Phnom Pehn

(The view from the shared balcony.)

Our first home away from home, Indochine 2 Hotel.  We were brought here near midnight and after we had found out that they will not pick you up from the airport even when they say they will and confirm it with you.  Instead we took a $7 tuk-tuk that seemed super sketchy at the time, but worked out perfectly in end.  The room was nice enough and the staff were more than friendly for the $22/night for a double bed and en suite.  We later found out that this price, while cheap in the US, was not as inexpensive as other places; though you get what you pay for and this was worth it for the location alone.                            

Walking down to Sisowath Quay, we could see the Tonle Sap River that flows between Phenom Penh and Siem Reap.  This is where most of the western bars, restaurants, and tourist shops are.  As you can see a "happy" pizza is a popular menu item.  Food is cheap-ish, though it is completely possible to pay western prices for a meal if you really want to.  The use of USD makes it easy to carry the money, though it seems everything gets rounded up to the nearest dollar for simplicity and profit.  The nicest thing to see were the draught beer prices in the $0.50 range at most bars.  There was a wide variety of food options from Khmer, Asian, and Western to mixes of the three.  

The Royal Palace of Phnom Penh is generally a nice place to visit, however, the queen's birthday was the next day and the throne room was closed to visitors.  The 25000r (~$6) admission fee was way to lofty for the limited access.

(below) Within the Place grounds is the Silver Pagoda that has a tile floor made of, you guessed it, silver.  Most of the floor is covered to protect it and you can feel the tiles separating from the floor.  Most of the room houses old Buddhist artifacts and gifts to the royal family.  

Restoration projects are ongoing at the palace as workers maintain the grounds

The National Museum was skipped, though it looked nice from the outside.

Wat Phenom was within walking distance of our hotel and it was more worth it to see than the Palace.  The monkeys were docile and free to see.  The elephant ride was a skipped because at $15 as the poor beast does the same 50 yard circuit over and over again.  

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