FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: All In A Day's Work

The National Museum

After a great night's sleep, the body clock promptly woke me up just before 5am alerting me that it was way past wake up time back home. By 6am it was clear that sleep would not come again and so I might as well make good use of my time and visit the gym. All good intentions of a workout was abandoned as soon as I realised the A/C was not on, admittedly I did not look or try very hard to remedy the situation. If one were to exercise, the gym was spacious and well equipped. Instead I took photos from the window before moseying on down for breakfast.

I love a good Asian Hotel buffet breakfast. The coffee station was a little disappointing. I had expected a similar situation to the offerings at the Vietnamese hotels ie Khmer style coffee with condensed milk but there was no condensed milk in sight. Otherwise the selection was good and it was great way to start our day. During breakfast, we saw numerous very important looking people all dressed up beautifully and wondered who the heck holds formal events in the morning? We later found out that it was a Royal Wedding! The King's niece was getting married and the royal family had booked rooms at the hotel for guests. That was why the hotel was full! As such we had to slightly rearrange our itinerary for the day as the Royal Palace would be closed to the public in the morning.

If one were to do some cardio, this would be your view.

Tucked away in the corner out of sight were the other paraphernalia like the bosu, weighted balls and the like

View from the gym. Our hotel pool, and the Royal Palace to the right

Breakfast time

The all important noodle station!

Cured barramundi

The buffet line

My breakfast noodles. The soup was light but tasty and the meat serving generous

The day turned out to be one crammed with activities and moments of emotions of varying kinds but mostly joy thankfully! What didn't we do?!

Our guide, Mr Borei, was ready and waiting for us at the lobby. Hurray for airconditioned cars...no offence to the tuk tuk tourists. First up was the National Museum of Cambodia to exercise our brains. In 90 minutes, we had a crash course in Khmer history and culture. This would likely be beneficial to better understand and appreciate what we are seeing for our upcoming visit to Angkor Wat. It was also nice to have a guide to ourselves to manoeuvre us around the museum.

The capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh is home to 2 million out of the 16 million living in Cambodia. I wasn't sure what to expect for Phnom Penh to be honest. It was a lot more modern than I pictured. Driving around, I got a sense of familiarity. It almost felt like being in any big city in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia or Malaysia...the traffic, the heat, the streetscapes. Same same but slightly different.

Our transport for today

Spacious and comfortable but with a rather inefficient mechanism to move the middle seat for access to the back seat!

Bronze Vishnu from around 12th

Reclining Vishnu 11th Century from around Angkor

I've never seen a slinky style Buddha before...

Peacock as mode of transport? Yes!

Still smiling and thinking its not THAT hot....

The next site was sobering and tough on the emotions. The Tuol Seng Genocide Museum was a former school converted to a prison by the Khmer Rouge, and now a museum chronicling the genocide. It was difficult to process the cruelty that occurred during the time period. The exhibits were explicit with details and being in the actual rooms where the atrocities occurred was confronting. The experience was similar to visiting a concentration camp in Europe. Objectively, as a museum, everything was well presented. However for those who are more emotionally sensitive, you may have to mentally prepare to visit the museum.

The seemingly innocuous grounds of the Genocide museum

One of the rooms used to hold prisoners in between periods of interrogation. The little box is the pee and poo box and the prisoner was chained to the bed. The graphic photo was of one of the 14 dead prisoners found when the prison was liberated in 1979

Previously a school

Prisoners were hung by the arms tied behind their back

The only 7 survivors of the building. Only 2 are now alive and they sell their book on the grouds

Another example of a holding cell

The Khmer Rouge recruited uneducated young from the country who couldn't read. And so relied on numbers to tell them which prisoners to send to the killing fields

Photos of the 5 children who survived

By now, the stomach was screaming "my turn"! The Russian market was unfortunately looking a little sad with only a few vendors open on account of Chinese New Year, and the earliest reservation we could get for lunch was at 1pm. So we did the next best thing, go to a shopping mall and visit a Japanese supermarket to buy snacks for our road trip tomorrow. It did kill time rather efficiently and before we knew it, we were off to lunch Banana Tree Restaurant. It was a "Pan-Asian" restaurant and completely geared towards tourists. I am also certain that the prices were overinflated. We were initially slightly annoyed as we had requested Cambodian cuisine but the food was actually good! We ordered the fish amok and beef lok lak as recommended by our guide, as well as the banana blossom salad that the waiter suggested. The meal was finished off with the classic mango and sticky rice, and a warm tapioca and banana pudding.

Look only. No touch or eating?!?

A Kit Kat flavour I had not heard of!

Lunch time!

Beef lok lak

Fish amok

Salad

Our hotel just across the road! The roof top bar is visible at the top

We were fooled into contentment by the earlier cool morning and satisfying lunch. Little did we know that we were about to endure a physical challenge from the heat. It was now past 2pm and the Royal Palace had reopened. By now, the temperature had soared and the heat had well and truly set in. There was minimal shade in the Royal Palace complex and we were sweating profusely. We dutifully covered all the various buildings in the Palace complex along the with the adjoining Silver Pagoda, doing our best to look great in sweat drenched clothes whilst our guide took photos of us from all possible angles. As a quick aside, knees and shoulders do have to be covered to enter the Royal Palace. If you were not aware or forgot, there was a small stall that sold the necessary items and clothes to ensure you meet the entry requirements.

The current palace was rebuilt in the late 1800s when the capital was moved to Phnom Penh. We were not allowed to take photos inside the main Khmer style throne hall of the Palace where the King's throne and "magic chair" of pure gold sat. This was where he would meet dignitaries and where the Royal Wedding took place earlier today! Only 2 people resided in the Palace, the 70 year old King and his mother. He remained single as he had no wish to marry as a devout Buddhist. I really did try to listen but the concentrating was seriously waning at this point...

We moved on to the adjoining Silver Pagoda, the official place of worship for the Royal Family, and a treasure trove of gold and silver including a bejeweled Buddha statue studded with 2086 diamonds. His heart diamond came in at 20 carat, and his forhead was adorned with a 25 carat diamond. Dude...

Throne Hall

Gate for the King leading directly to the river

The Hall where the King gives his speeches

Quick the guide is not looking lets take a selfie

White Elephant Hall

Staff would wear a different colour on different days of the week

Frescoes surrounding the Silver Pagoda, depicting the story of the Reamkar from beginning to end

The crematorium for the royal family

The Silver Pagoda

When we officially finished our tour at 3:52pm we were so relieved that our hotel was literally a 50m walk away. We had important business to attend. First up, booking a massage for tonight. Second item of business was to organise a massage for tomorrow at Siem Reap. Next was to squeeze our other activities around our massage. We just had enough time to swim in the pool, head up to the rooftop bar to enjoy our happy hour cocktails (two for USD6!!) and enjoy the sun setting behind the Royal Palace before our massage at the hotel Spa. The massage was unanimously one of the best massages we've all had!

We walked to the nearby riverside to scrounge for some dinner. The Royal Palace was placed at the confluence of the Mekong, Tonle Sap and Bassac rivers. We survived crossing the road without being roadkill and settled for a very Western restaurant called the Waterside. Again the food was excellent. We have decided that we were happy to pay a higher price for comfort and cleanliness (and being able to pay by credit card) so long as the food was good. Best of cocktails were only USD5! Cheers to that and a fantastic way to start our week in Cambodia!