After a late change in our initial plan to go to Vietnam, we now find ourselves in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The journey is a couple of short 1 hour plane flights and other than having to collect all of our things in Bangkok to go through immigration there the trip is quite uneventful.

Phnom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia with a population of about 2 million people. The city has a lot of French influence with nice wide streets and a lot of colonial style buildings, but as with many SE Asian cities it is VERY busy! Our trip from the airport in a tuk-tuk is very entertaining as our driver weaves in an out of traffic – often facing motorbikes that are traveling the wrong direction on our side of the street, and some of the most congested traffic I have seen. It is a good thing that the streets are so wide, because some of the maneuvers that we see on the streets here would not at all be possible in the more tightly packed streets of Thai cities.

Our hotel is located not far from the bank of the Mekong river, and after getting settled in we walk out for a look around and to find some dinner. The riverbank has a nice wide sidewalk (unlike the mostly non-existent sidewalks in Thailand) and after dinner we walk along for quite a distance taking in the scenery. It is a national holiday here to celebrate on of the previous kings – King Sihanouk – so part way through our walk we are rewarded with a nice fireworks display from across the river. Along the riverside we pass by the Royal Palace that is all lit up for the evening, and because of the holiday a few of the streets are closed to traffic and there are lots of people wandering about.

Our early impression of Phnom Penh is looking quite favorable for a city of this size. We are normally not big city people, but so far we feel a little better vibe here than we would in say Bangkok.

On our way back to our hotel we stop for a foot massage, and I must give full credit to the ladies who worked us over, the massage was very good, and among the best that I have had in SE Asia – Mrs. Columbus’ masseuse was even wearing a black cocktail dress!!

We have plans for a busy day tomorrow seeing some of the sights so after the massage it is back to our room and off to bed – in a bed that is not as hard as a rock I might add, so kudos to the Silver River Hotel for having a bed that at least resembles something that people would sleep on 😉