PP Day 6 – halfway day

At the Royal Palace

Today was our “break” day, when we were able to act like tourists and visit Wat Phnom, The Royal Palace, and the Central Markets. Unfortunately, it also seemed to be the day a lot of people started getting sick. Might have been the seafood last night, might be we’re getting a bit laissez faire with the antibacterial, or maybe it was just enough time for all the bugs to incubate nicely! So unfortunately some of us (including moi) weren’t in a really good state to appreciate the sights, even though we decided to soldier through it, determined to have our tourist day!

wrought iron gates

I think I want this door at my place…

First stop was at the Royal Palace. The buildings are amazing here, really ornate carvings and dripping with gilt. The topiary and gardens were also beautiful, with the expected plants like bougainvillea and frangipani, but also huge bowls of gorgeous purple waterlillies and topiaries shaped into such forms as elephants!

Elephant topiary

Scale model of Angkor Wat at the Royal Palace

Next was Friends Restaurant, another charity group who offers the people in need opportunities for training and vocational education. Good food, but I couldn’t really appreciate it properly since I was feeling a little under the weather still!

Sweet potato and taro chips

Pomelo and Mint Freeze

The sweet potato and taro chips helped a bit though – some stodge to help the tummy feel less unsettled! The shop next to Friends has lots of recycled materials goods to help raise money for the group, like twirled paper placemats and coasters, bracelets, recycled cutlery jewellery, tyre rubber wallets and computer cases. I was dithering between the two Friends Restaurant cookbooks, which focused on Khmer cooking, but I was dithering so much I didn’t end up with either, thinking I might go back afterwards.

Statue at Wat Phnom

After lunch we visited Wat Phnom, a temple on the biggest hill in the city. There’s been a temple on that spot for 650 years, but the current temple was rebuilt in 1926. The walls on the inside are decorated with scenes from the Buddha’s life, including pretty freaky ones like people being stabbed and bitten by animals!

Central Markets

Next stop, the Central Markets. These were like most large markets, with repetition of the same shops: knockoff bag shops, tshirt shops, jewellery shops, etc etc, ut laid out in a circular design with many snaking passageways filled with people and shops. The students were all pretty keen to try their hand at haggling with the merchants, and some did amazing deals! I picked up a couple of pieces of ‘turquoise’ jewellery (it may or may not be!), and a couple of little things for kids back home. Not a lot of shopping, but keeping an eye on the students meant I didn’t have my shopping eyes on!

We had a bit of time back at the hotel before dinner, so H and I took some of the students up to the massage place, where they spread the seven of us across two rooms. Communal massage!

Dinner was back at the Khmer Surin where we had tried tarantula on the first night. The group was a much more subdued one this evening, with lots of people feeling under the weather. I took a couple of kids back to the hotel early so they could go to bed, and did so myself, so hopefully I’ll be feeling better in the morning, too!