Phnom Penh - a city outside our comfort zone

Our arrival in Cambodia took us straight to the capital Phnom Penh after a night in the border town of Koh Kong. Our plan looked a little different: we planned to explore rural Cambodia by moped. However, in order to get somewhere where you can rent such a vehicle for three weeks, we had to rely on the long-distance bus. But, as befits a former French colony, he always goes to the capital first.

So it happened that we first devoted ourselves to the Royal Palace, the confluence of the Tonle Sap and the Mekong and the Zuol-Sleng memorial to the Khmer Rouge genocide against the Cambodian population before the big adventure on two wheels starts tomorrow.

By the second morning in Phnom Penh at the latest, we realized that we were moving outside of our comfort zone. The city is much less westernized than, for example, Bangkok. Although high-rise buildings are growing everywhere, life takes place exclusively on the ground and with so much crowding on the streets that traffic quickly overflows onto the footpath (if there is one) - at least when it is not used as a sales area serves.

This can be overwhelming for us, especially when we are actually just looking for breakfast and want to explore the surrounding area on foot. Apart from a few long noses like us, no one walks here anyway. Any journey is done by scooter or tuk tuk, even if it is only a few hundred meters.

When we come back to Phnom Penh in a few weeks to return our moped, we will try to find accommodation in a quieter area. Let's see if we can do that.

Robert