Walking tour: Phnom Penh International Airport to Cambodia Central Post Office

- July 14, 2019

Phnom Penh Post Office

Route: Phnom Penh International Airport to Cambodia Central Post Office

Tour date: 26 June 2019

Mode: Walking tour

Distance: >10 kilometres

Duration: three hours (8:30am – 11:30am)
Fare: Free
Difficulty: Unpaved pedestrian strips, lack of shades (trees) along the road, air and noise pollution
Highlight: experience Cambodia street life, taste street food, see people around the area, photo of buildings and streets

On 26 June 2019, I stepped on Cambodian soil the first time. I arrived at Phnom Penh International Airport (PPIA) at 7:52am. The heat can be felt this early hour. But the airport looks cool and new.

Phnom Penh City Centre

Because of the successful walking tour in Malacca, I got the courage to explore this new city. My target is to tour around by walking from the Airport to the central post office of Cambodia. I will buy post card there and send them to mom in the UK and to my sister in the US

There is no free internet connection at the airport. This should help me to search my destination faster. But thanks to GPS, my cellphone was able to trace my location using Google map and Mapsme alternatively even without internet connection. The map shows me a distance of 9.7 kms but along the way, the distance travelled increased because I had to enter the marketplaces and stop at landmarks like the ones at the pictures. At the end of the journey, Google map calculated that I walked around 12 kms. and that was for less than 3 hours.

In this journey, my route was from the west going northeast. I passed by these roads: Russian Federation Boulevard – Preah Ang Dong St. – Preah Ang Yukanthor St. – Preah Ang Non St. – Preah Ang Eng St. I started at 8:30am.

Old Steam Engine train

Most of the government buildings and higher education institutions are along Russian Federation Blvd. I saw around 3 educational institutions, the central government buildings, hospital, and other establishments.

Some observations in Phnom Penh:

· Motorcycles flood the streets; they can run even on sidewalks.

· Parking on sidewalks that sacrifice pedestrians occupies the entire edge of the road in some parts.

· Altars to place offerings are seen in front of buildings and beside trees

· Dilapidated streets and tiles walkways are anywhere

· Busy market in the morning with lots of vegetables, fruits, variety of fish - pork and pork products are plenty

· Pictures of the king and queen can be seen anywhere especially on intersections and major thoroughfares

· Tuk tuk driver would invite a ride while you are walking but you can politely decline

· There are a lot of street food and drink vendors: bennek, sugarcane juice, bottled water, caffeine in can, fruit juice in bottle, fruits (guava, mango, etc.) with spiced salt, dried squid roasted, banana toasted, coconut juice in its shell, etc.

· People with brown colour, height, facial features, nose, hair colour, etc. They share the same features with the typical Filipinos, Indonesians, Malaysians, Laotians and some parts of Myanmar

· There are some foreigners especially the whites, Swede and Brazilian met, whites jogging and bicycling

· There are people offering lotus flowers to the Buddha statue in a small temple

· Plenty of children and youth playing along the streets and parks

· Pollution from cars and other vehicles

· Lack of trees and shades along the roads and in the parks

· Poverty is felt and the gap between the rich and the poor is evident

· Smiling people like Filipinos are plenty

Some notable places seen are:

· Phnom Penh International Airport (PPIA)

· Civil Aviation Training Center

This marker is usually seen around Cambodia

· University of Cambodia

· Royal Phnom Penh Hospital

· Royal University of Phnom Penh

· Institute of Technology Cambodia

· Government offices and buildings

· Phnom Penh Railway Station

· Two Deer Park and Gardens

· The Dragon Building called Vattanac Capital Tower

· The Phnom Penh Post Office

I bought sugarcane juice that gave energy to my dwindling power to walk. It was relatively hard to walk along many of Cambodian street as they can be congested due to traffic. This is understood because there are some roads that were being fixed and there were some buildings being built. I was able to reach Cambodian Central Post Office at 11:30am.

Street view

Some stuff bought along the streets

Items	Price
Mango (2 pcs)	3k riel
Bottled water (500ml)	1k
Duck egg (1 pc)	1.5k
Coconut juice (1 pc)	4k
Postcard and mailing	20k
Banana toasted (1 cue)	3k
Some charity	---

I was able to hit my targets: walking tour, see people from pedestrian view, taste some street food, and mail postcards to my love ones. Did I ever feel tired? No. I did not feel exhausted nor tired that I could no longer walk. In fact, I felt like there was a curiosity of a child in me. I tend to be more curious as I see places along the way.

I got ready to savor the whole day at the Tonle Sap Riverside and where it meets Mekong River. You should remember that Mekong River is the longest river in this region. Looking at the map, it starts from the northern mountains of Laos then passes through the Thailand-Laos-Cambodia-Vietnam borders and it empties its waters at the southwest side of South China Sea.