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Day Fifty-Five
Royal Palace & Sight Seeing around Phnom Penh by the River
It was an early start as we were desperate to move rooms. The smell of the bathroom had now become unbearable. We went down to the reception desk to ask about the room change. The man told us that we would have to wait an hour for the room to be cleaned before we could go in so we sat in the nice balcony area where we were last night & waited.
Finally in the new room the internet connection was great but the smell of the bathroom was still disgusting but better than the other room - we soon realised that it was the drains in the hotel & there was nothing that we could do about it. We went back to the reception desk & asked if they had a map of the area which we could have so we could start to explore around Phnom Penh. We had agreed that we would like to go & see the Palace so I had to go & get changed because your arms & legs have to be covered or they wont let you in.
We walked out the hotel & Andy navigated us to the palace. It wasn't very far away but the streets are a big crazy to understand as they don't have street names as such they are just numbers but the streets don't run in numerical order what so ever. We finally arrived on the main avenue strip & we could see the Independence Tower right down the other end of the road. It was huge & it really stuck out at the bottom of the road.
We made it to the palace only to get our first taster of Cambodian begging. There was a man who had no legs & he had a hat on the floor with his hands together asking us for money - sadly we just had to walk past & in to the palace gates. The palace looked magnificant & nothing like we had ever seen before. As we got in the queue for tickets I couldn't believe the price they were charging for admission. I had a big moan to Andy's distaste as I was saying how disgraceful it was to charge so much just to go & look around.
With the tickets bought we entered only to be greeted by a big monkey which was just walking around & minding its own business. As we got further in to the grounds we soon realised that the palace was actually home to a lot of monkeys & most of them didn't look very friendly either. There was a lot of buildings in the Palace courtyard but disappointingly we were not allowed to enter most of them or take any photographs inside.
The first part we entered was really beautiful & the celings inside where amazing. There was massive crystal chandaliers hanging down & the way the windows had been designed it was a proper palace. The detail on the outside of the building & the way the roof had been sculptured, it must have taken years to build. The whole building was white in colour & decorated with gold. It looks like a real Bobby Dazzler.
We then walked to the next section of the palace & there was a big long wall which had amazing pictures that had been painted on the the walls. The paintings told stories & relfected on Buddism & the beliefs. We walked the whole length of the wall until we reached the end. Inside the Palace grounds there was another buidling called the Silver Pagoda. In every building that we walked in to we had to remove our shoes & leave them outside.
In the Silver Pagoda there was bid statues of Buddah & various items that had been in the palace. All the items where in cabinets so you couldn't touch anything we could only look through the glass. As we walked further in to the Pagoda they had lifted some of the carpet in a small section so that you could see the floor. The floor was made of pure silver tiles & it was really sparkely. I would have liked to have seen the whole floor with all the carpet removed but I suppose they want to keep the floor protected.
We had spent a couple of hours looking around the Palace & I was getting really hot. I had to wear my long dress with a cardigan otherwise I would not have been allowed to enter because they state that you need to cover your flesh - There's me thinking they are Buddists acting like Muslims..hahaha! We decided that we should head to the exit & go to explore somewhere else. Towards the exit was could hear traditional music being played. As we walked under an archway there was a group of men who were playing live music using tradtional instruments. The music sounded really great!
There was also a big wooden house which we took a look around. In the down stairs part there was a young girl who was sitting at a weaving machine & was making scarfs. As we went upstairs we head more music being played. As we reached the top of the stairs there was this old Cambodian man who dragged me over & he made me sit down by this xylophone type of instrument & he was teaching me how to play it. When I had got the hang of it he went & sat by these tin drums & he made us play along together. In another room there was these massive elephant statues which lots of people where taking photographs of.
Finally outside the palace walls we decided to take a walk along the river front & see what the view of the river looked like. As we got the the river it was lined with lots of flags from all different countries. We sat & rested on the river wall for about 10 minutes till we decided what we wanted to have to eat. We walked along the main strip by the river front until we found this nice little cafe which had a different mixture of food. We ordered a pizza to share & a bowl of traditional Cambodian food.
After we had finished our food we decided that we would take a walk to the market area which we had seen on the map we had. At this point it had began to get dark as we hadn't realised how late in the day it actually was. We walked through the streets of Central Phnom Penh & we passed many wats which really stand out. We had finally reached the market area but it appeared to be closed. It wasn't like the markets in Vietnam that stayed open till all hours this place & the stalls where actually packing up for the night & closing.
As we hadn't been able to look around the market we decided to head back to the guesthouse so we could sort out about going to the Killing Fields & S21 tomorrow. We had a long walk back to the Guesthouse as we hadn't realised how far we had walked. Back in the Guesthouse we arranged the transport for tomorrow & we went to our room to collapse from all the walking.
Tomorrow is going to be another real long day....
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