We have a lovely big balcony door in our room so it was nice to wake up to natural light for once! We had breakie in the bar downstairs and it was the best so far since arriving in SE Asia!
The Tuk Tuk driver who collected us yesterday from the bus station offered to take us around today to see all the main sights, at a price! He was a lovely guy and we decided to go with him as he is employed by the hostel and can speak good English! As we left we watched the neighbours shooing off monkeys from the roof! They were very cheeky looking!!
Our first stop was at the National Museum. The buildings are quite special here with fancy roofs and features! As we're tourists the price to do things and entrance fees are much higher than if we were a local so we didn't go in! We took the necessary pics and were amused by a boy selling water who had a brilliant London accent! We jumped in the Tuk Tuk and drove around the Independence monument which commemorates the country's independence from France. From there we went across town to the Central Market. The clothes were more western here but the rucksack is already bulging and the people selling are too annoying! We found some much needed bug spray and tried a coconut like they drink it here, peeling it and cutting a hole in the top to drink the juice, but we didn't like! After mooching around we went to find our Tuk Tuk! It was nice to just jump in our Tuk Tuk with all the other drivers around hassling you to go with them!
Next stop was Wat Phnom! We passed this yesterday and I was intrigued by the big elephant that was there! It is where the first pagoda was built in the town and is sat on top of the only hill in the town, and on the bank of the hill sits the largest clock in Cambodia! It is where many Cambodians meet during the day to socialise and visit the Pagoda. The elephant was beautiful but very bored! No one wanted to ride on her so she was just stood around! After mooching around we jumped back in the Tuk Tuk and he took us to a lake. Although the area was very poor, it was still lovely to sit and chill while having a drink. It was his family's guesthouse but it was a nice setting so we didn't mind. He was telling us about how the government are filling in areas of the lake to provide more room for development! After chatting for a while we went to one of the shopping centres in the city. We didn't see one in Ho Chi Minh and were intrigued to see what one would be like here, we also wanted to escape the heat for a bit! We had a mooch around and had a bit of lunch. It reminded me of an organised version of the central market that we had visited earlier! Not quite like our shopping centres at home, they sell tings in every inch of space available here!
From central market we went across to the royal palace to take pictures and along the water front. From there we went back to the hostel as we were both shattered. Neither of us felt 100% today and are wondering if it is because of the malaria tablets that we are taking as we have been quite tired recently. We had a healthy dinner downstairs and they even made us a fruit platter! We haven't got ill once while away and we want to maintain it!!