After an uneventful journey to Phnom Penh, via Belfast City, Heathrow Terminals 1 and 3 and Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, we finally arrived in Phnom Penh at 9.30 on Saturday morning, local time and approximately 24 hours after leaving home.
There was our courier and a minibus waiting to whisk us off to the
Sunway Hotel which lived up to its 4* rating for getting us booked in and up to our room and a much needed shower. As we were not expected to do anything until 2.30 we grabbed a couple of hours sleep as well.
Our “group” turned out to be a couple from London, the other 7 apparently having foregone their deposits at some time long before departure.
We started out at Wat Phnom, a Buddhist temple built on a manmade hill adjacent to the hotel . There is park around the base which caters for all the locals, including the monkeys, and a year old elephant called Mr Sammy.
Following this we moved on to the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, so named because the floor consists of 5000 solid silver tiles each weighing 1kilo. Another interesting exhibit was that of women wearing the colours of the days. Dressing in the correct colour is extremely important as bad luck can follow if one gets it wrong!
We retired to our hotel for a welcome beer and to recover from jet lag and a fairly exhausting days touring.
The speciality of the evening in the hotel was a “European Buffet” which couldn’t be faulted on any count although some of the eastern interpretations of western food were interesting.
Click here for the next installment
