Cambodia Tours
Phnom Penh City Tour
Departure:
Daily
Pick-up time:
8.00 am
Drop-off time:
5.00 pm
Pick-up/drop-off
location: Your
accommodation in Phnom Penh
 Phnom
Penh city is situated at the
confluence of three great
rivers the “Four faces” of
the Mekong River, Tonle Sap
and Bassace Rivers, Phnom
Penh is Cambodia’s
commercial and political
hub. Phnom Penh offers
several cultural and
historical attraction
including the Royal Palace,
Silver Pagoda, National
Musem, Wat Phnom and Toul
Sleng Genocide Museum
Our city tour starts with a
visit the Tuol Sleng
Genocide Museum, the site is
a former high school which
was used as the Security
Prison 21 (S-21) by the
communist Khmer Rouge regime
from its rise to power in
1975 to its fall in 1979.
Then head to the famous
Royal Palace which was built
in 1866 under the French
protectorate and King
Norodom and the National
Museum, a treasure chest of
Angkorian and pre-Angkorian
artifacts. After the museum,
we will scale up the steps
of a small hill to see Wat
Phnom Temple, the birth
place of Phnom Penh. We will
spend the rest of day
shopping at the Central
Market and Toul Tompong
Market where you will feel a
bustling daily life of local
people with Cambodia’s
special character through
local specialties, their
houses, their faces, Palaces
and buildings of Khmer &
Colonial style architecture
The price is $75 (US
dollars) per person
Price inclusions:
Price exclusions:
-
Drinks, Tips
-
Personal expenses
Note:
Above rates are net rate
with English or Chinese
Speaking Guide only,
surcharge for other
languages will be applied
The Cambodia ’s commercial
and political hub. It is
also the gateway to the
temples of Angkor in the
west, the beaches of
Sihanoukville on the
southern coast and the hill
tribe minority in the
Northern Province .
Revitalized capital city
with temples and French
colonial architecture
blended with a cosmopolitan
restaurants, hotels, and
night life scenes.
The capital of Cambodia
dates back to an event in
the year 1327. It is said
that a rich widow named Don
Penh found a tree with 5
Buddhas in it. She thus
founded a pagoda, Wat Phnom
Don Penh, The Monastery on
the Hill of Lady Penh. In
1434 the city founded some
years earlier by King Ponhea
Yat was finished. In 1866 it
became the capital.
Following its recent
traumatic history, parks,
gardens and elegant villas
are now being restored,
tree-lined boulevards still
reflect the elegance of the
city's French colonial past,
and camera-clicking tourists
sit in pedicabs ("cyclos")
which weave their way
leisurely through the
increasing numbers of cars
and motorcycles. This
pleasant scene, coupled with
the current bustle of
optimistic commerce, belies
the chilling fact that the
city stood abandoned and
empty from 1975-1979 during
the forced evacuation by the
detested Khmer Rouge
Tuol Sleng Museum 
Originally built as a
secondary school named Tuol
Svay Prey High School in
1960, during the reign of
Preah Batnorodom Sihanouk.
The Khmer Rouge converted
this into a torture and
interrogation centre to
extract 'confessions' of
anti-government sentiment.
Many victims were women and
children incarcerated along
with the 'suspected' father.
Documents recovered indicate
that over 17,000 persons had
been imprisoned there
between1975 and 1978, only
seven of whom are known to
have survived. The others,
once the 'confession' had
been extracted under
torture, were transported to
Choeung Ek for execution.
Records show that the
highest figure was on 27 May
1978 , when 582 persons were
sent to their death. The
museum was established in
1979 after the Vietnamese
invasion, and the Khmer
Rouge's meticulous
photographic records of
their victims are exhibited
as tragic testimony to those
who suffered and died in
their hands.
Choeung Ek Execution
Area
15km southwest of the city
centre is one of the many
sites of Khmer Rouge mass
executions. The exhumed
skulls of some 8,000 souls,
arranged by sex and age, are
displayed behind glass
panels in the Memorial
Stupa, which was erected in
1988. Although some were
killed and buried at Toul
Sleng, most victims were
driven out to Choeung Ek at
night by truck. Some were
made to dig their own graves
before being clubbed to
death with any heavy
instrument available. In
addition to those exhumed,
another 43 pits have been
left undisturbed and the
final shocking total can
only be guessed. The
pleasant orchard setting
does little to dispel the
horror engendered by this
grim sight, as Choeung Ek is
just one of thousands of
recorded mass grave sites
throughout the country, and
is by no means, the largest.
On May 9th each year a
memorial service is
conducted at the stupa, in
memory of the estimated 1.7
million people who died
during the genocide.
Royal Palace &
Silver Pagoda
Built in 1866, the site
contains various buildings
of interest, including the
Khmer-style Throne Hall, now
used for special ceremonial
occasions. South of the
Throne Hall are the Royal
Treasury and the Villa of
Napoleon III, built in Egypt
in 1866, for the opening of
the Suez Canal , and was
later presented to the
Cambodian king as a gift.
The famous Silver Pagoda,
originally constructed of
wood in 1866, was expanded
in 1962 by King Sihanouk who
had the floor inlaid with
5,329 solid silver tiles,
hence its name. The most
revered image is the Emerald
Buddha, made of Baccarat
crystal and dating back to
the 17th century. Behind it,
another Buddha statue was
cast in 1906, utilizing 90
kg of gold, and decorated
with 9,584 diamonds.
Cabinets along the perimeter
contain gifts presented to
royalty and dignitaries.
Along the inside of the
recently restored 600-metre
external wall is a colorful
mural depicting scenes from
the Reamker, the Khmer
version of the Ramayana.
National Museum of
Arts
North of the palace grounds,
the building was designed in
Khmer-style, in 1920, by a
French architect, and
contains important artifacts
and sculptures from the
Angkor era and earlier.
Wat Ounalom
Built in 1443 to enshrine a
sacred hair of the Buddha,
and located north of the
National Museum of Arts,
this temple is considered
the seat of Cambodian
Buddhism. When the Khmer
Rouge evacuated Phnom Penh
in 1975, they vandalized the
building and murdered the
Abbot along with many of the
500 monks who lived there.
Wat Phnom
On a hill to the north of
the city, and restored or
reconstructed in 1434, 1806,
1894 and 1926, Wat Phnom is
a symbol of the capital city
Phnom Penh and regularly
used for prayer, small
offerings, and meditation.
Independence Monument
It commemorates the end of
French's rule over Cambodia
in 1953. The one hundred
nagas and motifs can be seen
in historic, cultural and
modern day. It is also used
to commemorate the souls of
fallen to combatants who
down their lives for the
country's freedom.
Oudong
Located to the north
approximately 40km from
Phnom Penh , and located on
a hill overlooking vast
plains, this site is famous
for cultural patrimonies and
used to be a capital city
between 1618-1866.
Phnom Tamao Zoo
This recently opened zoo and
wildlife rescue centre, 40km
outside the city, was set up
to preserve and rescue rare
and endangered local
wildlife including tiger,
lion, deer, bear, peacock,
heron, crocodile and turtle.
Eighty hectares of the total
area have been established
as a national zoo and up to
1,200 hectares have been
reserved for its future
extension and development.
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