Explore the best of Phnom Penh on a 2-day tour. Visit the Royal Palace, Genocidal Museum, and Killing Field. See the Buddha Kiri and Phnom Tamao Zoological Park.
On day 1, get picked up from your hotel and transfer to visit the Royal Palace, home to the Cambodian royal family and a symbol of the nation. Admire the beautiful royal gardens, landscaped with tropical plants and studded with gleaming spires.
See the Throne Hall where the royal receptions are held and the Cambodian king's coronation took place. Visit the Silver Pagoda, named after the 5000 silver tiles covering the floor, each weighing 1kg. Inside are some of the country's most cherished treasures, including a life-size gold Buddha studded with 9584 diamonds, the largest weighing 25 carats.
Then, visit Wat Phnom Temple founded by Daun Penh (Grandma Penh), a wealthy widow who in 1372, retrieved from a river a log with five Buddha statues in it and ordered to elevate a piece of her property on which to build a temple to house the statues.
Later on, Grandma Penh and the villagers converted to build a temple on the top of the mountain and brought the four Buddha statues to the temple. While a standing statue of the goddess was placed in a shrine located on the eastern of the hill. Eventually, this became a sacred site and sanctuary where people would make blessings and pray.
After that, visit Genocidal Museum S21 Prison, a former high school that the Khmer Rouge turned into a centre for interrogation, torture, and death. Today it is a museum of torture and serves to remind visitors of the terrible atrocities that came to pass in Cambodia.
At the end, go to visit Killing Field, where prisoners from Tuol Sleng followed this same route to their fate. An old Chinese cemetery, ChoengEk was turned into an extermination camp for political prisoners. The remains of 8985 people were exhumed from mass graves and are kept in a memorial stupa here.
On day 2, get picked up from your hotel and transfer to Buddha Kiri, founded in 2017 by four monks, located atop a low-rise mountain, and surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges. There are currently tens of thousands of small golden statues that cover the hillside, which makes for a surreal sight. The goal is to have a collection of 84,000 statues in total.
After that, visit Phnom Tamao Zoological Park, a protected forest and arboretum. There are more than 102 species including some endangered and vulnerable species of mammals, reptiles, and birds. Finally, get dropped off back at your hotel.
