En Route for A Quick Stop in Phnom Penh
By Lauren Gerzina & Justin Hayes
A Long Drive, A River Walk, and Rooftop Cocktails
A 5+ hour car ride awaited us as we awoke, scrambling to finish packing with enough time to eat breakfast.
Flights to Phnom Penh were expensive, so we decided to book a private car through Viator. After a quick breakfast of noodle soup and coffee, our driver met us at our hotel in a black minivan. We loaded in our luggage and took our seats in the back. The seats were surprisingly comfortable and were extremely adjustable. They even had a simple massage function for our lower backs.
We drove (quite slowly) through the Cambodian countryside on our way to the capital city. In total, our drive was 319 km or 198 miles. In the U.S., this drive would have taken under 3 hours on the Interstate. But our drive was estimated to take over 5 hours.
So we downloaded a movie and podcasts and tried to get comfortable. On our drive, we watched the anime My Neighbor Totoro, which Justin had never seen. He found it amusing if not a bit confusing.
We stopped a couple times at “Rest Stops” that were clearly designed for tourists who were taking buses or private taxis between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. At the first place, we got some fruit/tea sodas, which were pretty refreshing and tasty. At the second place we stopped, we got some cokes and French fries for a snack. Lauren has been missing the cats pretty hard and when a kitty walked over, she couldn’t resist petting it (Don’t worry, she washed her hands promptly afterwards).
As we arrived in Phnom Penh, our driver lost cell service, so I had to pull up our Airbnb on Google maps so he could finish navigating. We got to our Airbnb, which was an apartment in a very tall building near the Royal Palace. Side note: Cambodia is a kingdom with a royal family, although, like the UK, they have very little power. The prime minister (and his political party and family, it turns out) have most of the power in the country.
Anyway, our apartment was large, with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a rudimentary washing machine. It was slightly annoying because we had less than one roll of toilet paper and no hand soap in the bathrooms.
We decided to deal with getting that stuff later as we were starving, so we went to a restaurant that Justin found which was allergy friendly called Pu Rock Café. It was about a 10 minute walk from our apartment, and we both noticed that Phnom Penh was a much larger and busier city than Siem Reap.
Lunch was quite satisfying; Justin had Khmer curry and Lauren had beef fried rice. Justin also appreciated all of the Captain America Funko Pop figures that the owner had.
After lunch, we headed back to the apartment to cool off from the heat. Lauren stayed behind and read her book (that our Aussie friend Pip from Vietnam recommended) while Justin ventured to find some toilet paper and soap. On our way to lunch, Justin thought he saw a supermarket. On his journey, however, he walked into the store and immediately realize it was a super store for baby goods. He promptly turned around and walked out, feeling quite embarrassed.
He walked around for about 15 minutes and finally found a minimart that had all of the goods he was looking for. He walked back to the apartment to chill and figure out our plans for the evening.
We decided to walk past the Royal Palace (which was closed and surrounded by very high walls) toward the river. We came to a very popular square in front of the palace, which was full of people picnicking and taking pictures. We walked over to the riverside walk and walked along the river. There were many vendors selling snacks and food. The smells in the area were . . . pungent.
Eventually, we made it to a Mexican restaurant called Mexicano Riverside. Apparently, we’re just going to try Mexican food in every city we visit to find the best Mexican place in Southeast Asia. Honestly, this place had the best tacos we’ve tried. We shared some Al Pastor and Carne Asada tacos, and they were delicious and authentic, almost like we were eating them in Mexico City.
Justin also found a gin bar called Juniper further up the river. It was on the rooftop of another hotel, so we took the elevator up to have some drinks. Justin got a coffee Negroni that was fantastic. The views of the river and of the city were stunning. We sat up there for a while, enjoying the breeze and talking about our plans for the next day.
After drinks, we headed down to the street to call a tuk tuk. Lauren noticed a shady-looking bar across the street called Cowboy Bar. She wondered if it was a strip club. As we the tuktuk started driving doen the road, we saw tons of scantily clad women in heels sitting on plastic chairs in rows out front of almost every single establishment on the street. Lauren immediately remarked that this was definitely an area for prostitution, remembering her days in Milan. Justin did a quick Google search, and then we learned that we were on one of the three infamous red light district streets in the city. Who knew?
We got back to the apartment, did some laundry, and hit the hay, getting ready for our rather intense day to come.
