sun day 135


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Asia » Cambodia » South
June 2nd 2015
Published: June 2nd 2015
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I decided to spend another full day in the capital as I like it - its got a nice feel about it. After having a leisurely start I headed out to find Wat Phnom which was only about 5 minutes from the hostel. Really I thought it was a bit of an unimpressive Wat ( or temple) I hoped it was more spectacular in 1372 when it was founded by a local widow - lady Penh. Across the road on an unassuming traffic island is a statue of lady Pehn - I was the only person who ran across to take her picture. With no information on her - in my book or by her statue I think its great that theyve named a city after this woman that no one knows much about. Heading off down the road I soon came across the Central Market. Yes, just another market but housed in a beautiful Art Deco building with a large dome at the centre. The building is yellow and is covered in windows so theres a beautiful natural light that pours in. Even the market itself is well laid out ( quite a difference from the Russian market yesterday) with jewellery stalls in the central dome area and everything else in the 5 sections that come off it - I like a market that's organised! After taking some photographs - but them never doing it justice ( look it up on the internet if you have time) I wandered down to the National Museum. Paying to go in, it sadly wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be. The building itself was beautiful - in a kind of Chinese style and it had a lovely central garden with 4 large fish ponds. The majority of the exhibits were stone statues of Buddha's and Buddhist gods - so after an hour or two I had seen enough. Yesterday I found a small cinema that today was showing The Killing Fields, as I was close to it I popped over paid my $3.50 and was shown up to the screen. With enough room for about 20 people it was very wee and as I was the only one there I could properly stretch out! Exactly like a proper cinema with trailers and warnings of not throwing popcorn at the people in front of you I didn't have to worry! The film was of course a bit of a tear jerker and must be about 20 plus yrs old hadn't aged at all. Heading back out into the scorching sun of the day I walked back to the hostel for an hour or two before heading back out for dinner. Next to the hostel is a Lebanese restaurant so I went in and had a falafel wrap - my favourite! With of course mint tea. Wandering back down the side of the river I had a look around the night market and stopped for a delicious sugar cane drink. On many streets around the city there are quite a few people begging - from mothers with babies to adults with terrible deformities to kids. Its heart wrenching to see the desperateness in their faces and just walk past so a couple of times I would buy some small drinks and give them to them instead of cash. Walking back to the hostel but a slightly different way, to see the different sides of the city and take some photos, when I got back I joined Eeva (the lady from Finland) and her friend from Belgium for a drink before going up to pack for tomorrows early start.

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