Phnom Penh is a self-contained destination that provides something for the culture, food and casual tourist. You don’t have to plan distant excursions or all-day programs to make your trip memorable. Half-day diversions for the temple buff (Phnom Chisor and Ta Prohm – no fig trees but better carvings) and the handicrafts aficionado (Koh Dach) exist, but you would be better served by visiting Siem Reap instead. Less frenetic than Hanoi or Bangkok, livelier than Vientiane or Chiang Mai, Phnom Penh offers the visitor an opportunity to savour the essence of its culture and cuisine in the space of only two or three days.
 

A deeply religious country, Buddhist monks are as common here as Catholic priests in Rome

The night market operates every day of the year and is situated near the busiest thoroughfare of Phnom Penh

The kitchen of the Bopha Phnom Penh Titanic Restaurant

Under the dome of the Central Market, one of Phnom Penh's finest art-deco buildings

Tourists at the Royal Palace entrance

The National Museum is a wonderful way to explore the history of Phnom Pen's religious culture through its statuary, like this Durga above

Wat Ounalom, one of Phnom Penh's best preserved Buddhist Temples

Tonle Bati, a weekend picnic spot

Inside the ruins of Ta Prohm which, unlike its eponymous twin at Siem Reap, lacks the giant fig trees but has better preserved carvings

The Stupa in the Killing Fields contains a horrific set of skulls and bones exhumed from the mass graves discovered there

The gallows at the notorious Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a former high school that was converted into a torture centre by the Khmer Rouge

Even the locals wonder at the scale of the Royal Palace including the Silver Pagoda and the Throne Hall

Presiding deities and priest at Phnom Chisor, a hill-top temple that is reached by climbing 400 steps