Phnom Penh Three-River Sunset Cruise

Sisowath Quay: boarding on the Phnom Penh riverside

The cruise leaves from a pier on Preah Sisowath Quay, opposite Street 90 at the northern end of the riverside promenade. Sisowath Quay is the three-kilometre boulevard that runs along the Tonle Sap river past the Royal Palace, the night market and rows of cafés, and it is the natural starting point for any Phnom Penh boat tour. On the dinner option a tuk-tuk collects you from your hotel in the central zone and brings you to the pier; otherwise it is an easy address to give any driver.

Boarding opens a little before the 17:00 or 19:30 departure, and guests find a seat on the open deck or under the roof while the guide introduces the route. The earlier sailing is timed for the sunset, which in Phnom Penh falls between about 17:30 and 18:15 depending on the season; the later one shows the illuminated palace, bridges and riverside instead.

The Royal Palace and Wat Ounalom from the Tonle Sap

The first stretch of the cruise runs south along the Tonle Sap past the heart of royal Phnom Penh. The golden roofs and spires of the Royal Palace rise directly behind the riverside lawns, with the Moonlight Pavilion facing the water, and from the boat you see the complex the way it was designed to be seen, from the river that kings arrived on. Just north of it stands Wat Ounalom, the headquarters of Cambodian Buddhism, with its stupa and the tiered roofs of its halls.

Between them the guide points out the Chaktomuk Conference Hall, a fan-shaped modern building from the 1960s that is one of the best examples of the New Khmer Architecture movement, and the long esplanade where families gather at dusk. This is the stretch that makes a Mekong sunset cruise in Phnom Penh different from a river trip anywhere else: the whole historic centre is lined up along one bank.

Under the Japanese and Chinese friendship bridges

Heading north on the Tonle Sap, the boat passes under the two bridges that link the city centre to the Chroy Changvar peninsula. The older Japanese friendship bridge, Chroy Changvar, was built in the 1960s, destroyed during the war years and rebuilt with Japanese help in the 1990s, which is how it got its everyday name. Beside it the newer Chinese friendship bridge, opened in 2015, doubled the crossing and lights up in colour after dark.

Seen from below at sunset, with the traffic streaming across and the river traffic of ferries and fishing boats underneath, the bridges are one of the most photographed moments of the cruise. The guide uses the passage to explain how the Tonle Sap reverses its flow each year, running into the great lake in the wet season and back out to the Mekong in the dry months.

Chaktomuk: where the Mekong, Tonle Sap and Bassac meet

In front of the Royal Palace the rivers form an X on the map that Cambodians call Chaktomuk, the four faces: the Mekong arrives from the north, the Tonle Sap joins from the northwest, and below the junction the water divides into the lower Mekong and the Bassac. The boat turns in this wide expanse of water, and for a few minutes you are surrounded by river on every side, with the city skyline to the west and the low green banks of the Mekong to the east.

This confluence is why Phnom Penh exists where it does, and the guide explains how the capital grew from the hill of Wat Phnom to the riverside you have just passed. A Tonle Sap river cruise at this hour shows the colour of the sky doubled in the water, and it is the point where most guests take their best photos of the sunset.

Diamond Island, stilt houses and river life

Before turning back, the boat passes Diamond Island, Koh Pich, the reclaimed island at the mouth of the Bassac that has become the city's newest district of towers, exhibition halls and a riverside park, and whose skyline is the sharpest contrast with the palace roofs behind you. Along the opposite banks, communities of floating and stilt houses sit at the water's edge, with fishing boats setting their nets for the evening and children waving from the decks.

The guide talks about daily life on the river, from the fishing families who follow the seasonal flood to the ferries that still carry workers across. On the dinner option the barbecue buffet is served during this part of the cruise, with the fruit platter to finish as the lights come on along Sisowath Quay. The boat docks back at the same pier about ninety minutes after departure, and things to do in Phnom Penh at night continue right there on the riverside.