Two temples in Phnom Penh. Oudong has 1 ticket or tour to book; Silver Pagoda (Wat Preah Keo Morakot) has 2 tickets and tours to book. The table and the two notes below put them side by side; the full pages have what to see, the ticket and the timing for each.
Oudong is the old royal capital of Cambodia, now a hill of stupas and temples rising from the rice fields about 40 km north-west of Phnom Penh. There is no entrance ticket: you simply climb the hill, and small donations are welcome at the shrines. Local vendors at the foot of the steps sell drinks, lotus offerings and food.
The usual way to visit is a private half-day or full-day tour from Phnom Penh by car or tuk-tuk with a driver, and often an English-speaking guide. These trips commonly add Phnom Baset, a smaller hill temple closer to the city, and sometimes a silversmith village or a stop at a meditation centre.
The Silver Pagoda stands inside the walls of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, and the only way in is with the palace ticket, bought at the entrance on Sothearos Boulevard. There is no separate ticket for the pagoda and no time slot to reserve, and the price is the same whether or not you come with a guide. Official guides can be hired at the gate for about an hour, which is the simplest way to understand what you are seeing.
Organised tours combine the palace and pagoda with other sights in the capital. A popular afternoon format adds the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, the former Khmer Rouge prison, which makes for a sobering contrast;
