Day 14: Cambodian History - Palace and Museum

Phnom Penh - Tuesday 28/12

After a tough day yesterday at Cheoung Ek and S21 learning about the short but destructive reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the late 1970s, a much more cultured day today.

First, we visited the Royal Palace, set very close to the Mekong River in central Phnom Penh. This is where the King is in residence when "in town". The original Palace was built in 1434, but the royal family later moved to another part of Cambodia. It was then rebuilt on the same site in 1866 and stands to the present day.

The Palace is set in a very large complex with many ornate buildings and immaculately manicured gardens - as one would expect in a Royal Palace.

The photographers went nuts on the lovely views that allowed combinations of the gardens and beautiful buildings. Others that were not so appreciative of the opportunity for creative photography wondered how on earth anything that simple could take so long.

Ah, the generation gap ...

On the way out of the Palace there is the opportunity for a Cambodian music lesson - an elderly man conducts a three piece orchestra - he organises two people on the drums and merimbula (or Cambodian equivalents), then accompanies himself to form a three piece band. It is amazing to hear quite a reasonable sound after a 30 second lesson ! You can check the pics for who gave it a go.

After the Royal Palace, our second stop on our culture tour was the National Museum - this is quite a small museum but contains many artifacts retrieved and preserved from around the temples of Cambodia. Many of these artifacts were buried by villagers during the time of the Khmer Rouge to prevent them being destroyed and have now been returned to the museum for an important record of Cambodia's history.

There are artifacts dating right back the 9th - 10th century which was the period the earliest temples were built.

After the museum visit we had a short lunch then back to the hotel for an afternoon of R&R - which seems to consist of a short swim in between as much Facebook as possible.

Ah, the generation gap ...

Dinner was planned at another special restaurant called Friends that trains underprivileged local youths in hospitality.

On the way to dinner, we dropped back to the Mekong River waterfront just outside the Royal Palace to see what the sunset was going to be like. The waterfront is bustling with people at dusk as the air has cooled down and this is the most pleasant time to be outside. And we were rewarded with a fabulous sunset behind the main Palace gate - see the pics on that one as well.

Dinner at friends was magnificent - the style is "tapas", so you order a series of small dishes that can be shared between people. The food was a style with traditional Cambodian flavours but with a western style - so sort of modern Cambodian. A little more expensive that traditional local food, but so delicious we have decided to go back for our final night in Phnom Penh before heading to the beach at Kep.

This blog is being posted on Wednesday and we have a free day today to pack and be ready to depart - we have been down to the local markets this morning for the last shopaholic session, then this afternoon is again R&R by the pool (and no doubt more arrrgghhhhhh Facebook).

The new few days at Kep are going to be much quieter - this is the pure "holiday" part of the trip - so there will only be a couple more blogs a few days apart to let you know what we are up to and show some pics of the Kep region.

So keep an eye out, but the next blog will be in 2 - 3 days time.