Phnom Penh, the Pearl of Asia

By Andrew -

 



On our first day in Phnom Penh were 100% in tourist mode. We started off with the hotels continental breakfast of fresh fruit and eggs, complimented by the companionship of a friendly cat. 


The Emerald Buddha

After breakfast, Makara joined us as we toured popular attractions; first the Royal Palace.















The history of the Royal Palace was fascinating, and included a tour of the silver pagoda, home of the emerald-crystal Buddha as well as other gold and jeweled buddha statues.  Pictures were prohibited, so I'm including some found online.
The Embossed Silver Tiles of the Silver Pagoda















One of the features of the tour was to see the throne room of the King of Cambodia. 

The King Meeting with a foreign official

There are two throng in the throne room. The high one in the back the King sits on only once in his life: at the time of his coronation. The other is where he sits the rest of the time when meeting with foreign heads of state, or otherwise acting officially as the King.  We learned the lineage of the King isn't necessarily by blood of the first born, but rather each King chooses the King that will succeed him (often a family member).  The current King of Cambodia is the son of the former King.  The current King, however, is a monk which means he has never married and has no children. He will choose successor to be the next King.  Our friend told us that the Khmer people respect and love the King and wish he had more political power, but he is primarily a figurehead and spiritual leader of the nation.  


Our favorite fact from the tour was this: until 1942, there was a ceremony in which the King would ride on the back of an elephant. We asked the guide why the practice was discontinued in  1942, thinking perhaps it had something to do with World War II. She explained, "We are Buddhists, and do not believe in the mistreatment of animals. So when we recognized that this was poor treatment of elephants, we stopped this practice." 


Next stop was the Royale Museum. Unfortunately the most exciting thing to happen at the royal museum was not photographed, but happened moments after this photo was taken.  We were walking toward the entrance of the museum up the path shown here, when a snake leapt (yes, LEAPT) out of the tree near the path and landed directly in front of a small group of us walking the path and slithered into the bushes on the opposite side. . It was about 3 feet long, and a little thicker than a finger.  Our friend assured us the snake was not venomous after the German man walking ahead of us questioned whether a bite would render the victim "kaput." 


The rest of the museum was interesting, though less exciting. I did manage to snap a few pictures before I noticed the sign with a picture of a camera in a red circle with a line through it. Oops!
Someone tried to remove the head, so the statue was relocated to the museum

Dave, making our lunch
After we had toured the museum, we made our way to David's Noodles a noodle restaurant that made fresh noodles and dumplings from scratch. We had to try them!  



After lunch we swung by the Russian markets, which seemed to be a well known shopping area in Phnom Penh, before heading back to our hotel for a swim.  

After we had a chance to cool off, we listened to the devil on our shoulder and ate VERY American food: 


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