Phnom Penh day 1

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Up late after much needed sleep.

Went to the guest house cafe and admired the view of Lake Boeng Kak (whcich is smake bang in the middle of the city. Ate my breakfast toast slowley and waited to see what would happen Spoke to another Canadian called Gill, who I thought was staying at he guest house but turns out she was gate crashing our cafe.

Then got some things together and made my way into the city. Where I was staying, the Boeng kak area is sectioned off by a six lane main road in which you have to cross to get anywhere. Took me ages to cross, worst here then Bankok. Felt like getting a Moto driver to take me across to the other side. But in the end I hade to do what one person later described it as, a leap of faith. But this still required me to hang around nervously in the middle of the six lanes while the traffic going the opposite direction thined out.

Checked out Wat Phnom which looked better from distance. When there one of the security guards requested that I pay 1dollar. Thought he was trying to pull a fast one so came up with a sob story of having just arrived from Lao and only had Kip on me. After a short exchange he let me off but as I left the site I passed a sign stating that all visitors need to pay one dollar to maintain the site. Never mind.
Saw some monkeys while I was there.

Followed the river down where I found a cafe and decided to try and have some lunch. Figured id try and fill my empty stomach up with pizza. Cambodian waitresses kept trying to chat me up. Managed to slowely eat most of the pizza.

I was planning to go and see the Palace but at the cafe I realised I stupidly hadnt brought enough money with me, so headed back to the guest house.

Got a moto driver from the guest house to the palace and quickley made the gantlet past the beggers and kids selling postcards through the main gate.

The royal palace is very nice and very differen in architecture to anything ive seen before (Khumer I guess) In fact its still used today by the current (new) king. Visited the throne room which was splendid. A couple of Incredibly beautiful cold satues. In fact most things in this room appeared to be made of cold. Unfortunatly this area plus the silver pagoda (a little disappointing apart from the 6 foot budda) prohibited me from entering with a camera.

Afterwards as I left the Royal palace grounds I made my way back to the river front and had a nice cold drink.

Caught up with some emails and this blog, then got a moto ride back to the guest house. Never picka kid to drive you, as like all kids with wheels around the world they like to think of them selves as boy racers. So had a heart racing trip back to the Guest house as we weved in and out of rush hour traffic.

Now back I went and sorted out my bus ticket for after tomorrow to Siem Reap.

Chilled out for the rest of the evening with some conversation with fellow travelers some dinner and a bit of Startsky and Hutch.

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