Phnom Penh, where we nearly saw the King

We left Sihanoukville beach on Thursday and boarded an intercity bus to Phnom Penh, along with a half dozen Cambodians and a stowaway dog. Five hours later we had checked into the Bright Lotus guesthouse and, like the cheapskate backpackers we are, logged onto the wifi from the internet cafe across the street. The hotel had views over the national museum and the king's palace, perfect for sightseeing.
Everywhere in Cambodia are pictures of the country's shaven-headed king, Norodom Sihamoni, who is mainly known for ballet dancing and, unlike his father Sihanouk, for avoiding politics. As we'd had a week off to celebrate the king's 56th birthday, we were hoping to catch a glimpse of him and went straight to the palace after breakfast.
The palace is in a late-1800s compound of pagodas and pavilions that is quite impressive as long as you don't compare them with Angkor Wat. We bought our tickets and were about to walk into the throne hall when a troop of elderly palace guards appeared, wearing ill-fitting ceremonial uniforms and rows of identical yellow medals. They milled about in front of us, then stamped out their cigarettes and marched up to the hall, where they formed two lines either side of a red carpet and stood swaying back and forwards.
There was to be an official visit from the Vietnamese ambassador at 11am. It was only 10am and hot so we backed away from the throne hall and went to the silver pagoda, another royal pavilion containing the emerald buddha. This is a lifesize green buddha that looks down over less elevated gold, silver and bronze buddhas, which in turn look down on the crowd of tourists. The floor of the pavilion is paved with silver tiles, beautifully patterned but very tarnished and some held in place with sellotape.
Access to the throne hall was blocked when we went back, forcing us to give up on our celebrity spotting and settle for a tour of the rest of the palace, including a photo exhibition about former King Sihanouk, who at various times had been king twice, president, prime minister and leader in exile. Mentions of the Khmer Rouge years were conspicuously absent.
By now we had only a few hours left in Cambodia so went to the Russian market and snapped up a bag of goodies for folks back home (bet you cannot wait!) and a last rainy tuk tuk ride to the airport. Next stop Hong Kong.
G


PS, As Ian Dury would say, this has been got out by a friend.