Central Market and The Palace

After a short trip from the Killing Fields, we then headed to the Central Market of Phnom Penh. This is the central hub for shopping really good quality and cheap souvenir items, such as different items made up of the Cambodian silk, keychains, Cambodian style shorts/pants, magnets, etc. It is basically a large oval building which is divided into different sections that converge towards the center where pieces of jewelry and ornaments are on sale. They have sections for clothes, wood crafts, gadgets, bags and similar goods, etc. They also have an area for the wet and dry markets, which are adjacent to the food stalls and the sections where class A imitations of branded items are on sale.

Central Market

We had our lunch here at the food stalls where we spent around 4 USD for a hearty and scrumptious lunch consisting of grilled spicy squid, Pad Thai, and cucumber salad. It was a good lunch, and if you're not the picky and posh traveler, the market is a great place for exploring local dishes.

And then we bought some simple sweets afterwards, which were priced at 4 USD per pack.

Caramelized donuts

We then headed towards the front of the Royal Palace. As we were already running out of time, we were only able to capture photos outside the gates.

The Royal Palace

The Royal Palace Gates

We then headed back to Mad Monkey as we had our van transfer to Vietnam booked for the afternoon. Read about our experience in crossing the boarder between Cambodia and Vietnam here.

Waiting for the van transfer