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ព្រឹកMorning · The capital

The City, Read by Its Architects

The morning belongs to the boulevards.

  • Phnom Penh
  • Half day
  • Arts & culture
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A cyclo driver pedalling through central Phnom Penh

The experience

Board a cyclo, the gentleman’s carriage of old Indochina, and let Phnom Penh unfold at pedalling pace. Your guides are the city’s own architecture students and graduates, reading their capital the way only its next generation of builders can.

Highlights

  • A morning by cyclo, at pedalling pace
  • Guided by the city’s architecture students and graduates
  • The royal spires of the palace quarter
  • French shophouses of the colonial city
  • The golden age of New Khmer architecture

In pictures

The morning in pictures

A cyclo parked outside Phnom Penh’s Central Market
01Your carriageA cyclo outside the Central Market. About three hundred still work the city.
The Throne Hall of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh
02The Throne HallBuilt inside the Royal Palace in 1917 and inaugurated in 1919.
Gilded spires of the Throne Hall, one crowned with the faces of Brahma
03Four faces of BrahmaThey crown the Throne Hall’s 59-metre spire.
The Silver Pagoda in the Royal Palace compound
04The Silver PagodaIts floor is laid with more than 5,000 silver tiles.
The Independence Monument rising above a Phnom Penh boulevard
05Independence MonumentVann Molyvann’s lotus-shaped stupa, inaugurated in 1962.
Looking up into the Art Deco dome of the Central Market
06Inside the Central MarketThe Art Deco dome of 1937 rises 26 metres.
The yellow neoclassical facade of Phnom Penh’s Central Post Office
07The Central Post OfficeNeoclassical, from 1895, in the old French quarter.
The Institute of Foreign Languages with its row of angled concrete fins
08Institute of Foreign LanguagesVann Molyvann’s campus of 1972, its classrooms raised on angled columns.

Photos: 1 magical-world, CC BY-SA 2.0 · 2 Marcin Konsek, CC BY-SA 4.0 · 3 Marcin Konsek, CC BY-SA 4.0 · 4 Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0 · 5 PsamatheM, CC BY-SA 4.0 · 6 shankar s., CC BY 2.0 · 7 Marcin Konsek, CC BY-SA 4.0 · 8 Nov Povleakhena, Public domain

The story

Three cities in one morning

Phnom Penh was built in layers. King Norodom moved his court here from Oudong and raised the Royal Palace between 1866 and 1870, facing east over the Chaktomuk, where the Mekong, the Tonlé Sap and the Bassac meet. The French followed with boulevards, villas and shophouses, the neoclassical Central Post Office of 1895 and the Art Deco Central Market, opened in 1937 beneath a 26-metre dome.

Then came independence in 1953, and a burst of building now remembered as the golden age. For seventeen years, Cambodian architects, with Vann Molyvann at their head, joined the Modern movement to Angkorian and village tradition. They lifted buildings onto columns, doubled walls and roofs against the heat, and wrapped them in openwork claustra screens so the breeze could pass through. Molyvann alone designed more than a hundred buildings, among them the Independence Monument, the Chaktomuk Conference Hall and the National Sports Complex, whose stands are perforated to let the air move.

Not all of it survived. The White Building, a 1963 housing block by Lu Ban Hap and Vladimir Bodiansky, came down in 2017. The architecture students and graduates who guide this morning study these buildings, and they read them as the city’s next generation of builders: why a roof floats above its walls, where the shade falls, what has been lost.

Itinerary

How the morning unfolds

  1. Board your cyclo

    Meet your guides and settle into a cyclo, the gentleman’s carriage of old Indochina. The French brought them to Phnom Penh in the 1930s, and about three hundred still work the city. You ride up front with the driver pedalling behind, which makes it the best seat in town for looking up at buildings.

  2. The royal quarter

    Along the riverfront to the Royal Palace, where the 59-metre spire of the Throne Hall rises above the walls, crowned with the four faces of Brahma. Behind them, the Silver Pagoda is floored with more than 5,000 silver tiles.

  3. Chaktomuk Conference Hall

    Vann Molyvann’s hall of 1961 opens like a fan. Its plan comes from a palm leaf and its gables from the roofs of the Royal Palace, a short walk along the riverfront.

  4. Independence Monument

    Molyvann’s lotus-shaped stupa, built in 1958 and inaugurated in 1962, borrows the form of an Angkorian temple tower to mark the end of French rule.

  5. The French city

    North along the boulevards to the Central Market, the Art Deco dome designed by city architect Jean Desbois, then the Central Post Office of 1895 and Hotel Le Royal, opened in 1929 to designs by Ernest Hébrard and home to the first nights of our Grand Journey. On the way, your guides point out the shophouse details most people pass without seeing.

A typical route. Your guides shape it to the morning and to whatever catches your eye.

Plan your trip

The details

Duration
Half day
When
Any morning, at a time that suits you
Format
Private, by cyclo, with your guides
Where
Central Phnom Penh, from the riverfront to the French quarter
Best time of year
November to February, when mornings are drier and cooler
What to wear
Light clothes, a hat and sunscreen: cyclos are open to the air. Cover shoulders and knees if you would like to go inside the Royal Palace.
Good to know
The city centre is flat and the pace gentle.

Before you go

Questions, answered

Who are the guides?

Cambodian architecture students and graduates. They study these buildings, and they read the city as the people who will build its next chapter.

Do we go inside the Royal Palace?

The cyclo route passes the palace walls. If you would like to see the Throne Hall and the Silver Pagoda up close, tell us and we will build in the time. Shoulders and knees must be covered inside.

Can we see more of Vann Molyvann’s work?

Yes. The National Sports Complex of 1964 and the Institute of Foreign Languages of 1972, with its classrooms in louvred pods on angled columns, lie further out. Tell us and we will add them to your morning.

Is a cyclo comfortable?

It is an unhurried way to travel. You sit up front while the driver pedals behind you, with nothing between you and the street.

Can we make a full day of Phnom Penh?

Yes. The cyclo morning and an evening at Chef Nak’s table make a natural pair.

When is the best time to go?

Any morning, before the heat builds. November to February brings the driest, coolest weather.

Arranged around you

No fixed times. You choose when.

Every One Journey experience in Cambodia is private. Tell us your dates and who is travelling, and we will arrange it around you.

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Or make it part of the whole journey: A Tale of Two Cities with Raffles

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