FCC Phnom Penh

Activities

By Day:

• Explore the sights of historic Phnom Penh. The National Museum with its Angkor-era treasures is just behind, the gold-roofed Royal Palace, with its Throne Room, Silver Pagoda and 17th-century emerald Buddha, a little to the right. The Central Market with its billion cheap knockoff goods is not far away. A million tuk-tuk and motorcycle drivers are eager to take you anywhere you want to go
  
  
• Pay your respects at S-21, also known as Tuol Sleng. This erstwhile high school has a bloody past as the prison where the Khmer Rouge tortured many of its inmates before sending those who survived to their death in the Killing Fields. It’s not a happy place, but it is an important one, and it survives pretty much as it was 30 years ago
  
  
• Take a tuk-tuk to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. Just 14km southwest of the town, this was the final resting place of S-21’s prisoners. 17,000 people died here and you'll see mass graves plus a memorial tower filled with skulls. It's a shocking reminder of Pol-Pot's regime and well worth going to
  
  
• Wander around the old town, peer up at the tenements and crumbling colonial mansions, watch fish die in the markets, or have a leisurely drink by the riverfront in any one of 100 restaurants and cafes
  
  
• Have a ‘seeing hands’ massage by blind masseurs, in one of the many places nearby
  
  
• Shop for things you should, like ‘ethically’ produced fabrics and Angkor sandstone reproductions, from nearby shops like Sentosa Silk and the National Museum
  
  
• Shop for things you shouldn’t, from Valium and Viagra to the stolen intellectual property of starving artists like Phil Collins or Jerry Bruckheimer

• Meet people you should, like the clean-limbed independent travellers who throng the bars and restaurants along the river and beyond
  
  
• Meet people you shouldn’t. For nightlife, the legendary Martini bar has moved to a distant part of town (about $2 on a motorbike), but in the murk under the sprawling trees unmentionable unions are still being formed, pool is being played with a vengeance, and ghostly blockbusters play on the dark projection screen. Gangsters still haunt Heart of Darkness ($1 on a motorbike), so by all means dance the night away to the ear-splitting R&B pop, but do move over if a local gentleman lodges a claim to your chair
  
  
• Let the driver decide: he’ll overcharge a little, but he won’t cheat you

• You'll most likely be heading onwards to Siem Reap for the wondrous Angkor Wat; if staying over for a couple of nights, try their sister property FCC Angkor