Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(admission temple/museum US$1/2; temple 7am-6.30pm, museum 7am-6pm)
Wat Phnom, mean-
ing Hill Temple, is appropriately set on the only hill (more like a mound at 27m) in Ph-
nom Penh. The wat is revered by locals, who flock here to pray for good luck. Legend has
it that in 1373 the first temple was built by a lady named Penh to house four Buddha
statues that she found floating in the Mekong. A statue of a smiling and rather plump
Lady Penh is in a pavilion behind the
vihara
(temple sanctuary).
Wat Ounalom
BUDDHIST TEMPLE
(Sothearos Blvd; 6am-6pm)
This wat is the headquarters of Cambodian Buddhism. It
received a battering during the Pol Pot era, but today the wat has come back to life. Be-
hind the main building is a stupa containing an eyebrow hair of Buddha with an inscrip-
tion in Pali (an ancient Indian language) over the entrance.
Independence Monument
(cnr Norodom & Sihanouk Blvds)
Soaring over the city's largest roundabout is the grand
Independence Monument, built in 1958 to commemorate Cambodia's 1953 independence
from France and now also a memorial to Cambodia's war dead. Modelled on the central
tower of Angkor Wat, it was designed by leading Khmer architect Vann Molyvann.
MONUMENT
STREET NUMBERS
Phnom Penh's sequentially numbered streets may be a paragon of logic, but when it comes to house
numbering, utter chaos reigns. It's not uncommon to find a row of adjacent buildings numbered, say,
13A, 34, 7, 26. Worse, several buildings on the same street, blocks apart, may have adopted the same
house number! When you're given an address, try to get a cross-street, such as 'on St 240 near St 51'.
Activities
Don't miss the quirky and colourful
aer-obics
sessions that take place in parks around the
city at dawn and again at dusk. The riverfront opposite Blue Pumpkin and Olympic Stadi-
um are two good places to jump in and join the fun.
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