Quick jot from Phnom Penh

Alison and I are about to head off to Vietnam but I wanted to take a second for a quick jot. Siem Reap was a heck of a lot more enjoyable than Phnom Penh and I encourage anyone going to Cambodia to stay there instead – maybe turn it around and do a day trip to Phnom Penh instead of a day trip to Siem Reap. Siem Reap is of course where all the temples such as Angkor Wat are. It’s much mellower, less urban, a bit easier to relax into frankly. 🙂
The experience in Siem Reap has left me feeling a bit better about Cambodia in general, and I’m sure if I had more time I could get out and see the sights here in Phnom Penh. We visited soo many temples during the course of the day – probably four of them before either of us would normally be awake – that by the end we were pretty worn out. But we still had to climb up the side of Angkor Wat, and I still had to climb up the final temple on the final hill to watch the sunset. Amazing.
But we’re heading out soon, we really came here primarily for the temples in Siem Reap, and we haven’t had many daylight hours in Phnom Penh. So on the way out to the airport we’ll grab a tuk-tuk and do a quick whoosh down the river and past the silver temple. But then it’s quickly on to Vietnam, where we’ll have significantly more time to play and explore.
In retrospect I think I would have enjoyed my touring-around experience in Phnom Penh more a few days ago if a) I hadn’t been alone, or b) I had hired a tuk-tuk instead of trying to walk around. Walking around is not done as much here, especially if you’re a westerner, so that was my bad. Cambodia has been a significant cultural shift from Dubai, and even though I thought I was ready for that, I wasn’t. So, no fault to Phnom Penh, I’m sure it’s an interesting place to explore, but I haven’t really had much time to do that. For now, we’re off to Saigon!