Phnom Penh Shopping and Accommodation

We stayed in Landscape Hotel, which offered a good panoramic view over Phnom Penh City. As far as we could see, it was one of the tallest building within the area. The good side about the hotel, polite staff, big room with enough amenity for a comfortable stay, nice top floor restaurant with delighting food, and the location is strategic. By foot from the hotel, 10 minutes to Royal Palace, another additional 5 - 10 minutes to the museum and river front, and, if you really can walk, the central market is 30 - 40 minutes away (USD1.5 with tut-tut in 10 minutes). The down side, we need a little bit of patient to communicate with some of the staff in English.

A great river view, where Tonle Sap joins the flow of mighty Mekong River. This photo was taken at the top floor of Landscape Hotel. Please click on the photo for higher quality view.

City view of Phnom Penh.

Reception counter (upper left), the lobby (upper right), restaurant (lower left), and the room of Landscape Hotel.

Psar Thmei or Central Market is a shopper's heaven in Phnom Penh. Other hotspots include several shopping complexes such as Suriya Shopping Mall and Pencil Supermarket, and roadside shops. 

We went to Central Market quite late in the afternoon, and strolled around for about 1 hour. With a little bit of disappointment, we left the market empty handed. Anyway, we are not talent shoppers, with very low interest to buy anything that the quality of the item cannot be determined.

 

Bright yellow dome at the center of market brightened the whole area (upper left). Jewellery and watches are available at the center part of the market, with the four wings are selling different items, from clothes, foot wears, bags, groceries, to food and beverages.

 Maybe, we should visit the souvenir shops like this to get something more indigenous.


One of the night market in Phnom Penh.

Well, last part of our Phnom Penh trip, we would like to share some of the photos taken on the street of Phnom Penh.

Streets in front of Suriya Shopping Mall (upper left) and along river front (upper right). Stalls selling various type of items can be found all around the city (lower left). After the flash flood, the locals dry their clothes on the low wall.

 A food stall by the road.

 Motorbikes are very popular among the locals.

 Scouts by the traffic light, teaching drivers to stop on red light?

Phnom Penh is filled with gardens like this (upper left). Independent Monument is located in the middle of a roundabout at Preah Suramarit Boulevard. Experience the relaxing atmosphere at the river front early in the morning (lower left), as well as late afternoon.

Tonle Sap by the river front.

Statue at the river front.

That's all about our recent trip to Phnom Penh. Hope you all found our sharing helpful. Please feel free to contact us to discuss more about our trips. Please visit All Our Destinations to read more about our previous trips, or you might want to read about our experience in Siem Reap and Angkor Archeological Park.

[A Trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia]  [Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Cheoung Ek Killing Field] [Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda, and National Museum] [Food in Phnom Penh]  [Shopping and Accommodation in Phnom Penh] [All Our Destinations]
You might like to read about our sharing on our Siem Reap trip too.

Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Kota Kinabalu

This marine park is beautiful. Clear water, soft sand, tropical wind, and coral blooms nearby the beach make it a wonderful place to enjoy a seashore vacation. The best part, it is just 15 minutes away from Kota Kinabalu. 

A cluster of islands- Gaya, Manukan, Mamutik, Sapi, and Sulug have their own identity. We didn't want to be rushing around. So, we put Manukan and Sapi in our list. Both of us visited Manukan once respectively, long long time ago, maybe 15 - 20 years ago when we were just kids. However, not many things have changed. Our memory refreshed by many old set up. Well done to the preservation of the park!

Let us start with Jesselton Point in Kota Kinabalu. It is the jetty for our island hopping. Located at the northern most of the city, Jesselton Point is around 25 minutes from Centre Point by foot. Of course, we parked our car at the car park right in front of the jetty, and had been changed about RM25 (8 hours). That was the most expensive public parking fee we have ever got so far. So, our advice, in case of driving, you might consider to park your car somewhere else, such as Jesselton Point Car Park with cheaper rate (should be RM1 per hour). Or, why not simply park your car at Suria Sabah Shopping Mall nearby? We are not sure about the parking rate, but we are pretty sure it won't hit RM25 for 8 hours.

All right, back to Jesselton Point. The speed boat service starts at 8:30 am, with a trip every 30 minutes thereafter. The ticket counters open from 8:00 onwards. The island hopping is highly customizable. We can choose the islands (which are opened for visitors) and decide the time to spend of each of the islands. There are many companies offering the transportation service, but the fare is more or less fixed. The latest fare is available at Sabah Tourism Webpage. Another thing, renting snorkeling equipments from the transportation companies at Jesselton Point is cheaper than renting the same equipment from the islands. For us, we rented 2 snorkeling set for whole day trip (mask, snorkel, and vest) with RM20 each.

We reached Pulau Manukan (Manukan Island) before 9 am.  The beach was quiet, with clear sound of waves sweeping the beach softly. Not many visitors were there yet. Well, either mid-August was not the peak season, or we were simply lucky to have the privilege to enjoy the tranquility.

Entrance of Jesselton Point. Located at Haji Saman Road, the northern part of the city, is the main jetty connecting the marine park with the mainland. The jetty can be accessed by foot from most hotels within the city.

From the entrance, Suria Sabah Shopping Mall, one of the shopping malls in Kota Kinabalu, is just 100 meters away (upper left). Upper right shows the scene of the city inside the entrance. Food stalls and cafe at jetty were mostly closed due to Ramadhan month (lower left). 8:15 in the morning, most of the "water taxis" are still lying in the parking lots, awaiting for their customers.

The ticketing counters are located in a hall with plenty of seats (upper row). Many transportation companies offering similar services with similar rates (lower left). After the payment, the receipt needs to be kept for the whole trip for identification purposes.

Kota Kinabalu from the speed boat.

15 minutes from Kota Kinabalu, Manukan Island, paradise of blue and green awaits.

Calm sea makes the marine park a perfect place for water activities. We were advised to move further from the jetty for snorkeling, as the frequent speed boat trips have somehow disturbed the growing corals.

Another scene of Manukan Island from the jetty. Can you see the small white speed boat far from the beach? That's the place we went for snorkeling.

 Gear up for snorkeling. We had Nancy together with us in our trip.

Fish of the marine park. We saw many of them. A bit worry about the presence of sharks in the marine park, although they don't have the habit of biting anything as big as human being.

Any fish in the sea? This picture should be a clear answer to the question.

We saw the remnant of world war on Manukan Island (upper left). Manukan Island Resort is the sole resort on the island (upper right). The information of the hotel is available at the hotel's official site. There is a restaurant (lower left) and a small building with several shops, including a food stall (lower right) on the island.

We took our lunch on the island. There were limited choices, but enough to recharge our energy. The price, not much different from Kota Kinabalu.

We passed by Mamutik Island, on our way to Sapi Island.

Jetty of Sapi Island, a small beautiful island.

Protected by Gaya Island, Sapi owns a wide area for snorkeling. The corals grow near to the beach. As the water was shallow during our visit, we needed to keep our feet up all the time to avoid stepping on the corals. This photo shows our first snorkeling site, north to the island. Northern edge of Sapi Island is on the left. Gaya Island is on the right.

How well is Sapi Island being protected? We took this photo at the southern part of the island. Towards the north, the whole beach line is covered by Gaya Island (far behind the red roof jetty), forming a snorkeling heaven right between two islands.

Feel like want a dip in the water? That's what we did. Towards the east, we can see Manukan Island and Mamutik Island far away on the horizon. This is our second snorkeling site, located on the southern part of the island (in fact, both of the snorkeling sites are nearby).

Let's catch some fish and corals... with our eyes :)

Like other marine parks, we need to follow the rules and beware of the potential threats.

A small wooden building at Sapi Island, houses an office and a grocery shop. The grocery shop has only a few items for sale (upper left). Last trip from Sapi to mainland, visitors are crowding the island's jetty, awaiting for their pickups (upper right). There are many canvas shades and canopies on the island. These artificial sun blockers provide perfect shelter for buffet lunch, at the same time spoilt the natural feel of the beach (lower row).

We really like the islands, and definitely will return for more fun. To be frank, that was our first time experienced the fun of snorkeling. For us, Sapi is a much better snorkeling site for beginners like us. First, the corals are growing closer to the beach, and secondly, the sea is calmer compared to Manukan Island. For both islands, there are places for us to take bath, to change, and to sit for a rest. The toilets are clean and well maintained. There are life guards on duty, and they were very friendly and helpful.

For us, the price of food on the islands are reasonable. The soft drinks are sold with RM2.50 - 3.00 per can, while shandy was sold with RM3.00 at Sapi. Fried rice with 3 dishes (1 meat and 2 vege) was charged at RM10 at Manukan's food stall. That was good. However, at Sapi, we could not find any canteen there except the grocery shop that we had mentioned before.

So, if you want to visit the islands, sun block (highest SPF that you can find), extra clothes, towels, swimming suits, and sandals are essential. You might need to bring enough drinking water as well, unless you want to buy the water on the islands. Bring some snacks might be a good idea. Buffet lunch on island trip might not worth the money paid (our personal opinion). Renting the snorkeling equipments from the transportation company is better than from the islands, if you plan to visit more than one island, as the rental for the equipments on the island is per island basis. A mat can be helpful for a sun bath, or to place our picnic set.

We wrote some of our experience in Kota Kinabalu, as listed below. Please visit All Our Destinations to read more on our travel experiences.

[Kota Kinabalu] [Hotels in Kota Kinabalu] [Food in Kota Kinabalu]

[Shopping in Kota Kinabalu] [Lok Kawi Wildlife Park] [All Our Destinations]

Shenzhen- Window of the World

We took a single day trip to Shenzhen, China, as part of our Hong Kong trip. Our complete itinerary is available at our  Hong Kong, Macau, and Shenzhen post. In Shenzhen, we visited Window of the World, which is a well-known theme park in the city.

We took MTR from Hong Kong to Luohu Station. The station is connected to Luobao MTR line, which brought us straight to the entrance of Window of the World. The whole journey took us around 2 hours (35 minutes from Tsim Sha Tsui East to LuoHu Station, 25 minutes to clear all the immigration procedures, 35 minutes from LuoHu to Window of the World Station, plus queuing, waiting etc.). The MRT ticket at Shenzhen could only be bought from the auto ticketing machine. We found that Renminbi that we brought exceeded the highest limit that the machine could accept. Luckily, we found the exchange counter, offering free service to change for smaller value note and coins. The information about Luobao line is available on this page.

The entrance fee for Window of the World is Renminbi 140 per adult (around RM 73 or USD 23). Cheaper compared to the Ocean Park and Disneyland in Hong Kong. It opens from 9 am to 11:30 pm daily. The theme park is divided into several areas, namely The World Square, The Area of Asia, The Area of Oceanic, The Area of Europe, The Area of Africa, The Area of America, The Sculpture Park, and The International Street. Among all the areas, we like The Area of Asia and the Area of Europe the most.

Luohu Immigration buiding.

This is the scene outside of the immigration building.

It was a rainy day. The rain fell once in a while for the whole day. Luckily, we brought an umbrella with us. This photo shows the entrance of Window of the World within the arch on the left, while the arch on the right is the exit.

This photo was taken at the exit of the park, right after the arch. The pyramid structure resembles Louvre Museum in Paris is the access point to the MTR station.

The entrance lead to a big open air theatre. The theatre is surrounded by structures and relief walls that represent the civilization of the world. Behind us, Egypt. Further behind, prominent Eiffel Tower that we could see it within the theme park.

This blue gate is big. It is located on the right side of the stage.

From the theatre, we turned left and entered The Area of Asia, where some replicas of the buildings from Japan were located, as shown in the photos. We found Borobudur and Angkor Wat as well. Anyway, they are much more less significant than the real structures. You might like to read our sharing about real Borobudur and Angkor Wat.

We watch 4D movie here underneath Fujiyama. The movie is free. It is the one and the only one free entertainment service in the park. So, please make sure that you don't miss it. It is located opposite of the Itsukushima Shrine.

Taj Mahal, India!

The next area we entered was The Area of Oceanic, where we saw Sydney Opera House.

Little Mermaid Statue in Copenhagen, looking at the St. Mark's Square in Venice? This scene is solely available at The Area of Europe in this theme park.

Alcazar Castle in Spain.

In The Area of Africa, we saw this.

Niagara Falls, at The Area of America.

Is this place looks like Grand Canyon of Colorado? Well, this is the "extreme-scaled-down" version.

There are more than 80 different sculptures replicas of the attractions or iconic buildings around the world. We can't name them one by one.

We took more than 2 hours to walk around the theme park. Many of the replicas looked good and real, while some of them were not. Sign of lack of maintenance was obvious in some of the area of the park as well. Overall, the theme park made us felt like we were in a small world, with all the building, structures and sceneries around us were small. It is a place that worth a visit.

Shenzhen and Hong Kong shared a same weather during our visit. Hot, humid, and rain for a short while either in the morning, or in the afternoon. The rain could not help much in cooling down. We sweat thorough the whole trip (however, not so bad if compared to our trip to Hong Kong Disneyland). So, our advice, bring enough drinks, extra clothes if you are the type that sweat easily, and comfortable footwear. The park didn't prepare many shelters and one might get soaked in case of raining. So, bringing an umbrella might help to keep a happy journey. By the way, we found that the food offered in the park had very limited choice. A pack of snack or sandwich from outside might help to satisfy our empty stomach. We found that the eatery on the left to before the entrance served good soy milk with you tiao, sold with reasonable price.

We found some information at the official website of Window of the World. However, the information provided by Chinahighlight is more useful.

[Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen Trip] [Ocean Park and Repulse Bay]
[Hong Kong Disneyland][Hong Kong Island Trip]
[Accommodation, Food, and Shopping in Hong Kong]
[Macau] [Shenzhen- Window of the World]
[All Our Destinations]