Phnom Penh

The heat here is amazing, heavy, sweaty, sunny and dusty. Which mightn't have been so bad had we a fresh pair of clothes to change into and some deodorant! You'd be surprised at what you can get used to! We visited the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda on Monday. We spent a while looking from the Silver Pagoda to our guide book and back to the Silver Pagoda, wondering why the descriptions did not match so well, and then left feeling slightly disappointed that it had not lived up to expectations. Then, as we went to what we figured was the exit we saw a sign saying "Silver Pagoda, this way" and realised the error of our ways. Turns out the Throne room would have fit exactly into the description in the book, had we realised that that was what we were looking at. Duh.

I blame the big, warm jumper I had to wear while visiting the temples in 40degree heat for our mistake. As with most religious buildings, especially those frequented by tourists, proper dress is required. As I didn't have much choice about the clothing I wore, as most of my stuff was still in Kuala Lumpur, I had to bring a heavy GAP jumper to throw around my shoulders. Or so I had hoped. No such luck. By the time we reached the Silver Pagoda, the real one this time, I was sweating and red in the face and not in such an impressable mood! Our visit consisted of Toby reading to me from the guide book and me saying: yeah, yeah, that's great, yet another statue of budda. So, is there anything else we need to see? No? Ok, off we go!"As soon as we got out of there, it was time to head to the river front and find a nice bar with a ceiling fan and some cold beers. Ahh.