Exploring Phnom Penh: Week 11 / Day 67 / March 18
Phnom Penh, Cambodia: We started our day with breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast area is up on the roof of the hotel where there is also a swimming pool (we went for a swim late last night to cool off before going to bed). The breakfast spread was quite good and had some fruits I have not had before (the pitya for one).
From the rooftop we can see a lot of interesting buildings in the area.
For some reason I cannot put my finger on, Phnom Penh seems even hotter than Bangkok. The temperatures and humidity are similar, but it just seems more stifling here. Oh well, time to explore in the heat.
Since our hotel was only a short walk from the Royal Palace, we decided to start there. As with many attractions in Thailand, the admission price is relatively low and a guide can be obtained for a very reasonable fee.
Immediately upon entering the palace grounds we saw a Buddha Tree. This tree flowers every morning and the flowers die and fall off by the end of the day.
Built relatively recently, 1866, the Royal Palace is dominated by the Throne Hall. Once used by the king to meet with advisers and conduct official business, it is used for coronations and ceremonial purposes today.
This building is as heavily ornamented as any other and bears the usual figures.
Nearby are other buildings used for administrative offices and storage of royal artifacts.
I think my new favorite mythical beast is the type of garuda shown in the last picture (half bird / half man), that I lovingly refer to as the funky chicken.
We went into one of the buildings to see the gowns and suits worn in previous royal weddings.
The female mannequins arrayed in the rainbow of colors are shown in the traditional Cambodian dress with a different color for each day of the week. Also, the rainbow suits are those that were worn by official guards. Finally, the heavy gold garments are the clothes worn for the last royal wedding. However, we were told that there were many more, as the couple at a royal Cambodian wedding changes outfits about every hour during the course of the wedding day.
As at other palaces, there were many flowers and numerous murals displaying scenes from the Rama epic (this time the Khmer version).
My previous favorite image from this epic story was Lord Hanuman laying himself down to make a bridge for the monkey warrior army (picture 2 above). I think that has now been surpassed by the pair of demons shown in the last picture above with the one spewing monkey warriors out of his mouth and ears. These guys don’t mess around and I think this story looks a bit more gripping than George Washington being honest about chopping down a tree.
Contained within the grounds are a number of stupas that contain the ashes of cremated former kings.
Some of the stupas are connected via a string to a prayer hall where the king prays four times a month.
In the center of this part of the complex is the Silver Pagoda. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed within this building. The floors of the pagoda are tiled with solid silver tiles and in the front of the central altar is a roughly 200 lb solid gold buddha. Nearby are a buddha encrusted with over 9,500 diamonds and another made of solid crystal. The room is lit by crystal chandeliers from the French.
Off to the side of this building is a mound covered in trees and foliage. At the top of this mound is another small temple.
The messages written on the rock wall are from visitors asking for help with a test, a good marriage, or some other aid in life.
In addition to the other flowers we saw at the complex, we also saw some showing various stages of the Lotus Flower (last three pictures below).
Before leaving the palace grounds, we also looked at a couple of interesting panels and other small buildings housing numerous Buddhas.
Much to our surprise, as we exited the Royal Palace, there were many more exhibits showing Buddha’s Enlightenment, Khmer weaving, Khmer music, and traditional dance costumes.
One could easily spend many more hours here, but we decided to move on and check out the Central Market.
The first areas we saw were dominated by clothing and jewelry.
I have no idea what psycho is buying a winter jacket to wear in this weather. Although, we did see people wearing sweaters last night as the temperature had dipped down to 87 F.
We then made our way through my favorite part of any market – meat, fish, and produce.
Exhausted from all of this, we headed back to the hotel for a swim and some rest in the air conditioned room. Along the way we passed an interesting corner that had about six pharmacies all next to each other and each fully staffed with waiting pharmacists.
After resting for a bit we headed out to explore the nearby park – Wat Botum Park and the nearby temple and monastery.
The temple and monastery were quite beautiful and the interior of the main hall was in excellent condition. Inside the hall they were filming some programming in which two of the monks were being interviewed.
Outside, the other monks were keeping themselves busy on their phones or playing ping pong.
However, the two times I tried to photograph a monk playing ping pong, he ran away to hide, so I stopped trying.
We explored the other buildings at the monastery, some containing disturbingly lifelike figures.
Before getting dinner, we explored the park where there were various statues, people doing aerobics, and playing games.
Below are two videos from our day and a bonus video from yesterday that I forgot to post of the people playing Sei Pen.
The last video was the musical entertainment at the restaurant we went to for dinner. Um…the food was good.
Finally, because Linda is now back with me on the trip, a final bonus video.
