On the 12th of December morning, my friends and I arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Phnom Penh is the largest, most populous and capital city of Cambodia. Once known as the Pearl of Asia in the 1920s, this city is a significant global and domestic tourist destination in Cambodia.

We did not explore too much in Phnom Penh on our first day. For us,it was more of getting used to the climate and environment here. If you’ve never been to any developing countries before, you would be awed by the way the locals travel in their vehicles. At first, traffic appeared to be unusually disorderly, with vast number of motocycles cutting in and out of different lanes. But after awhile, you’ll be used to their mode of travelling here. Horns are sounded very often when car drivers behind need to warn the motorists in front, but there isn’t any need to worry about anything at all.

We were on our way to our guesthouse when we drove past this tuk-tuk. It is basically a carriage attached to a motocycle, and it is a common form of transport for big groups of people. In fact, the 6 of us would squeeze into such tuk-tuk to travel in the day during our second day here!

The more common form of transport for the locals would be by motorcycles. In Singapore, you only see at most 2 riders on one bike. Clearly, from the picture, you can comment that our fellow Singaporeans have under-utilised their motorcycles! It is not unusual to see 3-4 people travelling on a bike in Cambodia. The most number of people we’ve seen on one bike was 5, one being a newborn baby.  

The people here seem to be very skilled on motorbikes. Apart from transporting people, many of them use it to transport heavy goods as well. It was unfortunate that I didn’t get to capture more interesting shots of them transporting stuff like bananas and mattresses, but it is eye-opening to discover how they make the most out of everything they have!

After our lunch, we walked to the central market nearby. It is fairly big, and offers a lot of goods such as eyewear, hats, bags and clothes. Being a country that practises Buddhism, there are also a lot of Budda statues and paintings for sale. 

Directly above is a picture of the central market taken across the street. Although there isn’t any clear markings, what you see in front of the market is actually a big road for vehicles to travel. In Cambodia, you have to cross the road without traffic light or zebra crossing. As long as you dare to cross, the oncoming vehicles would slow down for you so as to notknock you down. Pretty cool?

This is what I’ve for today, I will probably write about the Killing Fields and S-21 prison camp in my next entry. Wait for it!!