The Royale Palace

So what have I been up to? Not much, just takin’ it easy in Phnom Penh. I’m limiting myself to one tourist site a day, so that leaves lots of time for reading in cafes.

As for sites, so far I’ve seen the National Museum, and the Royal Palace. I wanted to see the museum, my first since KL, to check out the statues that used to be at Angkor, as well as the heads that used to be on the remaining headless statues. One of the characters in Matt Dillon’s flick about Cambodia, City of Ghosts, said of Cambodia: “the whole country could use a paint job.” The museum certainly could. It’s housed in a run-down building, complete with shacks and laundry hanging out to dry in the courtyard. It was worth seeing, though. It was the first museum I’ve been to where people make offerings to the statues on display.

One thing interesting about Cambodia’s Royal Palace, is how similar it is to Thailand’s Royal Palace. Both palaces also have a temple of an emerald Buddha. There’s a simple explanation for this. When the Thais sacked Angkor, they liked it so much that they copied what they found there.

That Unexpected French Influence

It occurred to me today that this is the first country I’ve been in that is not either England, one of its former colonies, or a country heavily influence by it. Cambodia was a French colony, along with Laos and Vietnam. As such, many signs are in Khmer, French, and English. A couple people have asked me “parles vous frances?” I asked my guide if most people spoke French, and he said yes, but I’m wondering if that’s true. Whatever the case, I can’t get enough of those baguettes. And I can’t get over seeing Khmer vendors selling baguettes on street corners!