First day in Indochina

---

Geo: 11.55, 104.917

left Adelaide on Friday at 135 and flew to Bangkok. After a 4 hour sleep in the Novotel Airport Hotel we left for Cambodia at 7-40am. We have booked a Venture Holiday tour which means that most of our tours will be one on one. this was the case here. We were met at the airport by our very pleasant female local guide and taken straight to the Royal Palace. the driver took our luggage on to the hotel while we braved the humidity to tour this interesting place.
The palace contained some very interesting rooms. The most impressive was the Coronation room where the kings of Cambodia have been crowned. It was difficult to get close as we were restricted by rops but the ceiling, decorated in the French style, depicted many of the scenes from the Ramayana. Next door was a small museum which contained many gold and silver artefacts used for the coronations.
We also went to the Silver Pagoda, so called because the whole floor is covered in silver tiles which weigh over 600 tons. Inside were many buddha figures including the Emerald buddha statue as well as a large gold one.
We also saw the area where the elephants of the king used to be kept which now housed a room in which many howdhas were displayed.
From the Palace we were taken to the Museum where many statues of Kmer sculpture were displayed. These had been found at the Angkor Wat and other sites and though many were impressive in size and detail we were glad to leave.
Our guide then took us to a local market which was very ordinary. Having seen similar tat all over the world there was nothing we wanted to buy and the atmosphere was hot and claustrophobic.
We eventually got to our very comfortable hotel about 1pm.
Phnom Penh is an interesting Asian city, chaotic in traffic with no rules but not so busy to be completely lethal.
Having had lunch at the hotel and watching some footy on the Australian Channel we ventured out on our own about 3-30pm. We wlaked down to the Wat Phnom which gives the city its name. This is a hill on which a pagoda and stupa(tomb) were built by a lady called Penh. We then walked down to the Mekong river and found where the main restaraunt and bar area is. We ended up at the Foreign Correspondents bar which was the favourite haunt of western journalist during the Vietnam and Cambodian War. it overlooks the river and is on the first and second floors. We spent a pleasant few hours there havin Happy hour beers and then pizzas for dinner.
Finally we took a Tuk- Tuk ride back to our hotel.
A lovely day packed with interest and plenty of action.

---