Phnom Penh

So good they made it unspellable. It is more of a town then a capital city. There is a taste of the French colonial about the riverside where many of the hotels are. You can wile away the time sipping cocktails in open air bars sitting in big wicker chairs, although the constant stream of sellers and beggars (particularly victims of land mines that litter this country as well as the victims of this country's brutal past) make it impossible to be completely comfortable.

The city is littered with examples of old colonial buildings fallen into disrepair but surrounding them is a hodge-podge of pagodas, markets, shops and apartments. Considering we were not up to visiting the harrowing killing fields and the torture palace from the Khmer Rouge days it didn't leave that much to see in Phnom Penh, a couple of Wats (temples), the Royal Palace and the not so silver silver pagoda so with the clock ticking we boarded a "local" bus to Battambang.