Ever since Seth and I moved to Southeast Asia last year, we have been frothing at the prospect of a spontaneous out-of-country trip. The countries are so small and so different here, so it would be great to go experience one over a weekend, wouldn’t it? (Even if we’ve been there before). That’s why, when the tattoo artist I found last year in China told us she had moved to Cambodia, and Seth was ready to get inked, we thought, “OK — let’s do it!” So we booked our flights a few weeks out and got our Cambodian e-visas, then last weekend hopped a plane to Phnom Penh, the capital.

Five years ago, during our round of Southeast Asia (plus Japan and Nepal), we did make it to Siem Reap, the most touristy part of the country — and rightly so — due to the presence of Angkor Wat and the surrounding complexes. But this was our first time in Phnom Penh, which a lot of guides recommend you check out first because it gives you a bit more context about the temples. Obviously, we didn’t do that, but just as an FYI.

We breezed through immigration and grabbed our luggage, then hopped a tuktuk for $13 to our hotel just outside the city center. The hotel was in a newly developing area of the city from Chinese money, something we would gradually recognize as a theme in the new Cambodia since we were last there. We grabbed dinner at a nearby noodle and rice spot, where we were serenaded by a very charming 8-year-old.

After crashing and sleeping on our surprisingly comfortable hotel bed for $27 per night, we woke up with an itinerary and ready to explore. Our first stop on Saturday morning was an uplifting tour of the killing fields and the genocide museum in Phnom Penh. It was a very heavy few hours, and I decided to dedicate an entire blog post to that one which I highly recommend you go check out. It’s difficult stuff, but it’s important for us to remember and tell others.

After a depressing morning, we ate a very somber lunch before checking out the National Museum. It’s a beautiful place, with over 14,000 objects from Khmer history. Many of the objects were brought from the temple complexes in Siem Reap.

Day 2: Tats

In the morning, our favorite person in Southeast Asia came to Phnom Penh to meet up with us for the day!

Together, we toured the Russian market, named after the large group of Russians who used to live in that part of the city. Compared to other Asian markets I’ve seen, you could say it’s a bit more organized and clean. We got some nice peppercorns and a sketchbook for my sketching whims.

The majority of day 2 was spent at the tattoo parlor on Basaac Lane, a cool road with trendy expat bars. This worked out fine since there was a downpour. Seth got a tiger and a tattoo on his back: the tiger represented Gwangju where we lived in Korea, and the dragon represented China. Our Chinese tutor later told us that in Chinese culture, they represent a balance of power like yin and yang. The tattoos came out beautifully, and Tongen the tattoo artist was amazing as always. 

Patti and I also took a break for lunch at the nearby Eleven-One Kitchen, a 99% plastic-free restaurant with the best avocado spring rolls and coconut cream coffee shakes. I don’t have pictures because I was too busy snarfing down my shake and fried noodles. I regret nothing — except maybe not taking very many pictures. When it’s raining, I find I am not as much in the mood to pull out the old smartphone. The good news is that Cambodian tuktuks are well-prepared with zip-down sides for the rainy season!

Day 3: Will travel for food

Before it was my turn for a tattoo, on Saturday we grabbed lunch with Tongen at an incredible Japanese sushi rooftop bar called Mikawa. Phnom Penh boasts international cuisine from French to Japanese to Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, and even Mexican.

We were trying to save room in our bellies for our street food plans in the evening, but could not resist the spicy salted edamame, the tako yaki (octopus balls) or the mackerel and salmon nigiri. We also got to spend some time at a cat cafe near the National Museum, which was fantastic.

In the evening, we followed this Mark Wiens video through on our own little food tour through Central Market and ate the crab noodle soup he found called bon priu, as well as the squid and the meat sandwiches he found. It was all so delicious. I was really glad we followed his advice; we’ve never done anything like that before, but it was really helpful to watch him first. This way, we knew what to ask for, and then how to eat it when it was ready!

We actually showed a few of the cooks the video where they were featured, and they were totally unimpressed — or they had been shown this video a million times already.

Day 4: Tuktuk Tours

For our last day in Phnom Penh, we found a tuktuk driver named Owen who spoke excellent English to drive us around the city and show us some of the historical temples and sites. Most of the touristy sites in Phnom Penh had to be reconstructed after the Khmer Rouge, so a lot of the temples seem extremely new. Our first stop was Wat Ounalom Monastery, the center of Cambodian Buddhism and the most important temple in Phnom Penh. I later found out that a stupa there is said to hold an eyebrow lash of the Buddha! Pretty exciting. The complex was quite ornate and beautiful, like many things in Cambodia.

Next we stopped at Wat Phnom, the temple after which Phnom Penh was named. Owen explained to us that in Khmer, Phnom means “hill” — which makes sense, since the temple is on a hill (and wat = temple). And Penh is the name of the wealthy woman who built the temple for the Buddha. So literally, Phnom Penh means “the Hill of the Lady Penh.” 

The next stop was Wat Sampov Treileak, a temple that looks like a boat! Historically, if Cambodians had bad luck, they would go to the monks and build a small boat, put some offerings in it, and float it down the river. This practice is not really done anymore, but according to Owen, that’s why this temple is in the shape of a boat! 

Our fourth temple stop was the Monkey Temple, although unfortunately I’m not sure what the name of it was. It’s known as the monkey temple because there are usually lots of monkeys there! On this day, they were all sleeping in a tree, apparently not super interested in humans at that point since they had already seen plenty that day, which is where they usually get their food. They were well-fed monkeys. The temple is actually the site of a cemetery for the rich families of Cambodia. In the Buddhist tradition, this means housing your family’s ashes together in a stupa. So there were many gorgeous and ornate stupas. 

Finally, we came to the Golden Temple a.k.a. Wat Kean Kleang, which was definitely a highlight of the day. Angry golden statues on each side of the staircase hold a golden Naga to greet you, and after you go up the staircase there are little houses for alters to Buddha. On the inside are huge, bright, colorful murals depicting the Buddha’s life. This, along with the other temples, was active, so to go inside you must take off your shoes and be respectful to those coming to practice their religion.

For our last stop before leaving Phnom Penh, Owen took us on the ferry (tuktuk and all) to Silk Island, where communities farm the cocoons of silk worms and make them into silk before hand-weaving them on 19th-century looms. Obviously, I bought some scarves made of 100% silk. We also got to watch the process and see how the silk is made from the cocoons, as well as the life cycle of the silk worms. The Silk Island community was a weird place. On one hand, it was really cool because of the silk-making process and about 20 looms, but on the other, it also housed two large crocodiles, some peacocks, and a very large lizard. So it was like a silk community that also wanted to be a zoo. Also extra random: there were houses where, it was explained to us, “boyfriend and girlfriend can stay for free for 30 or 60 minutes.” Literal love shacks. So it was a silk production community…. And a zoo… and a love shack center. What?? Maybe the owner was just a super lib dude who wanted to encourage the propagation of his fellow people. 

My overall impression of Phnom Penh is that it is a beautiful and complicated place. 39 years after the Khmer Rouge ruined everything, people are trying to put their country back together. It doesn’t help that the current government is relatively corrupt and does not do a great job of lifting its people out of poverty. Hospitals are extremely expensive, partly because most doctors were either killed or fled as refugees during that time. Those who want a quality education often leave the country for it. An easy, fast way to bring in money is to use what they have: natural and historical resources, which means tourist dollars and land development. So there are a ton of Western tourists that come in and trod all over their national treasures (in Siem Reap, when we went 5 years ago, there were almost no sections of temples roped off to prevent erosion). Farmers are also selling off their land to Chinese developers, who will pay them nicely for it. Almost every sign in Phnom Penh was accompanied by English and Chinese writing. The hotel where we stayed, owned by Chinese developers, had employees working there who spoke better Mandarin than English. (Imagine my surprise when I realized that Mandarin was my common tongue with a Cambodian woman!) It’s a mixed bag: on one hand, the country is being exploited, but on the other hand, what else are the people to do? I don’t have an answer. 

In an effort to not leave this post in a bummer, I will say that we really enjoyed Phnom Penh. We experienced true warmth from the Cambodian people and loved the beautiful the countryside and culture we got to see. I’m so glad we went, and take my memories of Phnom Penh with me now wherever I go.