We'd had a restless sleep last night because there is a mosque on the opposite side of the river and there was loud chanting at regular intervals during the night. Apparently only 5% of the Cambodian population is Muslim. The vast majority follow Buddhism.
I was feeling much better this morning - almost completely recovered and so I had a normal breakfast. Peter, on the other hand, was still suffering from his tummy upset and didn't eat much at all for breakfast before going back to his room for the morning.
There were three tourist buses waiting at the wharf to take us on our excursion. Our guide for the morning was Lovy. Several people must have decided not to come because there were less than ten people in our group.
It was a ten minute trip on the bus to the palace. We'd been warned to dress modestly for this visit - we had to make sure our knees and shoulders were covered. The women were warned that it wasn't good enough to wear a scarf to cover their shoulders.
Lovy did an excellent job of guiding us through the grounds of the palace giving us an excellent commentary on each building and the history of the palace and the monarchy. As it turned out, the king was not in the palace today but there were certainly plenty of tourists.
From what I can see, the Cambodians are very fond of their monarchy. What's more they go to a lot of trouble to look after the palace. Every millimetre is carefully maintained. It is extremely impressive. There must be about a dozen buildings in the palace grounds. Each is ornate, elegant and immaculate.
Tourists are not allowed to take photos inside the main building or in the Silver Palace. However you can go into the Silver Palace if you take off your shoes and hat. The Silver Palace contains hundreds of statues of Buddha in all shapes and sizes.
Next the buses took us to the National Museum. As usual our guide bought tickets to pay for our entry. If you want to take photos inside, you need to pay an extra fee of $US1 which I was glad to pay - not only because I wanted to take photos but also because I got change of a larger US note.
The museum is organised into two sections - one for pre-Angkor period and one for post-Angkor. Time-wise, the dividing line is about 900AD. Before this date, the artwork is heavily influenced by Indian Hindu religion. Afterwards it's Buddhism.
Soon after we entered the museum, a violent thunderstorm struck the city and it rained heavily for most of the time we were inside. Luckily the rain eased just before we had to leave to get back on our bus. I guess we had been even luckier that it hadn't rained earlier this morning when we were touring the grounds of the royal palace.
We were back at the Scenic Spirit by about 11:30am. Soon after we'd got back to our room, our new butler, Vitol, came to introduce himself.
Last night and this morning, we had been warned that the ship would leave Phnom Penh at 12 noon whether we were back on board on not. Sure enough, the ship left punctually just before noon.
Suzy I went up to the lounge to observe the departure and to have a drink. Suzy went for gin and tonic again whereas I tried a Merlot from Bordeaux.
It was fascinating watching the passing scenery as we sailed up the river - particularly the contrast in the housing. The poor people lived in run-down corrugated-iron dwellings on the river bank whereas the houses behind them were much nicer.
We joined Yolanda, Peter and Maria for lunch in the dining room at 12:30pm for an another great buffet lunch. I kept a close eye on the passing scenery and had to jump up regularly to take photos of the passing parade of scenery on the river and the river bank.
At 2pm, we attended a demonstration of 101 ways to tie a Cambodian scarf (Krama). The ship reach the town of Koh Chen by 3pm and moored close to the river bank.
The afternoon excursion tour was a walking tour of the village. Here we split into three groups again and visited little silverware shops where we saw demonstrations of the way they make silverware products. Then we were encouraged to buy from their showroom.
Both before and after the demonstration, we were approach by children carrying trays of jewelry trying to sell things to us. Our guide discouraged us from buying from the children because if they are successful, the parents don't send them to school.
The road we were walking on would normally be a dirt road but today it was very muddy. It was only a single lane road and there were motor bikes and cars travelling on it both directions at regular intervals.
As we walked past a pagoda, a load chanting started over loud speakers and continued for more than 20 minutes.
We were taken to a covered area where we were asked to sit down in a classroom with a blackboard. Our guide introduced us to a teacher from the local school who is 83 years old. He is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge era.
At several talks we've been told about the horrors perpetrated on the Cambodian people by the Khmer Rouge. They had a policy of exterminating anyone who had an education - including teachers, doctors and intellectuals.
If you wore glasses, they concluded that you were educated and got rid of you. They would line people up and examine their hands. If you had soft hands, they would murder you because you were obviously not a labourer. The teacher in front of us escaped because he had callouses on his hands from going to the gym regularly.
The children selling jewelry followed us all the way back to the boat. We were back on board by 5:30pm.
When we come back from an excursion, we are always met by staff. Some staff help you up the gangplank and others ensure that you don't bump your head. Someone sprays disinfectant on your hands and someone else gives you a refresher towel.
This time there were lots of mats for us to wipe our feet to get most of the mud off. Suzy wasn't convinced I'd got enough mud off and got me to call the butler to clean them for me.
I was feeling much better this morning - almost completely recovered and so I had a normal breakfast. Peter, on the other hand, was still suffering from his tummy upset and didn't eat much at all for breakfast before going back to his room for the morning.
It was a ten minute trip on the bus to the palace. We'd been warned to dress modestly for this visit - we had to make sure our knees and shoulders were covered. The women were warned that it wasn't good enough to wear a scarf to cover their shoulders.
Tourists are not allowed to take photos inside the main building or in the Silver Palace. However you can go into the Silver Palace if you take off your shoes and hat. The Silver Palace contains hundreds of statues of Buddha in all shapes and sizes.
The museum is organised into two sections - one for pre-Angkor period and one for post-Angkor. Time-wise, the dividing line is about 900AD. Before this date, the artwork is heavily influenced by Indian Hindu religion. Afterwards it's Buddhism.
We were back at the Scenic Spirit by about 11:30am. Soon after we'd got back to our room, our new butler, Vitol, came to introduce himself.
Last night and this morning, we had been warned that the ship would leave Phnom Penh at 12 noon whether we were back on board on not. Sure enough, the ship left punctually just before noon.
It was fascinating watching the passing scenery as we sailed up the river - particularly the contrast in the housing. The poor people lived in run-down corrugated-iron dwellings on the river bank whereas the houses behind them were much nicer.
At 2pm, we attended a demonstration of 101 ways to tie a Cambodian scarf (Krama). The ship reach the town of Koh Chen by 3pm and moored close to the river bank.
Both before and after the demonstration, we were approach by children carrying trays of jewelry trying to sell things to us. Our guide discouraged us from buying from the children because if they are successful, the parents don't send them to school.
As we walked past a pagoda, a load chanting started over loud speakers and continued for more than 20 minutes.
We were taken to a covered area where we were asked to sit down in a classroom with a blackboard. Our guide introduced us to a teacher from the local school who is 83 years old. He is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge era.
If you wore glasses, they concluded that you were educated and got rid of you. They would line people up and examine their hands. If you had soft hands, they would murder you because you were obviously not a labourer. The teacher in front of us escaped because he had callouses on his hands from going to the gym regularly.
The children selling jewelry followed us all the way back to the boat. We were back on board by 5:30pm.
When we come back from an excursion, we are always met by staff. Some staff help you up the gangplank and others ensure that you don't bump your head. Someone sprays disinfectant on your hands and someone else gives you a refresher towel.
This time there were lots of mats for us to wipe our feet to get most of the mud off. Suzy wasn't convinced I'd got enough mud off and got me to call the butler to clean them for me.
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