Tag Archives: Phnom Penh

Bicycle Touring

Day 52: Tuol Sleng

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no cycling,  at least it is not worth to mention as it was.

As I already cycled over 2000 km and I don’t have a chain tool on me, I decided to change my chain as it’s sometimes recommended after that many kilometers on not the nicest roads. Therefore I went to the bicycle shop of the brand Specialize. I already had a new chain on me,  I bought it in Kathmandu. They replaced it for free😀 It was 2 km away.

Next task on the list was organizing a ticket to get down to the beach. My idea was to get the train. The alternative was the bus,  but I wanted to take the train. Sadly I forgot one problem. No it was not the bicycle,  the train was already full for tomorrow…​ So I had to get a bus ticket…​

After all the non touristic tasks I got to my touristic part of today: visiting Tuol Sleng Museum. It was the prison where people were  tortured during the time of the Khmer Rouge, before they were send to the killing fields (which I visited yesterday)  to be executed. Again really great to visit this sad place. I got an audio guide and listened to everything there was to learn everything about the time of the Khmer Rouge. 

For lunch I went to the russian marked again to get noodles as it was close by the museum. 

After the museum it was 15 o’clock. I was told that my passport with the Vietnamese visa would be ready at 16 o’clock, but I went there anyway,  as I had nothing to do anymore. My passport was ready with the approved visa😀

On the way to the Vietnamese embassy I saw this kids paradise 😍 I checked it out,  the whole tower was full of activities for kids like climbing,  laser tag,  bumper cars,… Sadly the maximum age was 12 years…​ (Yeah that is my finder in the lens…)

I was lazy and took a tuk tuk back to the hostel

As I was so interested in the story of the Khmer Rouge, I watched a documentary over this topic as the audio guides only explained what happened at the places I was at but not how it really started and ended.

For the rest of the evening i was just chilling in the roof top bar and packing/preparing my stuff for tomorrow as I leave in the morning at 8:30 for the bus.

So that’s also what I will be doing tomorrow,  taking the bus to get down to the beach,  where I will get a ferry to get to an island where I met up again with Soraya and Andreas😀

Somewhere in the city I saw this commercial,  where I thought: “Photoshop makes every commercial better”

Bicycle Touring

Day 51: Killing Fields

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no cycling

Today I met up with Mila from Germany and we took  a tuk tuk together to get to Choeung Ek Memorial also know as the killing fields. It’s one of the many killing fields of the Khmer Rouge, where they executed people who didn’t follow or didn’t seem to follow the regime of Pol Pot,  the leader of the Khmer Rouge. We got an audio guide and listened to all the stories they provided. It took us like 2 hours. They build a memorial stupa where they placed skulls there. It’s an interesting and sad story. I can only recommend it.


After the tour we went to the Russian market to grab some noodles. Then we separated. I went to the Vietnamese embassy to get my visa. As always I was coming unprepared and forgot to take my passport pictures with me…​ So back to the hostel and try again to get a visa. Just filled out the form, added the photo, went to the counter,  handed in the form, the picture, my passport and the money. As I am not in a hurry I didn’t took the 1 hour express service (10$) but the 24 hours standard service. So currently they have my passport.

After that I went to the train station to get information about how to get down to the beach by train. Sadly the station was already closed but I got a sheet of paper with the information. I went to the central marked.



From there I went chilling on a bank next to the river.




Now Joshua and I will go to the cinema watching “Passengers”.

Tomorrow I will try to find a shop to replace my chain,  get a train ticket,  go to S-21 (the prison, where people were kept and tortured during the time of Khmer Rouge) and get my passport back with the visa inside hopefully😊

Bicycle Touring

Day 50: visiting and other stuff

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no cycling

This post is one day too late as I didn’t have time yesterday evening to write it.

I had plans of going to some places but I met up with a Joshua from Korea and we changed our plans. We visited a temple and the royal palace. Along the way we met many people,  during breakfast or at the royal palace. Joshua really likes to talk to everybody,  it’s really fun😂

yeah at this temple you could buy some birds for whatever reason. 2 birds for 1 $

Arrived at the area of the palace

In the evening we met Soraya and Andreas again which we met at breakfast and we spend the whole evening together with eating in the streets and having some drinks in a bar.

They started to do some dancing/gym at the place we were sitting. The later it got the more people joined and they did it for more than 3 hours.

Eventually Joshua went away to do a call and when he came back he had a little surprise for me as it was kind of my special day😀 Some german cake (he was in Germany before he came to Phnom Penh), some and some candles. 

Awesome I didn’t expect it and it was amazing. Thanks to all of them for that great day and evening😀

Bicycle Touring

Day 49: Phnom Penh

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Distance: 40,37 km Time: 2:13 Total distance: 2167 km

I woke up really early as the first motorbike started at 6 o’clock in front of my door and my earplugs went out during the night. Around 7 I got up myself,  took a quick breakfast and went on my way to Kampong Cham, the next city, which was just 30 km away.

As it was only 30 km and I started early,  I arrived early there around 9:30. So I chilled a little bit on the nice walk they have in the cities and villages along the Mekong

After some cycling through the city to see something (nothing special). I went to a place where they actually had a coffee machine and I took a real coffee for the first time since I arrived in Cambodia. As I already saw the city,  I decided to move on to Phnom Penh. I also wasn’t in the mood to cycle anymore,  so I decided to take the boat to get there. By asking in the cafe I was in,  they laughed at me and told me that there were no boats for years I had to take the bus. So I went to the bus station. Arrived there I was lucky, the last bus today left 10 minutes after I came, it was 12 o’clock. Quickly got a ticket for me and my bicycle for 10$. And waited…​ I was told it was Cambodian time,  so no one knows when it is coming😂 With a delay of just 30 minutes the bus came. After 3 attempts of getting my bicycle in, we finally got it in. I just had to take off the front wheel. My luggage was thrown on top of some bananas in the luggage room😂

After 1,5 hours of driving,  there was a break for lunch. There were two pots of spiders☺️ (yep alive). No I ate fried rice,  these weren’t served for eating,  I don’t know why they were there.

After another 1,5 hours of riding,  we arrived in Phnom Penh. The driver helped me putting my bike back together and I looked for the hostel Justin was in. I am really tired now and just grabbed some food will take a little walk to the Mekong river and probably go back to the hostel.

Tomorrow I will visit Phnom Penh,  I have to check what there is to see here. Also I want to get my visa for Vietnam and check out the possibilities on how to get down to the beach by train😀

And I added the video to yesterday’s post.