I woke up at my usual 5:30-6:00am and made coffee to have on our incredible balcony overlooking the pool. We went down to breakfast by the pool at about 8am. To order breakfast, we were instructed to check off foods on a list. I chose fried egg and fried rice with toast and coffee. Jives ordered the same except he added fruit. It was a lot of food, but it was nice to see Jives have an appetite again. We headed out on a little wandering adventure in the area around our hotel at around 10am, mostly to find a store to buy a few items at: razors, umbrellas, a hat and some painkillers for the recovering fella. We found most of the items at a shop not too far away. We then headed towards the central market to find a hat, stopping at a temple we walked by called “Koh Pagoda”. The temple looked very run down, but beautiful. There was a man drying rice on the walkway. The colours of the temple were gorgeous and cheery. The main steps were sky blue and pale pink and many flags were draped around the main pagoda in every colour. We walked down the right side of the temple and a very cheery man greeted us and then saluted us! Another lady lying in a hammock greeted us with a hearty “hello!” 

We then walked down the road to the central market. The traffic around the market was hard to navigate, you really had to take a blind leap of faith and walk into traffic. The market was shaped like a sort of pinwheel. The very middle was full of jewellery shops, and each branch of the pinwheel had different shops grouped together ie. the hairdresser area, the shoes area etc… Jives got a Cambodia hat to protect him from the sun and we got him a Cambodia crest for his backpack. We then walked back to the hotel to have a swim. All day it had said 100% chance of rain, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t rain once, somehow we finally caught a rain break! We swam for an hour and then sat by the pool where we ordered a Cambodia beer with lots of ice. It was lovely! My phone told me it was 40 degrees celsius, so perfect for a pool day. 

After a good swim we set out to see the park with the Independence Monument.  As we were leaving to head out, there was a knock on our door, they were there to clean our room, excellent timing! We walked through Wat Botum Park and saw the Cambodia/Vietnam friendship monument. Then we crossed to  Neak Banh Tuek Park and walked along the shady side as the park was pretty much 100% sun. We saw the statue of King Norodom Sihanouk and then crossed the crazy roundabout to get a better look at the Independence Monument. After taking all the photos, we walked one block more to a craft brewery called “Botanico” .

We sat out back on the patio surrounded by plants and ponds. We ordered a three beer tested flight with an IPA, APA and a Pumpkin beer. I ordered falafel sliders and Jives got a pulled pork quesadilla. My sliders were so good, the garlic sauce on them was 10/10! We then ordered a full pint of beer. Jives got the stout and I got the Pumpkin beer. Both were very delicious! The total bill came to $26 which is the most we had spent on a meal in Cambodia, but we really hadn’t spent much at all (considering Jives had been so sick and unable to eat). We walked back to our hotel through the same parks, but this time the parks were full of people running, playing badminton and relaxing as the sun had come down and so had the temperature.

We stopped briefly at our hotel and set out to walk along the waterfront of the Tonle Sap, in the direction of the Night Market. The waterfront was bustling with people and the water was full of night time cruise boats covered in colourful lights and playing loud music. The mood was happy out there! Phnom Penh seems to come alive at night. The night market itself was kind of meh, a lot of clothing shops selling the same stuff. There were food booths but we were so full. Also they had a stage set up with live music. We walked back to the hotel along the waterfront, noticing a major bridge was lit up like the Cambodian flag, really cool! We sat briefly along the waterfront and watched the boats go by.