are beautifully kept.

The Silver Pagoda is not silver, it just has a solid silver floor and you can only see the edge as the rest is covered with carpet. The building houses an impressive golden Buddha and many showcases of jewellery etc. Our guide taught us the meanings of the different

hand placements of the Buddhas - protecting the earth, meditation, peace etc.

We moved on to the National Museum which houses a lot of the artefacts including those found around Angkor Wat. It's quite interesting but we're not really Museum people and were out fairly quickly. Afterwards we had a general drive around the city and then back to the hotel to jump into the pool. It's 36 degrees again.

Actually saw a dustbin lorry! They don't empty dustbins, they shovel rubbish off the road into the lorry. Our 'refuse collection technicians' in the UK don't know how good they've got it.

This evening we did the Sunset Cruise on the Mekong river and it was nice to be out on the water to get a bit of breeze. There was a bar on board and some people even ordered a three course meal. The sunset was lovely to watch.

Bond had waited for us and drove us to the restaurant area and was then dismissed for the night having successfully completed his mission..

Not a great choice of restaurant tonight, the food was just OK and was cheap but the staff were pretty hopeless. Thankfully they were honest and chased us down the street with

Derek's camera which he had left on the back of his chair!

We played the game 'how many people can you get on a moped' tonight and we saw five, mum and dad plus 3 kids. We then debated if this beat four people if the driver was on his mobile phone.

The hotel very quiet tonight, Derek had a Brexit chat in the bar with the duty manager who is actually Italian. He confirmed that no driving or motorcycle tests are taken here. Rebecca and I had a chat courtesy of FaceTime!

12th March - woken up at 7:30 by the builders...
Duty Manager (the Italian guy) sorted out our issue with the taxi for tomorrow morning which we had been told was coming at 11am instead of 5am and was causing us some stress.

Walked down to the Central Market which has a huge dome shape roof and then four arms branching out full of stalls selling everything except, of course, the style of flip flops I was looking for! Rest of the day by the pool as we've done everything we wanted to do. Didn't fancy being upset by going to the Killing Fields which is fairly close by. Might regret that.

Dinner at an Italian restaurant with good Trip Advisor reviews as neither of us could face any more rice. It was good and the staff more smiley than we have seen since being in Phnom Penh. The restaurant had a 'security' guy outside who's duties seemed to cover a wide remit. He organised the traffic, parked cars and moved mopeds. Interesting to watch how seriously he took his duties and he got us a tuk tuk in five seconds flat. He probably got paid peanuts.

Early night in anticipation of our full day traveling tomorrow. In all honesty we won't be sorry to leave Phnom Penh. Cambodia is interesting but it could also be beautiful if they cleaned up the litter!