Day 1 in Cambodia! I got a late start on my first day out. My flight arrived near midnight the previous day and with the jet lag, I couldn't sleep until almost 3AM. So I slept in until noon, then had a nice breakfast of toast and fruit at my hotel. Just in front of the hotel were several tuk-tuk drivers.
Tuk-tuks were the main form of transportation I used in Cambodia. They are essentially small motorcycles with a little carriage attached to the back. They are EVERYWHERE and as I walked down the street I was constantly asked "tuk-tuk lady?" by drivers looking for business. Outside my hotel I employed the same driver everytime I went out. They were cheap too, about $1-3/ride, depending on how far you want to go. The drivers will also negotiate with you if you want them to wait for you. For example, one afternoon I went to visit a museum and then to a market and back to my hotel. I paid my driver $8 and he drove me to each and waited outside for me at each. It was probably a 4 hour excursion altogether. It was nice to use the same driver because we had sort of established a rate I was willing to pay, I knew he wasn't going to pull any tricks upon arrival (like demand more money than we had agreed) and I knew that he knew where my hotel was. So no getting lost in translation.
Anyway, enough rambling about tuk-tuks. Here are some sights - starting with the National Museum. The building itself was a work of art, as you can see. It was mostly open air with big windows and doorways between the galleries and the courtyard where this photo was taken. The museum was filled with artifacts from the past, over 1000 years of stuff. Some were statues, paintings and lots of carvings that would have been removed from temples around Cambodia. Similar to what I would see later in the week in Siem Reap, but in museum form. I wasn't supposed to take pictures inside, so don't have much to show beyond the outside of the building.
My second stop was just a 5 minute walk up the road to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. They were all part of the same compound (and entry ticket) but I will show the Palace in another post. For now, the large building at the left of this photo is the Silver Pagoda. It is called this because inside the floor was covered in solid silver tiles. Also no pictures inside here. While I'm sure it looked very opulent at one time, now it is mostly very tarnished and covered about 90% with rugs to preserve it. So there wasn't much to see inside. They did also have a Buddha statue carved out of a large emerald, about 18 inches tall.
I was more impressed with the grounds at the Silver Pagoda. Around the outer wall was this long pavilion that had elaborate paintings. I read that the paintings show Khmer history, along with scenes from legendary stories.
There were tons of Buddha statues...
As well as elephants. Sometimes the elephant head is for the Hindu deity Ganesh, who is known to be the remover of obstacles. I readily admit that I don't know much about the religions in this part of the world. I did learn that the majority of modern Cambodia is Buddhist and the monks that I will show later pictures of (in the orange robes) are Buddhist.
General splendor...
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