A second day in Phnom Penh

I just about started off this post by telling you it didn't rain today despite it being the monsoon season when daily rains are expected... and it just started to pour!  Unfortunately it's kind of late at night so much as I'd like to go back outside and see the flooding that I'm sure is happening I'm already in my pyjamas so I'm not going to.

My day started with another tuk-tuk ride and a trip to one of three markets that are here in Phnom Penh.

This one is called the Central Market (or Phsar Thmei).  It was built in 1937 and sell absolutely everything!  Although the stall owners want your business (of course), what I really liked about the Central Market was that I didn't feel harassed at all, and even when I was invited to "come and take a look" it was done in the quite, gentle, Cambodian way.

And now, after today, I can tell you a bit more about the National Museum and the Royal Palace as I got to both of them.

The National Museum was absolutely incredible - both inside and out - housing over 5000 objects.  Photos are not allowed of anything inside the museum at all, but trust me when I say the collection was amazing.  And the exterior of the building, as well as the gardens in the centre, are pretty nice too!

After that I went to the Royal Palace.  It was built in 1866 and is a compound of buildings including the Palace that is the Royal residence

and the Silver Pagoda which houses both an Emerald Buddha and a diamond-encrusted Golden Buddha.  The pagoda gets its name from the 5000 silver tiles covering the floor.

Again photos of the inside of any building were not allowed, but the entire compound was pretty spectacular.

My last destination today was Wat Phnom - a temple and massive stupa that enshrines the ashes of King Ponhea Yat who, in 1434, arrived and built the city of Phnom Penh.  This is the temple that the city now derives its name from.

And then at the end of the day I took a walk along the Tonle Sap river and did some people watching.
The Tonle Sap merges with the Mekong River just a little bit from where I was walking so hopefully at some point before I leave Phnom Penh and Cambodia I'll have some time to explore the Mekong River a bit.  There had been a big celebration earlier in the day for the Chinese Moon Festival, plus it was just a nice Sunday afternoon, so there were lots of people out and about.

An afternoon in a Tuk Tuk

No problems with my flight to Phnom Penh, and after a little while of mental readjustment (my fault, but I hadn't quite prepared myself to be on my own in a third world country) and adjusting to the culture shock,  I took a deep breath and decided to take a walk around the neighbourhood around the guesthouse where I'm staying.

Perhaps I should also mention that shortly after I arrived it started to rain, and if you haven't been following the cyclone off the Philippines, it's enough to say that because of it Cambodia has had a lot of rain these past couple of weeks.  So when I first went outside this is the scene that awaited me:

I didn't have to go far, maybe a metre away from the guesthouse door, and I had no shortage of offers to go for a ride in a tuk-tuk or remork - a roofed, two-wheeled trailer attached to a motorcycle.  They can be used as a form of taxi, but the drivers are also happy just to take you around and do their own, personalized tour of the city.

My driver's name was Wana and he's familiar with the tour I'm going to be joining so he suggested that we go for a drive through the "real" Phnom Penh, rather than going to some of the places he knows I'll be going to anyway.  It was absolutely amazing - and these pictures were taken just as we were driving through the streets.

Not much of this colour house that I could see ...

(The photo doesn't show it well, but the house on the left was a very lovely mauve colour.)

As part of our drive we did go my a few buildings and monuments that are very important to Phnom Penh.  I can't tell you much about them yet but hopefully over my next two days here I'll have a chance to go to some of them.

This is the National Museum

And this is the Royal Palace

This is the Independence Monument, built in 1958 to celebrate Cambodia's independence from France in 1953.

And my afternoon/evening ended in a rather different way as well, but I can certainly say I got a good dose of Cambodian culture.  Wana asked if I wanted to go and see the local kick-boxing match!  Why not.  And local it was!  As you can guess, kick-boxing isn't really my thing but it was neat to be a part of the local action.  And part of the evening's activities was a little bit of a concert before the championship fight - some singing, dancing and a sword performer.  THAT I really did enjoy.

Thought you might like to see my shower here in the guesthouse where I'm staying ... as you can see it's really the whole bathroom.  I turn the hot water on by the silver box on the wall and then I stand anywhere in the bathroom and use the shower head.

Just in case you were wondering

For thos of you who need the occasional reassurance that I am actually in some of the places I'm writing about, I meant to include these as I went along but forgot.

But I was in Hong Kong - at least at the bridge to Lantau Island and at the ruins of St. Paul in Macau anyway.

Cheers

My last day in Hong Kong

Can you believe it, but my time in Hong Kong is nearly finished and tomorrow I'm flying to Cambodia.  Now I could be very wrong, but I'm thinking that likely my access to the internet is going to be quite a bit more limited for the next few weeks (while I'm travelling in Cambodia and then Vietnam) so if the frequency of blog posts drops off for a while that's likely why.

Today I decided to go back and just spend some more time on Hong Kong Island and I'm awfully glad I did.  There's a little brochure you can get here that outlines a few walking tours you can do around Hong Kong, and so I set off today thinking I might get a couple on Hong Kong Island done.  Instead I got a bit lost following the first tour, so I never did get a second one done, but I saw some great things today!

Today was more about getting out of the "flashy" Hong Kong and getting into some of the side streets and really residential areas and trying to get a feel for how Hong Kong ticks for most of the people who live here.   So going on the advice of someone at the tourist bureau I headed into what is referred to as the Western District - and here's where I got sort of "lost".  Ok, maybe not lost exactly, but it was just so much fun wandering around the streets and alleys that it did take me a little while to find my way back to a main street again.

The stores here were great - selling everything from ginseng to bird's nest, to dried seafood, to all sorts of herbal medicines.  And this was clearly a part of the city where local people come to shop - just watching life unfold was fascinating.

And things are just left to dry - anywhere and everywhere.

I'm not at all sure what these are, but I do know I wouldn't be game enough to put them in my mouth.

From this very local area I went to one that dealt more with Chinese antiques and curios - with what looked to be some very upscale shops but also many street vendors with an incredibly interesting array of things for sale.

And then you turn a corner and you're in front of a temple.  This one is Man Mo Temple.  It is one of the first traditional-style temples built during the colonial era and it pays homage to the Taoist gods of literature ('Man') and war ('Mo').

Leaving the more traditional I then came to the world's longest covered escalator.  It is 800 metres long and links the area near the water in Hong Kong to a part of the city called the Mid-Levels... mid-way up the mountain the city is built on.  To travel the whole length takes about 20 minutes - I only went a few sections.  You can see a part of it in this photo - it's the covered green thing on the left hand side.

I got off after a few sections in a neighbourhood called SoHo - a neighbourhood south of Hollywood Road.  It's a swanky little area filled with coffee shops, funky bars and chic restaurants.

Continuing my walk I went past the former Police Station which definitely stands as a testimony to Hong Kong's colonial heritage.  It was built in 1864.

But really today - it was watching the people, and watching life happening that I was the most interested in.

And for those of you who were wondering, I want you to know that it's not just at out-of-the-way Buddhist monasteries that they use bamboo scaffolding - it's used throughout the city!

I know I've shared quite a few photos of Hong Kong's skyline, and that certainly is quite spectacular, but the skyline of Kowloon is pretty nice too ... especially when the Sun Princess is in port!  I think this is probably the biggest cruise ship I've ever seen, anywhere.

And now it's time to leave Hong Kong.  As I said, please be patient if there aren't any posts for awhile and I will definitely be back on-line again as soon as I can be.  And I'm sure Cambodia and Vietnam are going to have some wonderful things for me to tell you and about, and photos to share.