"Del" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello, I want to know if it is difficult to manouver around this city.
My guide book indicates that it is dangerous. We want to go to Angkok
Wat for a few days and then down to Phmom Penh for a couple of days
then maybe to the beach. Has anyone any tips? We figure we have about
7-10 days. Thank you for any help. Also any hotel tips in any of the
3 locations. Moderate to Higher Budget would be good. We are middle
ageds (ouch, it hurts to admit it!) Del
******************************************
I just got back to my home in Bangkok this morning from 3 nights in Phnom
Penh.
Phnom Penh is very easy to get around these days, you have the choice of
motorbike
taxis (every motor bike in P.P.seems to be a taxi) or cyclors which are
pushbike type rickshaws, good fun and cheap, the guy driving it may be old
enough to be your father! there are now also motorbike type 3 wheeler taxis,
not unlike the tuk tuks in Bangkok, they have two rows of seats and a canopy
over the top.All fares are bargainable. All of the hotels in P.P have a few
cars parked out front, usually early model Toyotas which are available for
hire with driver by any passer by. Traffic does not move very fast as it is
congested a lot of the time.
I walk a lot there, it is an easy city to walk around but crossing the
streets needs patience. There are dozens of hotels in central P.P from $5 to
$95 and then you have the upmarket places. P.P has hotels at rates of up to
$2000 a night!!
Lunch on the balcony at the Foreign Correspondent's Club of Cambodia,
overlooking the
confluence of the Tonle Sap, Bassac and Mekhong rivers is a must. Their
collection of photographs is worth the visit.
Visit the Central Market and the Russian market as well, If you need an AK47
or a box of hand grenades, no problem, you can order them here.
Good hotels for you would be the Pacific or the New York hotel at around $35
a
night, both in Monivong Boulevarde and right in the centre of the city.
Overlooking the river is the Bougainvillier Hotel built by a retired
Parisian Carrefour executive. Something different, he showed me around it a
year or so ago, It's beautifully and tastefully furnished! Rates from $45 to
$70
Hire a car one evening and go over the Japan-Cambodian friendship bridge to
one
of the huge restaurants on the other side, food here is very good and very
cheap.
but try and get a table overlooking the river and away from the stage
(loud!) On the menus you have the choice of small, medium or large servings.
A visit out to the Killing Fields around 18 km's out of town is usually on
the tourist list of things to do, but go in a car as the road is rough. The
Toul Sleng prison (near the Russian market) is also a must if only to see
the barbarity of the Pol Pot years.

Sandy
Huay Khwaang
Bangkok