Phnom Penh isn’t a long flight from Seoul but it feels like another world. We left the chilly fall weather of Korea and the heat and humidity outside the Phnom Penh airport was definitely kind of a shock!
We took a taxi to Me Mates Place guesthouse, which I can’t say enough good things about. Everyone there is incredibly friendly, and the location was great – really close to Wat Phnom and a quick walk to the riverfront. But enough about that, on to the food!
One of the things I love most about Southeast Asia is the markets. The first thing we did when we woke up was head out to the Central Market. It’s housed in a really cool old building, but some of the stalls spill out onto the surrounding streets.
I craved tropical fruit pretty much the whole time we were in Korea, so I was really excited to be back in the land of cheap fresh pineapple! This lady perfectly carved a pineapple for us and it was sweet, juicy, and just what I was craving.
There were also fresh coconuts all over the place…
TONS of bananas,
all sorts of fishy products
and some pretty awesome looking sausages.
The pineapple wasn’t quite filling enough to make a complete breakfast, so we stopped for a steamed bun
that was filled with ground meat
I love that Cambodia has a mix of my favorite things from Vietnam and Thailand.
Like Vietnam, you can get fabulous sandwiches on chewy baguettes.
And like Thailand, there is plenty of noodle soup and curry!
Because Cambodia was occupied by France, there are some amazing old buildings, but a lot of them are abandoned
And it’s a Bhuddist country, there is no shortage of wats!
Wat Phnom is on a hill overlooking Phnom Penh. It’s definitely not the fanciest wat I’ve seen, but the setting is beautiful, and there are monkeys everywhere!
The area around the base of the hill is always full of families relaxing, children playing, and plenty of food vendors. This lady had a barbecue going as she walked!
We had a great day just walking around the city. I am really excited to see what the rest of this country is like too! We don’t have any definite plans other than visiting Angkor Wat and hitting up the beach in Sihuanoukville…so we’ll see how this unfolds!
That market is AMAZING! My daughter loves fresh pineapple!
Thanks for scoping it out for us!
that sandwich looked great – could you tell me what was in it? was it spicy pork? beef?
It was ground pork, but I wish I knew what was mixed in with it!