Francesca and Henk-Jan's Backpacking Trip!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Quiet Cambodia
Our last few days in Phnom Penh and Cambodia were fairly quiet. On the 5th of April Francesca and I arose from our slumber fairly late. We had a cultural and a royal goal for the day, a ticket to book and a competition to enter. The gigantic National Museum of Phnom Penh happened to be right across from our guesthouse, so it naturally became our first stop.
From a distance we recognized the architecture to be of Khmer origin, just supersized. We bought our tickets and went inside. A small hall gave us a short introduction on the history of the Khmer empire. None of it was news to us, as we’d studied the Khmer history to bits in Siem Reap. Unfortunately the majority of the museum was dedicated to the Khmers, with a special focus on Angkor Wat. The museum had a nice collection of sculptures, ceramics, and bronzes, all from the same period.
It wasn’t until we had walked through more than half of the museum that we spotted some new material to absorb. Three wooden panels portrayed scenes from the Reamker, the Khmer version of the Ramayana. The rest of the museum only took a few more minutes and it didn’t take long before we reached our next destination after that.
The Royal Palace of Phnom Penh, or Preah Barum Reacha Veak Nei Preah Reacha Nayeak Kampuchea (sounds more impressive, doesn’t it?) was built in 1866 under the rule of King Norodom. Following Kings improved and added on sections, leaving the building as it looks today. The Palace has always been inhabited by Kings, even though there technically wasn’t a King during the Khmer Rouge’s reign of destruction. For some time Prince Sihanouk was held under house arrest in the Palace. Nowadays, the present King of Cambodia, King Norodom Sihamoni, resides in one of the compounds of the Palace.
Francesca and I bought our somewhat expensive tickets and headed for the main building of the complex: the Throne Hall. The Throne Hall is where the king's confidants, generals and royal officials once carried out their duties. It is still in use today as a place for religious and royal events as well as a meeting place for guests of the King. We had a look around on the inside, but were not allowed to take pictures. A grumpy old man even yelled at me for just holding the turned off camera in my hand…
We continued our walk, admiring the lush green gardens and wondered how much money is spent on gardeners and water alone. We passed through a little gate and found ourselves in a second courtyard. The bruised and battered walls of this courtyard were covered in scenes from the Ramayana, and made for some good pictures. The courtyard was also home to some leafy elephants, a prince on a horse and some white pagodas. Francesca and I sort of missed the importance of the main temple of this area, but we did see it: the Silver Pagoda was named during King Sihanouk's pre-Khmer Rouge reign, as the Silver Pagoda was inlaid with more than 5,000 silver tiles. Alongside this treasure the Pagoda also houses a small 17th century baccarat crystal Buddha (the "Emerald Buddha" of Cambodia) and a near-life-size, Maitreya Buddha encrusted with 9,584 diamonds. Oh, how we wished we could chip off a few pieces!
We finished our walk at the back of the Silver Pagoda’s hall, where we found a miniature Angkor Wat. The rest of the complex barely deserves any mention. We saw a few pictures of the King during different royal ceremonies. After that we listened to an interesting video (the TV had decided to go green, and stuck to this color) about Angkor Wat. To be frank, this was the most interesting part of the visit. A tip from Henk: do not spend your hard-earned cash on the Royal Palace if you’re going to Phnom Penh! Francesca wants to add: it’s worth it if you’ve never seen anything like this before.
Francesca and I went back to the guesthouse, rested up a little and started working on our video for the Run Away Bride competition around 5:00 PM. The competition could possibly see us test honeymoon destinations in Ireland and all we had to do was make a video. We had finished and submitted it by 6:00 PM. Wanting to combine our hunger with some education, and we knew one restaurant would have movie showings about the Khmer Rouge and the war, so went wanted to make sure we could eat something and catch the 7:00 PM showing. It took a while to get there and we ended up ordering our food, only to take it upstairs to the small movie room. Francesca enjoyed her Spaghetti Bolognese and I my tuna salad whilst the documentary started. “Pol Pot’s Regime” basically covered all of the Khmer Rouge’s crimes, describing the government’s flawed policies and mistakes. We learned a little more about all that had happened. Back at the guesthouse we packed our bags, getting ready to move on to Vietnam.
From a distance we recognized the architecture to be of Khmer origin, just supersized. We bought our tickets and went inside. A small hall gave us a short introduction on the history of the Khmer empire. None of it was news to us, as we’d studied the Khmer history to bits in Siem Reap. Unfortunately the majority of the museum was dedicated to the Khmers, with a special focus on Angkor Wat. The museum had a nice collection of sculptures, ceramics, and bronzes, all from the same period.
It wasn’t until we had walked through more than half of the museum that we spotted some new material to absorb. Three wooden panels portrayed scenes from the Reamker, the Khmer version of the Ramayana. The rest of the museum only took a few more minutes and it didn’t take long before we reached our next destination after that.
The Royal Palace of Phnom Penh, or Preah Barum Reacha Veak Nei Preah Reacha Nayeak Kampuchea (sounds more impressive, doesn’t it?) was built in 1866 under the rule of King Norodom. Following Kings improved and added on sections, leaving the building as it looks today. The Palace has always been inhabited by Kings, even though there technically wasn’t a King during the Khmer Rouge’s reign of destruction. For some time Prince Sihanouk was held under house arrest in the Palace. Nowadays, the present King of Cambodia, King Norodom Sihamoni, resides in one of the compounds of the Palace.
Francesca and I bought our somewhat expensive tickets and headed for the main building of the complex: the Throne Hall. The Throne Hall is where the king's confidants, generals and royal officials once carried out their duties. It is still in use today as a place for religious and royal events as well as a meeting place for guests of the King. We had a look around on the inside, but were not allowed to take pictures. A grumpy old man even yelled at me for just holding the turned off camera in my hand…
We continued our walk, admiring the lush green gardens and wondered how much money is spent on gardeners and water alone. We passed through a little gate and found ourselves in a second courtyard. The bruised and battered walls of this courtyard were covered in scenes from the Ramayana, and made for some good pictures. The courtyard was also home to some leafy elephants, a prince on a horse and some white pagodas. Francesca and I sort of missed the importance of the main temple of this area, but we did see it: the Silver Pagoda was named during King Sihanouk's pre-Khmer Rouge reign, as the Silver Pagoda was inlaid with more than 5,000 silver tiles. Alongside this treasure the Pagoda also houses a small 17th century baccarat crystal Buddha (the "Emerald Buddha" of Cambodia) and a near-life-size, Maitreya Buddha encrusted with 9,584 diamonds. Oh, how we wished we could chip off a few pieces!
We finished our walk at the back of the Silver Pagoda’s hall, where we found a miniature Angkor Wat. The rest of the complex barely deserves any mention. We saw a few pictures of the King during different royal ceremonies. After that we listened to an interesting video (the TV had decided to go green, and stuck to this color) about Angkor Wat. To be frank, this was the most interesting part of the visit. A tip from Henk: do not spend your hard-earned cash on the Royal Palace if you’re going to Phnom Penh! Francesca wants to add: it’s worth it if you’ve never seen anything like this before.
Francesca and I went back to the guesthouse, rested up a little and started working on our video for the Run Away Bride competition around 5:00 PM. The competition could possibly see us test honeymoon destinations in Ireland and all we had to do was make a video. We had finished and submitted it by 6:00 PM. Wanting to combine our hunger with some education, and we knew one restaurant would have movie showings about the Khmer Rouge and the war, so went wanted to make sure we could eat something and catch the 7:00 PM showing. It took a while to get there and we ended up ordering our food, only to take it upstairs to the small movie room. Francesca enjoyed her Spaghetti Bolognese and I my tuna salad whilst the documentary started. “Pol Pot’s Regime” basically covered all of the Khmer Rouge’s crimes, describing the government’s flawed policies and mistakes. We learned a little more about all that had happened. Back at the guesthouse we packed our bags, getting ready to move on to Vietnam.
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