We've been in Phnom Penh for 36 hours now, and this city is beautiful. We've bargained at markets, walked along the river, eaten Khmer food, had beers on an outdoor patio, and taken a tuk-tuk tour of the city.
The city is a lot more organized and developed than I was expecting. Despite the tragedies that have occurred here, you can still feel a lot of culture, and a lot of French influence, especially in the architecture (and the carrots and potatoes in our Chinese noodles). The one exception is the traffic: there are traffic lights, but people seem to use them just as a suggestion. Cars don't stop for pedestrians, so you just have to launch yourself into the street and hope that the hundreds of motorcycles swerve around you, which they seem to be very good at doing.
We came to Phnom Penh with no real plan; we didn't have a hotel (they had canceled our reservation at the last minute) and apart from a few things we wanted to see, nothing was scheduled. It has turned out to be such a fun way to travel, because there is no pressure to see everything, and we've had space to make spontaneous plans and change the itinerary around a little. So today we are going to set out into the city and see what we find!
The city is a lot more organized and developed than I was expecting. Despite the tragedies that have occurred here, you can still feel a lot of culture, and a lot of French influence, especially in the architecture (and the carrots and potatoes in our Chinese noodles). The one exception is the traffic: there are traffic lights, but people seem to use them just as a suggestion. Cars don't stop for pedestrians, so you just have to launch yourself into the street and hope that the hundreds of motorcycles swerve around you, which they seem to be very good at doing.
We came to Phnom Penh with no real plan; we didn't have a hotel (they had canceled our reservation at the last minute) and apart from a few things we wanted to see, nothing was scheduled. It has turned out to be such a fun way to travel, because there is no pressure to see everything, and we've had space to make spontaneous plans and change the itinerary around a little. So today we are going to set out into the city and see what we find!
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