Our travel guide to spending a night in Phnom Penh.

Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh can be an assault on the senses. Motorbikes whiz through laneways without a thought for pedestrians; markets exude pungent scents; and all the while the sounds of life, of commerce and of survival  reverberate through the streets.   But this is all part of the enigma.  Once the ‘Pearl of Asia’, Phnom Penh’s shine was tarnished by the impact of war and revolution.   But the city has since risen from the ashes to take its place among the hip capitals of the region, with an alluring cafe culture, bustling bars and a world-class food scene.

Visiting Phnom Penh for the first time.

Our good friend Dash accompanied us on our first ever trip to Cambodia.  We flew to the capital city Phnom Penh, where we would spend our first night of our trip to Cambodia and Vietnam.   Flying over we understood why some people suggest you only need one night here as the city looks very third world.  The streets are filled with coloured high buildings with vast contrasts from luxury cars to old run down scooters.  You can definitely distinguish the difference between rich and poor.

Arriving in Phnom Penh

We flew Malindo Air on the way over with 2 stop overs, one in Denpasar and the other in Kuala Lumpa.  With 5 hours to wait in KL we found ourselves a bar to have a drink and then we made our way to a noodle restaurant.  There wasn’t much open at 2am in the morning.  The flight from KL to Phnom Penh was only an hour.  We arrived at 11am, got sim cards for our phones and then made our way to the hostel.

We booked our night at the Mad Monkey Hostel where we had been recommended.  Mad monkey is a sprawling hostel located in the heart of the popular BKK1 district and is the perfect place to meet people and explore this city of culture and nightlife.  It was a funky hostel with a small swimming pool, a bar and cafe.  With cocktails priced at $3.50 USD and Cambodian beer at $1.50 how could we refuse a drink or 2.  We only paid $18 for a private room with our own ensuite.  Totally worth it.  Mad Monkeys hostels do book out quickly so click HERE to find out prices and availability.

When we checked in we were told that our room wasn’t going to be ready for another 3 hours so we decided to go for a walk and explore the city.  We found a massage spa across the road and paid $8 USD for a 1 hour massage.  The best decision we had made that day!!!

 

Mad Monkey has different events on every night and for Wednesday night you pay $3 USD and you can do a walking tour.   The Sunset Saunter is not your average walking tour, this one focuses on the human stories behind the landmarks.  Discovering the context and culture of this city in the midst of a transformation.  The tours are led by a hostel team member ( We had Sam, he was excellent ).

 

 

Sunset Saunter Walking Tour

The Tuk- Tuk picks you up at 5 pm and takes you to the Sports centre where you walk through markets and open bars all lined up.  At night it becomes one of the busiest party places.  From there you walk on foot, crossing over bridges and walking through parks and then ending on the Sisowath Quay.  Its a beautiful walk around this time of night.  The hotels and Tonle Sap Boardwalk comes alive with coloured lights that reflect onto the Tonle Sap River, which  joins from the Mekong Delta River.   You pass many local farmers markets on the walk,  we found one that sold cooked bugs, frogs, snakes and worms.  There were a few in our tour that wanted to try, you can’t come all this way and not try a grasshopper so thats exactly what i did.  It was crunchy so it wasn’t to bad to chew, just like having bbq chicken right?  Max tried bugs, a frog, a worm and abit of snake.   He said they tasted like chicken too, one guy was game enough to try a whole snake and then gave max a  bite.  He said it tasted more like something fishy and struggled to chew the hard meat.

 

 

You also visit the Independence Monument, Friendship Monument, and the Royal Palace. Im not too sure if its because it is coming up to christmas but the parks and monuments were surrounded by coloured trees and coloured water fountains. It was so beautiful and it brought many families and young kids out.  We passed kids playing soccer and also a group of teens that must have been apart of dance group that where rehearsing.  I wasn’t expecting it to be this nice when we first flew over.  I would highly recommend doing the Mad Monkey walking tour to experience the beauty at night that the city has to offer.

 

When we got back to the hostel our tour group went up to the bar and enjoyed a free drink together.  By this time the bar was already busy, the Mad Monkey was hosting a beer pong tournament.  We had about 3 drinks and had conversations with other tourists from all parts off the world including, Canadians, English, Maltese, German and Welsh.  We then headed out to get street pizza from down the road.  We didn’t have a late night and decided to go to bed early as we had to get a bus to Siem Reap early in the morning.

 

Traveling from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap

Its a 7 hour bus ride to Siem Reap, we booked with a company called Giant Ibis.  I did research and this was one of the best companies.  The bus comes with power plugs next to every seat and wifi, which is great for Max and myself as I am currently writing this blog and he is working on a video.  We have 2 nights in Siem Reap and tomorrow we head to the famous Angkor Wat temples which i will write about in the next blog so stay tuned !  Book your seat for the bus HERE.