Sailing into Phnom Penh past the Royal Palace and bustling port community was a real highlight to the Mekong voyage. We moored right in the city centre and we were able to walk virtually anywhere. Fred walked to have some of our money changed and found we were millionaires for a day!
We also met up with our sister ship from the Pandaw fleet and docked together and so we had to walk through their ship to reach the dock.
This morning we toured Phnom Penh highlights in our own private cyclo. Pandaw had teamed up with a charity 'The Cyclo Centre' who gives training, language instruction and welfare assistance to often homeless cyclo drivers. These guys are all great fun and very enthusiastic. My driver was the ‘in-charge’ guy and constantly pedalled ahead to check that all drivers were following directions.
We travelled to the Royal Palace, the National Museum with its excellent Khmer collections and the Silver Pagoda which has a silver tiled floor totalling five tons of gleaming silver! In order to show respect we were required to wear should and knee covering clothes. I could fold down my cotton shorts into trouser length but Fred wore his long pants. I thought he would expire in this hot humid day!
In a country devastated by the Khmer Rouge, Phnom Penh still retains some of the beauty that made it a Paris of the East before 1970. Although some of the infrastructure was lacking in some areas we saw a few beautiful French colonial buildings, wide boulevards, and a parklike riverfront with cafés and lots of restaurants.
In the evening the Pandaw passengers had a fabulous BBQ dinner on the sundeck as we cruised along the Mekong taking in the lights of the City of Phonm Penh. Not even the heavy rain could spoil such an amazing sight.
Phnom Penh presentation-Click Here.
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