2 days in Phnom Penh doing kids stuffs!

We are back to Phnom Penh for a couple of days, before heading off to Thailand.
As often now, we took yet another bus from Kratie to Phnom Penh: a short one, only 4 hours ish! Pretty uneventful.
We are staying in a different area of Phnom Penh this time: a lot less touristy, which mean a lot more busy traffic wise (we got stuck in traffic jam a few times in 2 days in tuk-tuks and this is another experience!)! But also, we discovered some area a lot richer, with relatively big buildings and bigger, cleaner walkways. But which is weird is that those streets are right next to smaller streets with street sellers everywhere and with less riches if that makes sense. There are also a lot of building being built around, a lot of noise and dust.
We spend the weekend doing fun stuff for the kids: we went to shopping centres where we found some really fun playgrounds (some free, some for a fee). We also find a small fair where the kids had a ball on bumper cars! I was super happy that Andrew and Emma played with several kids in those different places, even if they couldn’t speak the same language. This is definitely something I wanted them to experience.
Nothing super exciting to share, just a couple of easy days, before going on a long night bus Sunday night, to cover around 650km, but it should take around 10 hours I believe.
Next time we blog, we’ll be in another country: Thailand. As we are leaving Cambodia, I just want to write my experience of it. The first impression is the insane traffic; but saying that, in 3 weeks, we have not seen an accident (while in 2 days in Townsville, you are sure to see at least a couple!). The noise is always on, car, bikes, klaxon, music (they only know one level: very loud!). The smells: good and bad, you always smell something as there is always some food being cooked somewhere! The food is great here. The “hello” from children passing us with big smiles, especially in the countryside. Temples, temples everywhere: which always make me wonder if they could spend less money on temple and more on people…Obviously Angkor is a most see in Cambodia as it is beautiful. The friendliness of people: we never felt scared or uneasy here. I do think we got over charged a few times, but not very often and not by a lot. We had some interactions with super friendly and helpful people here, that were more that happy to hear us trying to speak Khmer (with more or less success!). Overall, a great country to visit, that I recommend to see.
Mel

24.1.2025. Early start for our bus. Not as packed as the last one and no chickens. We got to a different part of Phnom Penh, seems newer and way busier. We couldn't check in yet, so lunch and coffee. The room seemed really nice when we first got there. Yeah, turns out probably the worst room we've had so far. Won't go into the details but it's shit. Had no idea what to do, then decided to add to Emma's Pandora collection. First mall we went to(walking distance) only had one Cambodia themed charm, so we thought we would try a larger mall. Short Tuktuk ride and we find out that mall only has the same charm, yay. Did have a kinda cool playground on the top floor so the kids had a great time. What to do next? Oh yeah we drove past a fair in the bus earlier. You got it, Tuktuk ride to the fair. A fair few rides and bloody loud(Cambodians like loud music). Kids wanted to have a crack at the bumper cars, why not. Everyone was just driving around all calm and whatnot, until my lot got in there. Straight away, ramming people. Now these bumper cars aren't like the ones you see in Oz, big rubber cushion all the way around. Nah these have a 15mm thick foam stick on but round em and most of that is gone, so, when you hit you hit. There were a few weird looks at the kids, then what do ya know everyone is doing it, including a couple of the guys(teenagers by the looks) working there. 5,000 riel or about $2 in Oz for 1 car and it felt like they rode for a good 10mins or more. They had so much fun, hearing Emma's evil laugh always brings a smile to my face. When we left the workers waved and said goodbye. I think they had fun too. Ate food there, nothing to write home about, couple more rides and one more Tuktuk ride and bed. Goodnight.

25.1.2025. Late start, worked out more the room is shit. Decided to have breakfast here, won't do that again tomorrow. Took a… you guessed it, Tuktuk ride. To an even bigger mall, bloody huge. Why? Cause there is an indoor playground there. Slides, trampolines, climbing things, rock walls, elevated obstacle course, a flying fox thing, games and all sorts of stuff for the rats. Probably felt like a few minutes to the kids but we were there for around 5 hours. Late lunch early dinner then back to the room. Pack a bit and some relax time before bed.
Kev
(The kids are having a break about writing for the blog for today: they'll be back next blog entry!)Læs mere