Prancing Around Phnom Penh—A Day Devoted to Varied Sight-Seeing

Mon, Jun 19, 2023

Prancing Around Phnom Penh—A Day Devoted to Varied Sight-Seeing

PEarly sunrises in this part of the East do little for our beauty sleep. We awoke at 5.20 (sunrise time) with light streaming through our window. I was keen to shoot the Eastern sky across the Tonle Sap River with my little phone camera—so I crept out quietly on to our balcony and got a few shots as Cambodia slumbered under cloudy skies. I was pleased to note that the overcast weather would spare us the blinding, burning sun and make the day’s sightseeing far more pleasant.

PBreakfast in our LCS Hotel: T

Phis appears like a Chinese hotel in every respect. The decor of the lobby is decidedly Chinese with koi aquariums and masses of (paper) orchids in towering Satsumi vases. After I spent an hour drafting my blog post, we made our way to to the ninth floor where the restaurant-bar is located, only to find the place fairly buzzing.

PA large breakfast buffet was laid out in the center in a vast circle and we circumnavigated it to find out what our choices were—Juices, coffee, tea, milk; next a huge array of Chinese dishes from noodles to chicken; bread rolls, slices, pain au chocolate and mini croissants with a selecion of preserves and butter; eggs made to order (we had omelettes) with meat and cheese accompaniments (sausages, ham); fruit (water melon, orange segments). I picked up a couple of pastries, gave my order for am omelette and then breakfasted at leisure with Llew, of course, for company, as we went over our plans for the day.

P On schedule, at 9.0 am, we were downstairs in the lobby where Pissat, our guide, awaited us. We piled into the private car with Chandook, our driver, and off we went. Our sight-seeing of Phnom Penh would introduce us to the varied offerings of a 21st century Oriental city that is still seeking its identity and voice after the major geographical changes wrought by the end of colonialism, the exit of the French, the emergence of the Khmer Rouge, their ouster and the return of parliamentary democracy.

First Stop: The Royal Palace

PCambodia has retained its monarchy over its long and troubled history and its kings (all called Norodom) have left their mark and legacy on the capital city. The current King Sihamoni, now in his late 60s, is single. The gracious lady whose posters are plastered all over the country, are of his Mother. The royal family makes its residence in the Royal Palace which occupies significant real estate on the banks of the Tonle Sap River. It is a spectacular property that comprises several structures or pavilions, each serving a different function. You cannot miss its striking yellow and gold exterior as you drive by, as we did, before you find a parking spot. Needless to say, as in the case of most of the world’s monarchies, the king is merely a figurehead today—a decorative addition to the maintenance of historic continuity. An elected government holds the reins and changes every five years with the Cambodian People’s Party currently in power.

PWhile visitors can move freely around the property except the areas cordoned off as the private residence of the royal family members, there are only two pavilions that are of real tourist interest: the first is the Throne Room. You climb the stairs leading to the platform at the top where you are allowed to peek into the room through the twin doors that offer entry. In a grandly-appointed room covered with Western carpets and twin rows of gilded lamp stands, you see the structures at the very end of the room. Because they are so far away (the room is long and vast), it is hard to tell that you are looking at a pedestal of sorts, a symbolic structure denoting grandeur. It is surrounded by sculptures of the last seven kings; when a king passes away, his sculpture is added to the pageant. In front of it is a golden throne on which each King’s coronation occurs. You are not allowed to take pictures of this room and there are no postcards of it sold in the souvenir shop at the entrance—so you will need to commit the room to memory if you’d like to remember the regal ceremonies that accompany Cambodian royal life

PThe next pavilion we entered was a small Museum of sorts that housed a variety of royal regalia from swords and clothing to silver and gold objects and utensils used on ceremonial occasions. It did not take us long to take in the items, many of which show evidence of centuries’ old craftsmanship that continues to be practiced.

PThe next pavilion we entered was the spectacular Silver Pagoda that is a real showpiece of the palace. Here too you cannot take pictures although you can enter it and tour it at leisure. You leave your footwear at the entrance as it is hallowed ground—still a working pagoda. Inside, there is a splendid standing statue of the Buddha in pure gold that weighs 92 kilos and is liberally studded with diamonds. It glitters as you take in its golden glory. On top of the vitrine that holds this Buddha is perched yet another Buddha, this time seated and made in what looks like pale green glass. It is referred to loosely as the Emerald Buddha but it is clearly not carved out of emerald (although that was what our guide told us). Lonely Planet says it is made of Baccarat crystal and this version seems far more plausible. A number of Buddhas in varied sizes surround the main altar and hundreds of them are in glass cases that line the walls. Our guide explained that these are offerings left by grateful devotees. Indeed, in Cambodia, Buddhism is alive and kicking and we found evidence of religiosity in very young folks as well as the older generation. So many were kneeling in prayer everywhere we went and the temples are hives of commercial activity (as in Japan) where offerings (fruit, lotus stems, flowers, incense sticks, etc) are bought and sold at the entrances. The Silver Pagoda is so-called because the follow is covered with silver tiles—all tarnished, of course, with time—and only a few visible as the majority of the space is covered with carpets. After looking carefully at the Gold and Emerald Buddhas and trying to commit them to memory, we left.

PAfter these mini visits, there is not much else to do in the precincts of the palace except notice the striking architecture that is typically Oriental and particularly Khmer—similar to what one sees all over Thailand.Flames of fire flick out of the ends of every roof line,embellished in bas-relief that is gilded. The surrounding gardens are kept strictly manicured. We passed one structure, a stupa, that was built to commemorate a royal princess who died young (at four years) and whose memory is kept alive through minute stone carving similar to what we’d seen at Banteay Srei.

PWe took a quick turn at the souvenir shop, saw a magnet we liked but decided to wait to buy it in the market. Little did we realize that we would not see its likes again and would need to retrace our steps back to the shop, later in the afternoon, to buy it. Luckily, the sun was mostly wearing its hat and while it was warm, it was not oppressive or uncomfortable.

Next Stop: The National Museum of Cambodia

PApart from its impressive collection of pre and Angkorian art, sculpture and artifacts, the National Museum is remarkable for its grand architecture built entirely of warm brown terracotta. Conceived by the French historian George Groslier, it embodies traditional Khmer architecture both inside and out. Although small (we took our time and were able to cover it in 45 minutes), it showcases significant sculptural works such as the missing heads from the entrance of Angkor Thom, the giant sculptures of the Pandavas including one of Duryodhana. I was so excited to see the elongated ear-lobes of the Pandava brothers with the sculpture of Duryodhana sporting the long, heavy gold ear-rings that the Buddha is also said to have worn (as a member of a Royal family, born in Nepal) which resulted in his extended earlobes. I make this point on my tours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York when showing the Standing Gupta Buddha and the pair of gold ear-rings in the case right besides it. Also notable is the sublime sculpture of Jayraman VII who became a Buddhist ascetic and built Angkor Thom. He sits in ethereal poise with a deeply serene expression on his face. There were a host of other wonderful pieces in this Museum such as stone inscriptions, carved wooden doors, pediments that have fallen from the Angkor Temples (including the ones Andre Malraux tried to steal before getting caught at Phnom Penh airport with his loot), pottery, some jewelry, etc. Certainly worth a visit if antiquity is up your alley and you wish to see all the missing heads and other treasures of Angkor.

PA Lecture On Contemporay History:

PWe took a sitting break under a fan where we were joined by our guide, Pissat, who used the time and the comfortably cool spot to give us a mini-lecture on the troubled early 1970s which led to the emer

Pgence of the Khmer Rouge and their leader Pol Pot (in preparation for our next excursion). This period led to the Kampuchean genocide, evidence of which we would see when we toured the Killing Fields of Cheoung Ek, our next port of call.

PBasically, after the ouster of the colonial French government in the early 1950s when Cambodia comprised parts of modern-day Thailand, Vietnam and even Burma, (Referred to as “Indo-Chine” by the French), warring parties battled for power until the Americans got into the act and took sides with the Northern Vietnamese parties who were all jockeying for a place at the table. Elections in 1973 brought the Khmer Rouge into power. They were welcomed warmly and seen as liberators from foreign powers that had dominated the region. However, by 1975, under their leader Pol Pot, a ruthless dictator, they rounded up all intellectuals and professionals and under a systematic pogrom of destruction, similar to the mechanics of the Nazi Holocaust, they imprisoned and tortured them before marching them off to the killing fields in various sites around the country. In total, 3 million so-called ‘rebels’ were killed by the Khmer Rouge. I do well remember this holocaust as I was a college undergraduate in Bombay at that time, and can well recall the newspaper headlines in The Times of India which were all about Kampuchea (as Cambodia was then known). The regime spared no one except farmers (as they were needed to feed the nation) and men, women and children were killed in the most ruthlessly cruel ways in order to save on expensive bullets. With this history behind us, we would make our way to the actual mass grave-sites of the martyrs.

PBut first, we stopped briefly at a mini-mart to pick up refreshment (ice-cream for us, cold drinks for our guide and drivers) and off we went. It would be a long half-hour ride, way out of the city precincts to the Killing Fields and we ready for a deeply sobering experience.

PNext Stop: The Killing Fields of Cheoung Ek

POnce we arrived at the site (obviously far away from the city as authoritarian regimes never want their activities to be publicized), we marched up to the entrance which is named The Cheoung Ek Genocidal Center. Every country has its dark history (India has the genocide of the Partition, the US has the Civil War and present-day ethnic cleansing continues in Somalia and Rwanda and China) and this is Cambodia’s—when segments of its population were exterminated by their own people. Once we got past the gates and had our tickets handed over to us by our guide, we entered the Memorial Stupa which is the only monument built to the memory of the dead. Having visited other Holocaust sites around the world (Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, the Somme, the Peace Park in Hiroshima), we were well aware that the visit would be solemn, sobering and heartbreaking. However, we did not know many details—the visit ended up being deeply edifying for us.

PEntry to the stupa involves removing your footwear (as it is holy ground) and visitors are asked to maintain silence throughout. Photography is permitted. These killing fields are spots of pilgrimage for contemporary Cambodians, most of whom have at least one family member either incarcerated or killed by the Khmer Rouge. They come to pay their respects in a place that has been reserved for exactly this purpose. What we found inside was a towering structure that functions as an ossuary. It is filled with the bones of the dead that were retrieved from the many mass-graves that lie just beyond the structure. Thousands of skulls, obviously harmed (they sport holes in them) offer evidence of the massacre that was carried out in the most inhumane ways—death by mortal blow to the neck and head using instruments such as axes, hoes, batons, hooked and bladed knives, etc. as the Khmer Rouge did not wish to waste bullets on them. Some died immediately with the impact, their bodies falling directly into the massive graves dug right in front of the sites of their execution—to avoid involving human labor in the act of moving the bodies. If they failed to die right away, they were beheaded with swords by men waiting below in the graves to receive the falling bodies.

PIntellectuals and professionals were ear-marked for extermination as they were the ones who would question the dictatorial regime. Farmers and peasants were needed to feed the nation—hence, they were spared. Whole families were destroyed in this fashion, women and children included. Children was killed in a particularly brutal way—by beating them and bashing their heads against a tree that still stands on the ground and is referred to as “the Killing Tree’. Most of the victims were killed while naked, though in some cases, clothing and even children’s sandals were recovered from the graves. Once confirmed dead, their bodies were sprinkled with chemicals such as DDT to kill the stench of decomposition which might have alerted people who lived nearby to the genocide going on within the camp. They were ultimately buried, not cremated—which is why so many bones have been found (unlike the Nazi camps where bodies were incinerated and ashes sprinkled as fertilizer over fields).

PThe site is beautifully signposted and a lot of information is available in English. There is also an audio guide in multiple languages which comes free with the ticket. I do wish we had been given our own audio guides as we’d have had much more information in far better English. The guides really do try their best but their English is very poor indeed and their accents are so heavy that I have a very hard time trying to make any sense of what they are saying. Thankfully, my notes from Lonely Planet help me supplement the meager information I receive from the guides. As in the case of the trenches on the Somme battle fields in Picardie in France, here too, visitors walk along a wooden constructed walkway and pause at each mass grave. According to our guide, each inmate was carefully documented at the time of arrival. They were brought to the site in covered bullock carts so that no one knew who or what was being transported. By the time they arrived at the site, it was about 5.30 pm. They were interrogated, all personal particulars obtained, records carefully maintained (with the same meticulousness that one found in the Nazis) and told to await sentencing. By 10.30 pm, under cover of night, they were killed. Loud music was played through a loud speaker that was placed on what is called The Music Tree”, to drown out the cries and moans of the injured or suffering at the time of death. The entire experience is profoundly harrowing, emotionally, because the operations carried out here were so unspeakably gruesome. Right at the very end, when we had finished the walking course through the site, I paused to take a look at the sculpture of a Mother and Child that forms a memorial to the dead. The entire visit took us a little more than an hour and we were both speechless at the end of it.

Next Stop: Lunch in a Nearby Restaurant

PBy this point, although we were not too hungry, we decided to get a bite to eat as it would give our feet a chance to rest. The guide pointed out a restaurant right outside the gates of the site which, I learned later, from my friend Rosita, is supposed to have the best fried Vegetable spring rolls in town! Good Job that was exactly what we ordered. Together with Krei Meung (recommended warmly by our waiter), a pork soup with a vegetable called “Morning Glory” which looked and tastes like green beans, and was flavored with galangal, lemon grass and kaffir leaves and served over rice, we had ourselves a very satisfying meal. More importantly, we had cold Diet Cokes which we both found very refreshing as intensive walking in this weather can get very tiring.

Next Stop: The Central Market

PMost guides take tourists to local markets to give them a taste of the kind of produce, clothing, etc. used by the locals. We were keen to see the Central Market as it is something of an interesting addition to the city and is distinguished by a dome. We hoped to find our flexible Phnom Penh magnet but although the guide took us to the local shops, we did not find what we wanted. There were flower sections (filled with masses of gorgeous orchids), jewelers sections (filled with Chinese ornaments), housewares, etc. Not wanting to spend much more time there, I requested the guide to take us back to the palace shop so that we could buy our magnet there. And that was exactly what he did. He was very obliging indeed. Once there, I requested the guard to let me in, rushed inside, bought my magnet and returned to the car. Mission Accomplished!

Next Stop: A Visit to Wat Phnom:

PThe day had marched on and we had one more item on our To-See List before our guide Pissat could call it a day and we’d be back at our hotel. As it turned out, the last stop was Wat Phnom which Llew and I had discovered yesterday during our walking tour. Our car parked, tickets were obtained and we began the climb up the steep flight of stairs (about 80) that took us to the summit of the hill on which the temple is constructed. We passed by the giant rabbit in bamboo at the entrance—turned out this is theYear of the Rabbit. Hence, the dedication of this monument.

Wat Phnom which actually gives the city of Phnom Penh its name has a neat legend attached to it. It dates from 1343 when a woman named Mrs. Penh is said to have come across a large floating log in the Tonle Sap River. She pulled it ashore and found four carved Buddha statues in it. No one had any idea who had carved or put them in there. But Mrs. Penh decided to build a wat in honor of her discovery and the temple was created. Over the centuries, it has undergone a great deal of refurbishment and reconstruction—so that the latest avatar dates fro the mid-1900s. It is pristine and perfect—and looks as fresh as it might have done the day it was built.

PFootwear left at the entrance, we entered the place to find another towering statue of the Buddha surrounded by three others. The ones found by Mrs. Penh have long disappeared—the ones in the temple today are reproductions. But in this temple too, recipient of a great deal of generosity from the faithful, there are many offerings. Having taken in more than the surroundings and, in fact obtaining a lesson in Buddhist cultural studies, we made our way down the long flight of stairs to the landing where we found a reproduction of the bas-relief of The Mahabharata’s Battle of Kurukshetra scene that is to be found in situ at Angkor Wat—this one fully gilded. Llew and I posed in front of it and then we returned to our car for our short drive back to our hotel.

Dinner and Evening’s Exploration on our Last Night in Phom Penh:

PBack in our hotel by 4.00 pm, we were rather fatigued as we had covered a great deal of ground today and had experienced a range of emotions—from wonder at the opulence of the royal palace, to awe at the antiquity of the items in the National Museum, from heartbreak at the Killing Fields to a deep sense of understanding of Buddhist spirituality in Phnom Penh’s primary Wat. It was time for us to spend some quiet moments in reflection in our room as we relaxed for a while.

PNot long after, we decided to take advantage of the free drink coupon we had received for the rooftop bar and made our way upstairs for our Tiger beer with peanuts. We decided not to dine in the restaurant as we felt we could have found a better meal outside. Using Lonely Planet, we decided to eat at the Goldfish River Restaurant, but found out, to our disappointment, that it had closed—a victim of Covid. We had little choice but to take a tuktuk to Titanic, a restaurant on the waterfront that had been recommended by our guide. And that was where we needed up. It was less than a ten minute ride and cost us $3 to get there. Once there, we found the perfect location right by the river bank. Neon lights from advertisements cast psychedelic reflections in the water and barges that guided by made it a dream location.

PAlas! A minute after we placed our order for Traditional Khmer Seafood Hot Pot and just after it arrived at our table, so came an army of cats. I am not a cat person but I can tolerate them at a distance. When they are at my feel, in the near darkness, hoping to get tidbits from me…well, that’s another story. I am truly terrified at the thought of their mewing hungry mouths just inches away from me. I jumped up with fright and told the waiter I wanted to change our table and be placed somewhere beyond the reach of the hungry cats. Imagine going to a fine dining place and being ambushed by cats! I was deeply horrified! Anyway, the waiter changed our table, brought our order to us and, still feeling horribly uneasy throughout our meal, I tried hard to enjoy it. It was absolutely delicious, served over rice. Chockfull of shrimp and squid and a variety of vegetables in a very flavorful broth, it certainly satisfied expectations. With a soft drink each, Llew and I had a great meal, but since I was keen to get out as soon as possible, we passed on dessert.

PJust as we left the restaurant, named the Titanic, by the way—ironically and coincidentally at a time when the world is holding its breath trying to find the submersible vessel that has gone down to the Titanic’s wreckage and is lost—I noticed that the Night Market was only a few meters to the left of us. I suggested to Llew that we go there and go we did. We spent the next 20 minutes roaming around the stalls and taking in the merchandise—a lot of designer knock-offs in clothing, bags, shoes, etc. There wasn't anything to interest us (at least not while we still have a week’s travel to still go through) and so, we left soon after. We found a tuktuk right outside with a driver willing to take us back to our hotel for just $3 and off we went. We were back at our hotel in less than five minutes and in our room soon after.

PShowers followed and because we were tired, we merely edited our photos on our pones and went to bed.

PWhat an eventful day it had been in Phnom Penh and what a lovely few days we still had ahead of us as we left Cambodia and proceeded to Vietnam

Until tomorrow…