A Day in Phnom Penh: Royal Palace, Cyclo Ride, National Museum of Cambodia, Cooking Class, Orphanage Dance

Note: We're already back from our next trip (9 days in the UK), but I'm diligently working on finishing our Cambodia/Vietnam report! 

Good morning Phnom Penh, the sunrise over the Tonle Sap river looks good on you.

Monday, December 28 was a very busy day. We had a full morning of activities planned, and we'd also signed up for the optional afternoon activity—a cooking class at a restaurant in Phnom Penh. But we couldn't get started without a hearty breakfast! Other than the featured hot item, breakfast was the same each day. It looked a little something like this.

Cereals and fruit in syrup

Yogurt, muesli, and fresh fruit 

Traditional noodle soup with herb (and chili if you like) alongside fresh bread

Scrambled eggs, pancakes, syrup

Baked beans, grilled tomatoes, bacon, sausage 

The daily special, which today was omelets

Bread with toaster, butter, and various jams and spreads

Pastries, cold cuts, cheese

Fresh fruit juice (guava, mango, orange)

Our special holiday decoration

Cyclo Transportation in Phnom Penh

After a hearty breakfast, we disembarked to meet our transportation for the day—cyclos! While this used to be a traditional method of transportation, it's pretty much just the tourists that keep these folks employed now.

Ready to roll!

My driver clearly got the thumbs-up memo

View from a cyclo in traffic

The little white pull-up cane is the only method of braking

Some of the wheels were a bit crooked

Royal Palace

Our Uniworld guide gave us a tour of the royal palace. While the grounds and throne room were neat, the highlight for me was the silver pagoda, where we were not allowed to take pictures. Sorry! To enter the palace complex, knees and shoulders must be covered with shirt/pants/skirts—scarves around shoulders are not permitted. They sell a cheap t-shirt if you aren't dressed appropriately.

Viewable from outside the palace complex, this is the royal platform building where the king is coronated. Cambodia has a constitutional monarchy.

A monk walking outside the complex.

Palace cat 

Throne room 

The flag flying indicates the king is home.

A palm tree that only fans north-south to maximize sun exposure.

Monks ... with smart phones? 

A stuppa that marks the remains of a prior king

This relief, which is in a building right across from the silver pagoda, is being restored. It depicts hindu scenes. 

Another royal cat 

Palace selfie 

Panorama of the palace complex #1 

Second panorama of the palace complex

Another palace selfie

After the royal palace, we hopped back on our cyclos (shoutout to driver #77!) and went to the National Museum of Cambodia. We had a 45-minute guided tour that was quite interesting, but no photos were allowed. We had about 15 minutes of free time before the cyclo drivers came back to ferry us to the boat, so Aaron and I snuck out of the palace complex and walked down to another location of the Friends-sponsored restaurants, and purchased a Cambodian cookbook in the gift shop. Since getting home I've cooked exactly one recipe out of it, which included their beloved fish sauce, and it was absolutely delicious. We met back up with our group for our final cyclo ride that took us back to the pier, then boarded the boat for lunch and a short rest.

Lunch on the River Orchid

We had another delicious lunch. I tried to keep it light and went with salads and prawn pancake, a cold fruit soup, and of course desserts—today there was a sweet, warm dessert soup that included beans. It was not my favorite.

Khmer Cooking Class

Not long after lunch was finished, we were back on the bus with a subset of our group (about a dozen people) to head to the center of Phnom Penh and La Table Khmere—the restaurant hosting our cooking class. We were led into a very clean, professional demonstration kitchen and proceeded to prep and cook a three-course meal that, while definitely Khmer-influenced, wouldn't be much of a leap for the standard American's palette. 

Uh oh ... they're giving us knives.

Getting ready to get busy in the kitchen.

We actually started with dessert, which would be a banana tapioca. To start, we cooked the tapioca balls and pearls in boiling water until they softened.

Then we cooked the bananas and some sugar and coconut milk, and combined them. We drizzled a bit of coconut milk on top. This went into the refrigerator so it could set a bit.

 We then received the pleasant news that Uniworld had arranged for us to enjoy a beer between the cooking of each course, while the staff cleaned and prepped for us to make the next one. I started with a Kingdom pilsner.

 Next, it was time to make spring rolls. We prepped the vegetables and learned how to properly assemble and roll a spring roll.

 We were told to mark ours in a way that would make it stand out in the refrigerator. I'm quite proud of my handiwork. Aaron marked his with an "A."

 Time for another beer break! This time, I went for a Kingdom MAX, which is "insanely strong." In Cambodia that means slightly over 6% ABV.

 By this time Aaron had tried every beer on offer except one - Beer Lao. It's a lager from Laos, and absolutely the worst beer either of us have ever tasted. It was so bad we went around the restaurant offering it to our fellow travelers with the enticing introduction of, "This is quite possible the worst beer in the world—you must try it."

It was now time to cook the main course: Beef Loc Lac. This was quite a simple dish to make, but some of our travel companions were not used to cooking, so handling raw meet or slicing onions could have presented a challenge. For an experienced cook, this is something you could easily make for a mid-week dinner.

The beef was sliced into bite-size pieces and marinated in a mixture of black pepper, oyster sauce and incredibly exotic ingredients like ketchup and Knorr powder. ;)

Next, the dipping sauce was prepared. It included lime, juice, sugar, salt, black pepper, knorr powder, and water. Very simple, but it had a good tang.
Then we fried the onions and garlic in some vegetable oil, and cooked the beef, adding a little water to keep it from drying out.

 While the beef was cooking, we made a garnish of lettuce and tomato slices and fried and egg. Then, bango-presto, the dish was finished and assembled.

 We then sat down to enjoy this entire meal (which was far more than any of us needed to eat mid-afternoon, especially after a full lunch) along with rice provided by the restaurant. I must say, it was quite tasty...and my fresh spring roll creation has definitely improved.

We were sent home with the recipes in case we ever wanted to make them again ... looking at them as I type this, I think I may need to make this soon. There was a non-Uniworld traveler that joined our group, so if you're traveling to Phnom Penh and want to take an accessible yet authentic cooking class, check out La Table Khmere.

Dinner and Entertainment

Before dinner this evening, we were treated to a traditional Khmer dance performance by children of all ages from a local orphanage (we were given the opportunity to donate to support the orphanage during dinner). Before the performance, we enjoyed drinks and passed appetizers, which made me laugh because they were quite literally chicken nuggets with dipping sauce.

The performers ranged from 18 months to almost 18 years old, and put on a fantastic show that combined traditional folk dance with Michael Jackson impersonation. The lighting was not conducive to photos, but I did catch one video of the coconut dance.

Following the dance performance, the children left the ship and we were treated to yet another fantastic meal. For my starter, I chose P'Lear Sach Ko M'Tes Plaork, which is a Cambodian beef salad with a sweet and sour dipping sauce. The other starter choice was an "West meets the East salad," which definitely looked like a Caesar salad to me.

 For the soup course, I stuck with the traditional Cambodian dish and chose Samlar Chruok Krav Chhnaing Sach Ko, a beef broth with ginger, mushrooms, lemongrass, and an egg. The other soup on offer was a creamy carrot soup.

 As it's probably obvious by now, when given the chance between a regional dish and one that is more Americanized, I will chose the regional dish. My entree was Cari Moan, a Khmer style chicken curry with coconut milk, purple eggplants, long beans, and white rice. The other entree option was steamed snapper with vegetables and rice.

 Dessert didn't really offer a regional option (although I suppose you could argue that passion fruit cheesecake was local), so I went with the ice cream of the day. Unfortunately, I can't remember the flavors.

Stateroom Gifts

It had become normal to find some sort of local trinket in our stateroom after dinner. Tonight, we found two! There was a small box of local Kampot pepper, and a hand-made elephant pouch. When I opened it I found a page of English homework from one of the Cambodian schools we visited!

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