Day 14 Saturday Phnom Penh

This morning I went for an early walk along the waterfront. There were quite a few groups of locals out doing their exercises – a vigorous looking form of tai chi. There were several groups of blokes playing a game with a volleyball size net. They used heads or feet, no hands and had 3 on each side of the net. I have a photo that may ( or may not, more likely) turn out of a group of 8 monks walking earnestly along in their orange robes and sandals all carrying briefcases . They were passing a group of about 15 kids between about 10 and 16 all dancing to some hip hoppy discordant ( to my ear) Asian music. This was at about 6.45 am. Also in the photo are a team of women sweeping the path, emptying bins and watering the grass.

After breakfast we went first to the Royal Palace complex. Behind high walls is a quiet place with well-tended lawns and assorted buildings. We went into the throne hall where official dignitaries are received. It was surprisingly pleasant – distinctly Asian but with a European feel. Within the complex we also visited the Silver Pagoda, so named because of the silver floor. There is a gold Buddha – 90kg of gold.

Then we went to Tuol Sleng Museum, otherwise known as S-21. In 1975 Pol Pot took over a school and it became the largest centre of detention and torture in the country for the 3 1/2 years of Pol Pot’s regime. I took no photographs. The Khmer Rouge took detailed records of the inmates and there were many photographs of the 3 years. It was particularly chilling and aweful but necessary to see, I think, to understand the history of the country.

We then went to the National Museum which was a delightful building, very peaceful ( which it needed to be – we were all very sombre) . We were shown a large array of things, mostly statues from the Angkor period, by a lady with a terrible voice. She spoke in a high-pitched montone, like a robot that needed oiling, and was very hard to understand.

We walked back to our hotel and some of us had lunch at a pleasant café on the way. I had 1 remaining postcard on my ‘absolute minimum list’ to send, so bought one of the museum, found out that the post office was about 1 km away and set off. I reckon you almost walk double the distance by the time you dodge street stalls, motor bikes, cars, tuk tuks, people, beggars, piles of junk, builders etc etc. Once I saw the building I went in search of a coffee and found a place whose main purpose was to sell coffee beans, but they had a few tables. I had a nice cappuccino for $1US. As an aside, most prices are quoted in US$ but the official currency is real – there are 4000 real to 1 US$. It appears that reals are only used for change of less than $1. Many things on menus are, e.g. $2.80 – so you leave $3 and the change becomes the tip. I came back from the post office mostly via back streets, pocked my head into a covered market, passed some food stalls selling completely unrecognisable things, looked for a place to have another snack, decided to by-pass the restaurant that had 4 large black 4WDs outside and double the usual number of security guards ( someone more important than me must have been inside) , found a nice little place, had a lovely pineapple juice and was just started on my crepes when a large truck parked outside and started very noisily pumping out sewage. Ah well, I wasnot far from my hotel – time for another bath. Trouble is the bath is surrounded by 3 full walls of mirrors – I found yesterday it was a bit offputting.