Day 2 First Day In Phnom Penh

We had the afternoon and evening to explore the city. We had read about the “Central Market” so we set off to find it.  It is said it looks like a custard pie, so we figured it wouldn’t be too hard to spot.  After a couple of miles walking, sure enough.  Huge with hundreds of vendors inside and out selling everything a local would want to buy.  Very interesting. 

Probably two-thirds of the vehicles on the road are “motos”, motorcycles that carry one to four people at any one time.  There is a national law that requires the driver to have a helmet; about half do. The cars are split between newer small cars and Lexus SUV’s!  Curious mix. Then you have a good number of tuk-tuks; or taxis.

 

Waiting at the stop light, yes, most of the time they do actually wait.

For dinner we headed out to look for a local restaurant using our standard criteria: has to have a few people already eating there, and a picture menu so that we can point to what looks good.  We found one a few blocks from the hotel and pointed at two stir-fry vegetable dishes.  The waitress took the menu to the cook (his kitchen was on the street!) and as they kept flipping the menu back and forth he finally decided to just cook one thing and put it onto two plates!  It was great over rice; a few bits of meat, we think it was beef.  The bill was 15,000 riel.  at 4,000 to a dollar, a good deal!