Impressions of Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is a fairly big city in terms of getting to the important landmarks. It's a decent walk to get from one place worth seeing to another place worth seeing. There are almost as many motorbikes on the roads as in Vietnamese cities, but there's much less honking here. I have been seeing a lot of amputees asking for money, and I find myself wondering whether they were disfigured during the Khmer Rouge regime or whether it happened afterwards. Phnom Penh seems so peaceful and placid that it's creepy walking around and remembering the city's bloody history. Much more on that stuff tomorrow...

Last night for dinner, I had meat, seafood and vegetables barbecued at the table in what the Lonely Planet book calls the "volcano of fire." This was pretty similar to the galbi that you get in Korea, but, with the additional ingredients of seafood and egg to be cooked, and absent of the kimchi, the mushrooms and the garlic that you would find in Korean barbecue. The food was pretty good going down, but I had a little bit of upset stomach and diarrhea in the morning. But I took some of my strong Korean medicine, and I feel fine now.

I started my wanderings today at Wat Phnom, which is a small Buddhist temple at the top of a hill that basically is the highest point in Phnom Penh. The Buddhist temple was like many of the other Buddhist temples I've seen on this trip (forgive me if I'm going through temple overload), but the exterior had Khmer architecture, meaning lots of stupas and tiled roofs gilded in yellow and blue. The real treat in visiting Wat Phnom was seeing the monkeys frolic in the trees and eat fruit. They weren't really going after the food of any of the people in the park, but maybe that's just because everyone was wise to the presence of the monkeys and weren't eating food near them.

The National Museum houses a lot of sculpture and frieze-work from the Angkor era of the 4th-12th centuries AD. Most of the sculptures were found in the huge area of Angkor temples that span northern Cambodia and were removed to the museum for their protection. Unfortunately, the museum fell into disrepair during the Khmer Rouge takeover, and some of the sculptures suffered water damage or were looted of their heads and sold off. The National Museum has been rebuilt pretty well and has a wonderful interior courtyard that had a lot of these Angkor era sculptures amid ponds with lilypads and fish. The Angkor sculptures were all representations of Hindu gods and various incarnations of the Buddha, resembling the Cham style but with more definition and sharper lines and features.

After the National Museum, I visited the Royal Palace where the Cambodian royalty has resided since the 19th century when the palace was built, except for the time when Cambodia was overtaken by the Khmer Rouge, and I believe the royalty were driven into exile. The grounds of the palace reminded me a lot of the Grand Palace in Bangkok in terms of architecture and the layout of the grounds. More stupas and gilded tile roofs in the style of Khmer architecture. Unlike the Grand Palace in Bangkok, there were not mosaic images formed of ceramic and jewels on the facades of the buildings, but the main throne hall itself did feature a throne completely upholstered in gold and used by the King only once (I believe during the coronation ceremony?) and large frescos on the ceiling of the throne hall. Also, there was a large mural that ran around the inside of the four walls that surround the Silver Pagoda. The temple on the grounds of the Royal Palace was almost similar to the Grand Palace in Bangkok, in that both places feature an Emerald Buddha, although the Cambodian Buddha is newer and larger. The temple also featured Buddhas made out of silver and gold. For a religion where impermanence is a main principle, the temple sure featured a lot of earthly wealth. But I guess that just makes it a wonderful place to worship.