After the 8-hour drive from Ho Chi Minh, we arrived at Phnom Penh at around 8:00PM. Mamita managed to have a tuktuk driver pick us up at the drop-off. We checked in at R Guesthouse which is located near the tourist spots. Since we didn't eat a decent food during the long drive, we were on a hunt for a local restaurant. As we were walking around, some random guy approached us and asked if we wanted to buy weeds. Uhm, ser hindi po. Mind you, he asked it in a very casual way, like everyone would walk around the streets searching for weeds.
The hotel we stayed in was alright except that they didn't have water supply that day. We had to literally fetch water from the lobby to our room at the third floor. Oh and, they didn't have elevator. But we were there for one night so we didn't bother much.
The next day, we hired the same tuktuk driver who fetched us from the bus station. We had an itinerary but we didn't know the exact distances of the tourist spots so we let the driver take us anywhere. Our plan was to exchange our dollars to riel and have breakfast. It took us almost two hours to get to our first destination and it was neither a money changer nor a restaurant, he brought us to the Killing Fields. It would've been fine if we didn't have a 2:00pm bus ride to catch.
We started our day in a depressing mood. Millions of people were killed and buried during the Khmer regime and these people were killed for minor political crimes. It was heartbreaking to walk in the mass graves. All of us got out of that place with a heavy heart.
Next stop, Russian Market. We were in a hurry when we got to the market so we only stopped at one store to buy pasalubongs and head to the next destination. We had no idea that the Royal Palace was just few meters away from the hotel we were staying in. We literally had 30 minutes before the scheduled bus ride to Siem Reap, so a few pictures here and there.. and we're off to the next city.
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