Phnom Penh

While there is a very somber side to Phnom Penh, as we discussed in our last posting, it’s also a fun, interesting city, which you’ll see here. It’s a struggling city, however. The Pol Pot era has set the city behind at least a generation.

Traffic is organized chaos! The roads are largely shared by pedi-cabs, tuk-tuks, bicycles and motorcycles. The number of cars is increasing, but is still a minority of the traffic. Of the cars, 80-90% are Toyota and Lexus, with lots of good-sized SUVs. A stoplight means to drive through an intersection slowly and there is no regard for lanes. To make a left turn you start about a block ahead, move into the oncoming traffic and work your way over to the left side by the time you get to the intersection. To cross a street you just start walking and the traffic separates around you—scary the first time!

The Royal Palace is beautiful. The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot did not destroy much in the capital, even though they forced people to move to home villages. These public places were the vision given to the outside world. During that regime, the King was in Phnom Penh, working to get recognition at the UN. Following that he was placed under house arrest and eventually left the country.

Picture 1 shows the King’s audience hall. Photographs of the interior of these buildings are not allowed. We had only a brief glimpse of the interior before we were rushed away because the King was coming and he didn’t want the presence of we mere mortals! Picture 2 is the famous Silver Pagoda. The floor is covered in 5 tons of solid silver, most of which is covered with rugs. The tiles were made in France and have the French fleur-de-lis on each one. Also in the Silver Pagoda is a life-size image of Buddha made of 90 kilos of gold with over 9000 diamonds.

Surrounding the Silver Pagoda is gallery 600 meters long, with a painting of Cambodian history around the entire length. Picture 3 shows just one small section. It’s not in good repair, but there’s a Polish team there refurbishing the paintings—should be spectacular!

Finally, from the Royal Palace, we could not resist photographing the Cannonball Tree, shown in Picture 4. It has thorns, beautiful flowers and inedible fruit that grows to the size of a cannonball! The fruit was currently orange size, so not quit so impressive.

One of our delightful experiences in Phnom Penh was a “foodie” tour. We were picked up in a tuk-tuk by the lovely young couple shown in Picture 5. We started with cocktails on top of their tallest open building (there are taller ones that are not yet open). Rick recorded the lovely sunset through the bar in Picture 6. We went on to appetizers at a more western restaurant. The main course was at a local restaurant, where we were the only westerners. It included a vegetarian dish, fried frogs, fried pork and a chicken stew—all good, although not as spicy as we had hoped. Finally we had dessert at an upscale local restaurant, where, again, we were the only westerners. Picture 7 records dessert and our “specialty” cocktails—Rick finally found someone who could make a Manhattan!

The following morning we took a Cyclo tour of Phnom Penh with our guide. Picture 8 shows Rick in his pedi-cab. The drivers were about the size of our 10-year-old granddaughter, Morgan, so I’m sure we larger westerners were a lot of work. We visited Phnom Penh’s oldest Buddhist temple, shown in Picture 9. In itself, it was nothing too special, but look what we found further back on the grounds! Phmom Penh does not have a crematorium within the city. So the bodies are put in simple coffins (which are reused), stored in a garage at the temple (Picture 10) and transferred by hearse (Picture 11) to the crematorium outside town.

Our final stop was the central market, which was built by the French, during their occupation. It’s a large domed structure with 4 wings, one of which is shown in Picture 12. The “fancy” stuff is shown inside, while the every-day stuff is outside. Picture 13 shows one of the dried fish and shrimp stalls.

Our 4 days in Cambodia were great. We experienced the 10^th to the 21^st centuries. It’s a country that needs a lot of work to catch up with other countries in the area, like Thailand and Viet Nam. But it’s delightful.

We flew to Ho Chi Minh City and re-boarded the ship. More on Viet Nam later….