Hotel Review: Holiday Villa City Centre, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

After several weeks of surveying and researching available hotels in Phnom Penh, we decided to stay here, Holiday Villa. It is located at the heart of the city. Close to Old Market, 5 minutes walk and close to halal KFC, need to cross the road and walk for less than 15 min. To airport, it would take around 15 min by car. We took taxi from airport to the hotel and was charged USD10. quite expensive for a short distance journey. 

 Facility are quite good except the wifi is not free in room hotel but free in the lobby area. So not inconvenience.

 Room: overall, it was very spacey. Minimum deco. Old room and furnitures but still clean. Old type of tv and many others.

bathroom is as spacey as the bedroom. Hot shower available. And the toilet was also clean.

Another reason why we chose this hotel was because the halal food available here. Since this hotel is one of the Malaysian franchise hotels, they served halal food. So, we can saved time from hunting the halal food around the city.

Choices were disappointed. We had porridge, breads, eggs, juices and coffee.

Hope they could variety their selection since, i believe this hotel is Muslim main preference due to halal food, location and pricewise.

Hote: Holiday Villa Phnom Penh

3-4 star

Price Range: RM150-RM200

Tips: U can ask for late check out, they might entertain you. 

Coffee @ Costa Coffee, Riverside Phnom Penh

The best part in Phnom Penh was the coffee shop and the coffee. This country and its neighbors are under tropical zone. Extremely hot for us and humid. To discover a cool and descent place is such a bless here. 

The shop basically located opposite of the great river. And also close to the Royal Palace. When we reached the shoplot, we cant figure where is the entrance since the ground floor was occupied by another fast food chain. One of the staff there, guide us to the stair and said we need to get to the 1st floor to get into the coffee shop.

View from the field/park near royal palace

There, the field/park. View from the 1st floor

Selection of pastries. We tried the macaroon. Not bad.

This place was just opened, so they are busy interviewing and handling the new comers. But, overall, the staff are friendly

Temporary and comfy place. This is the 1st floor area. There is a stairs to ground level

View from the coffee shop. 

We ordered mango/passion fruit ice blended for me and choc blended for her. shraed macaroon. Total around USD10. 

The mango/passion drink was the best choice at that weather. I've already feel sick and i need something cool to reduce my super hot temperature. Enjoying our moment. I feel delighted that i found this place. 

Costa Coffee: Originally from London (i had my first taste at London, same, with Ms N)

Location: Street 51, corner of Street 294, Boeng Keng Kanf, Phnom Penh 12302

Pricewise: Since we paid in dollar, it's a lil bit pricey compared to KL's regular coffee shop

Tastewise: Excellent

Verdict: Yay. Yay. Yay.

Lunch @ KFC Phnom Penh

We had our lunch here at KFC, Phnom Penh. 

Location: Under a hotel called ... 

This KFC is reported own by KFC malaysia. Not really sure about this. But will do more research.

Same set of meal. 

Pricewise: Expensive than in Malaysia

Tastewise: About the same

Phnom Penh: Part 1 - City Tour

We didnt spent a lot of time here. we reached PP at night. And only spent a few hours visiting the city. We even escape the rural area tour to the killing field and the museum. 

Main attractions of the day were the Old Market.

Stuff were really2 cheap. Cheaper than Bangkok and people are nicer and friendly too. 

We came early so that we can get the early bird price. Most of the sellers wont let their first customer of the day down, so, it is usually a right time to negotiate a good price.

We ride a tuk tuk to take us to the city. Here the fare is more expensive than in SR since less number of visitors visited this place. So, please nego for the fare before agreeing to take their tuk tuk

PP river. If we ride a boat from SR, than we might reached this place

The famous architecture here - The royal palace

Feeding the pigeons with this super cheap seed R1 only

See, to our surprised, the Costa Coffee outlet, 1st in PP and the Dairy Queen outlet. Heard DQ is famous in Doha

Tour with tuk tuk

The cultural palace. Sort like Istana budaya. This palace opens for cultural activities such as dancing.

Hotel

Forgot this one also. I think this is the museum, National Museum of Cambodia

The independent monument

The russian market. 

This place look lively than old market. Sales stuff like men and women clothing. Didn't by anything. Just grab some pics and left to Airport

That's how we end our trip in Cambodia, this year. 

Siam Reap International Airport to Phnom Penh International Airport

We ended our tour to Siam Reap here at the Siam Reap International Airport. Our short and fast track holiday aint allow us to ride a bus or boat from SR to PP. So, the fastest way was via air and of course was not cheap. About MYR300 per way.

Some tips to share about purchasing the flight ticket of Cambodia Air from SR to PP.

Main problem: Need to match the credit card name with our identification in the passport. Which was obviously we cant since in Malaysia, we are allow to register any name (suitable) on the credit card. End up, our booking was rejected so many times. At first, my friend in Qatar made the first attempt but failed. Thought, it was because due to problem in middle east network etc. Than i tried here. Both attempt failed. Since, we were departing in 2-3 days time, i made the last effort. Googling any contact number i can find.

At last, i found a website which i think it looked genuine with address and contact number. I emailed and made several follow up phone call and after 2 days, managed to purchase the tickets. Two 1 way ticket cost us USD210.

Here the link:

PHUONG NAM STAR TRAVEL CAMBODIA# 83 D, Street 310, Phnom Penh, Cambodia Tel: +855-23-222391 Fax:+855-23-222360Email: info@phuongnamstar.net Website: http://www.phuongnamstar.net Just make sure you have check the travel date and time on the official cambodia air website before making the reservation.

We reached the airport quite early. The airport basically was separated into 2, domestic and international and both were in 2 separate building. We were at domestic area.

View from waiting area at International airport. 

Since we reached here early, we decided to rest at International Airport. Why? Cause, the domestic was rather small and lack of space for waiting area. Only a row of benches and was already occupied by the passengers.

Waiting area in international airport. Clean, less noisy. i took a nap and perform my pray here. Slept around 2-3 hours. Our flight was at 830pm. But we were here around 4pm

Boarding area.

Shops and cafe in the domestic boarding area

Check in counter

It's a one hour flight and we reached PP at 930 pm. Took taxi at 10pm and reached the hotel in 15 min time. Leaving SR with lot lot of memory. Hope SR has winter season, so we can be here longer visiting all the places. just a wish.

We actually flying with Vietnam Airlines. I bet this is under their strategic alliance.

Complimentary light meal. Drinking water and banana cake.

                                                                   Phnom Penh Airport

The meal box provided by Cambodia Angkor Air