A Guide to Phnom Penh Journey, Cambodia

Chingakham Dina *

Phnom Penh : city Independence Monument (source: wikipedia)

Cambodia is a day's journey from Bangkok by bus. It is 719 km distance from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. It will cost you around 30$ (900 Thai baht or 1800-2000 India rupees) by bus. You can travel by flight or by van too. You start by bus in the morning at around 8 am from Mor Chit bus terminal, Bangkok.

You reach Thai-Cambodia border, which is called Poipet/Aranyaprathet at around 10-11am. Cross the border, you get Cambodia visa at the border. If you want to relax a day or two at casino with hotels on Cambodia side of the border, buy a ticket for 800-1000 bahts ticket, get inside casino and play around and you will have free excellent buffet food as long as you show the ticket. This doesn't include for hotel lodging.

If you don't want to hold night at border, move on your journey on the same bus. You also can catch hired car shared among passengers or van from the border. Carry on your journey and you reach capital city Phnom Penh in the evening. The city sits on the river bank of Mekhong river. There is royal palace on the river side.

Phnom Penh is small city, may be not much bigger than Imphal, I think. Once you reach Phnom Penh, the mode of transportation inside the city is by taxi-motorcycle. It is a motorcycle used as taxi for customer. You will see plenty of them. Negotiate the taxi fare before going to the destination. Bargaining system exists there.

By riding a motorcycle, you can cover all important areas of city in a single morning. As the area is small, all the tourists, bars, hotels and nightlife are able to be seen within an hour or two by riding a bike. They don't have car taxi but you can rent taxi-car in advance for long distance travel. The city is one of the fastest growing in Southeast Asia. The city will be the home of the tallest buildings in the world in the near future, with its plan has already laid out.

Sightseeing - Important sightseeing Phnom Penh are- Royal palace, river side (Mekhong river), Russian market, National museum of Cambodia, Wat Phnom, Toul Sleng Genocide Museum, Silver Pagoda, Independence monument etc. Angkor wat is the most famous tourist attraction in Cambodia.

It is a journey from morning to evening towards the north from Phnom Penh. It is located in Siem Reap province. This is really amazing temple in the forest surrounded by century old trees.

On the northwest of Cambodia, in Badampong province there is the greatest freshwater lake in the country which is called as Tonle sap and it is breeding ground of freshwater fish. They produce large amount if freshwater fish.

Language & Communication - Communication is easier in Phnom Penh as younger generation people speak English better than compare with Thailand. Beer gardens are blooming at the nightfalls in the city area, and it is relaxing place after work. Riverside near Royal Palace is nice place to hang out peacefully.

The taste of the food is not great to me as most of the foods are flavored with sweet. So I always choose I am familiar with, which is not sweet. Thai food and other western foods are available but it is more expensive than in Thailand.

In the restaurants, you will be served water soaked in tea. It is light tea colour. Mid range hotels cost $20-30 US a night. There is a backpacked tourists cheap lodging area called Banggok lake just behind Hotel Royal Phnom Penh which will cost you $6-10 US. This might have changed their price but it will be cheaper still.

There was strong India cultural influence in music, movie, and entertainment some decades' ago during Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan's time. Time has gone.

Changes - New generation is strongly influenced by Korean and Thai culture in music and entertainment. Most of the Khmer movies are related to ghost or horror that people's memory is still vivid in the mind with those civil war of 1970s and that horror still relates to their real lives.

15 years ago, there were few big shopping malls. Singapore and Bangkok became their shopping spree destination. Today, everything is there. Cambodians are better in terms of English language communication compared with Thailand or Vietnam.

If you want to teach, you must go and drop your CV personally and meet the authority. That is how you get teaching job there. Everyone from age 5-50 wants to learn language (English, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, French, and others). Language skills reflect very much to their earning capacity.

Currency Exchange - You take US dollar or Thai bahts. It is commonly accepted everywhere along with Cambodian currency, the riel. Take your ATM. If you have bank passbook with you, you still can withdraw from your account from their local bank.

My Experiences - I had great time with great friends there. Schools, Universities, Offices,etc are run by people of my age group, or a bit older or a bit younger: age 30-40s, because most of older generation people were terminated during civil war of 1970s.

So, all my colleagues were almost the same age, easy to hang out together. Private language schools were on every corner of the street. Nightlife is not as big as in Bangkok but at nightfalls there are bars, beer gardens and food corners in the city.

If you hangout with local friends you can enjoy a lot. Salary was paid at the end of the week, then later it became monthly. You work in the morning, day, afternoon and your money goes to restaurants and beer garden at the end of the day.

Man, there are many things you enjoy if you walk with the same looking people. When I walked with them I became Cambodian, when I walk with Thai I become Thai. So does in Laos and Vietnam.

Going with the same looking people, you are always protected. I was in that society. Salary of work counts on the number of hours you work.

A Cambodian friend told me a few month's back that their hourly wage for teacher is 10-15$ US for private school now. I miss those days.