Phnom Penh: Dirty, Dangerous and Depressing

Great read guys, we felt the exact same way about Phnom Penh, one night is enough. Thanks for the advice. 🙂 Pity about the experience ye had with the guide, it’s a shame to see people act like that as it’s just off putting – especially when ye had planned to give her a tip anyway!

I have been there once and was not impressed. I really like Siem Reap and Cambodians in general are quite nice. But, I did not like PP. I want to go back, but only to go to the Killing Fields and S-21.

I’m curious how long you stayed in Sihanoukville. We stayed a total of a month in Cambodia with almost 3 weeks at the beach. After a couple of weeks and befriending a few expat British and locals, it became apparent that corruption was the norm in the local police, organized crime has a hold at the port and prostitution of under age girls rampant at the “chicken farm” (a dirt road, on the way to a karaoke bar, line with sheds full of young girls on display). During that same time there was a shooting at a beach bar on the most popular beach where someone took the security guard’s gun and shot him. At first the small town is charming and relaxing but stay long enough and it’s no better than PP.

I found PP heartbreaking not because of the things you describe ( I didn’t find it particularly bad to be honest – we were staying near the Royal Palace) but because of the young mums selling fruit and veg on the street at night whilst their children slept on benches or the ground nearby. Tragic! The killing fields are a must see and leave you despairing for the capacity of man to hurt. Beware the scams in Tonle Sap also

I think in cities like this it’s all about where you stay… if you ever go back (or anyone looking for a recommendation), I stayed at Eighty8 backpackers and this made it a great experience, friendly staff especially the owner who’s a Scottish guy, great food and felt really safe there. They also helped me arrange a tuk tuk for the day, guide etc, so I avoided any negative experiences even if it meant I may have paid a few more $$$. They also arranged my buses down to Sihanoukville and I stayed here again back en route to Siem Reap. https://www.88backpackers.com/

I have lived in Phnom Penh for over 17 years and yes, your contributors are right, it can be disappointing, although equally if you are lucky there are good experiences to be found. “Lucky” is the key – it should not be a matter of luck for visitors to enjoy their stay; their money is very much needed, especially where it does trickle down to benefit the poor, unlike most tourist revenue. Cambodia’s tourist industry, led by the ministry, are always very quick when Cambodia receives accolades, most to do with Angkor Wat. The same people should pay serious attention to these constructive criticisms. Meanwhile I would recommend visitors to go beyond the three tourist centres of Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, and Phnom Penh. You will have a quite different experience in places like Mondulkiri – http://anorthumbrianabroad.blogspot.com/2015/03/more-to-cambodian-culture-than-angkor.html#more

… but still pretty amazing!

We felt the complete opposite in Phnom Penh, we were happy to walk around at any time of night or day and never felt in any danger…Sihanoukville was a much different story though! Although that’s besides the point as there really isn’t actually much to do in PP anyway…apart from eat Mexican at Cocina Cartel.

Cambodia and the killing fields is one of the things I can remember from social studies in about the 7th grade. When Time magazine came out with the pictures I think the world was shocked. There is a very interesting book about Cambodia, “Cambodia’s Curse” by Joel Brinkley. It explains a lot about the country and provides some insights into what you see when you are there.

We are here right now and want to leave so badly, in two days this is a list of things we saw.
1. Middle aged sex tourists everywhere, with girls of an extremely questionable age. Our first hotel (which we left) had an overweight European man with a sex worker. Myself and my girlfriend were disgusted by the noises we hear him making to the point where I got up and banged on his door violently for him to be quiet. Hotels name: grand water front hotel.

2. Got the worst case of food poisoning ever, violent expulsion from both ends. Hallucinations and fever, my girlfriend had never seen me like that. She asked our new hotel to take us to the hospital, they replied “ma’am hospital no good, pharmacy and medicine with rest safe.

3. Naked, poverty stricken kids sleeping in a pack of 7 with one girl standing on her own past midnight crying. Wrenched my heart so bad I gave her 5 US dollars. Straight away women came out of the darkness with their hands out for more, some of the boys still awake were searching aimlessly through rubbish looking for food.

4. The worst thing that happened was when we were going down a street at around 25km h our tuk tuk ran over a five year old girl. Myself and my girlfriend were so distressed by the situation we thought she died. When I jumped off the tuk tuk the driver panicked and wanted to leave the scene with angry people coming his way. I saw her get to her feet, badly bruised but I needed to check for peace of mind. The tuk tuk driver told me later they would have killed him if he stopped and I apologised for jumping out but she had to be checked on. It was not his fault the girl darted across the busy road so quickly we weren’t mad at him.
Since that we have not left our hotel and are waiting for me to recover in our new hotel from getting such bad food poisoning, this is the worst place I’ve ever been in my life. And I have been to the poorest countries in South america and pretty much all of Asia. I’m telling you, it’s horrible here.

I actually had a good experience with Siem Reap. I liked the town and it felt chilled out. Phnom Penh was a different story. I just felt so overwhelmed by it. It was noisy and dirty and just unpleasant – I agree with you on what you’ve said. I had a friend there who was a teacher and I stayed with him and thanks to him I had a chance to get to know the expat life there. It reminded me of the soldiers from Apocalypse Now – it seemed that they didn’t do anything but take drugs and hang out at dodgy places. Terrible!
However, I had a wonderful tuk tuk driver that I hired for a day. Two of my friends had met him a year before and recommended him to me. Thanks to him my trip to Killing Fields and the Museum was great.

Well, I got back from a trip to Cambodia in late 2017. It was my second visit, and to be honest, I was more horrified this time then last.

Perhaps the first time I had been, in my mid twenties, everything was exotic and exciting and it was a different time of my life. This time round I was experimenting as a digital nomad, moving between Thailand, Cambodia and Hong Kong. When you are actually experimenting living in somewhere, your criteria is very different. I found Phnom Penh to be a human hell hole.

Open sewers, terrible air quality, stark poverty, begging, bad quality food – I got bad food poisoning and was weakened – and just in general a terrible place to live. Nothing but dirt roads, insufferable heats, and a couple of shopping malls.

It was only for the French who originally put some nice buildings in that it retains a modicum of charm.

Otherwise its a backwater. I will say however that Cambodian people are very friendly and charming. I never had any problems with pickpockets or muggings – although undoubtedly they happen often.

wow I couldn’t agree more, I was looking at different blogs for inspiration and ran into yours and I was surprised by how similar my experience in Phom Phen was. Siem Reap was awesome though and I definitely want to go back.

When it comes to Phon Phem, maybe I’ll give it another try in 3 or 4 years, maybe things will be better by then.