We arrived in Phnom Penh in the early afternoon and took a short walking tour through a local market and continued on to the Wat Phnom Temple. Some of us headed back early as the temperatures reached in the high nineties – it felt at least a hundred degrees! Time to cool off a little in the pool on board the ship as we had the entire next day in the countries capital.
That night we took a Tuk-Tuk to the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) for dinner. The FCC (as it is known to locals) was the meeting place for journalists and expats during the Cambodia conflict and many of the pictures in the restaurant document that history.
The next day we took a motor coach tour of Phnom Penh which included the Royal Palace, the spectacular silver Pagoda and the National Museum. The king was not in residence but the buildings and the history were amazing. During the Pol Pot regime the king was under house arrest at the Palace and many of his family members were killed. Eventually he fled to China and returned after the end of the Pol Pot regime.