AND FINALLY, THE ROYAL PALACE!

After a beautiful morning spent at the pool, we finally made it to the Royal Palace for a tour! It was a beautiful space, with magnificent gardens, large Stupas for deceased kings, beautiful Buddha statues, and large picturesque buildings.

Can you see the blue flag flying on the right side of the picture below? That is the signal that the king is in residency at his home there. Darn it, we missed seeing him! And darn it, neither one of us got a picture of the King’s residence!

The gray structure is a Stupa. (You’ve heard that word several times here—remember ThatDam Stupa?) Well, the Stupas in the courtyard are specifically for the ashes of deceased kings. One Stupa per king. Each Stupa has three layers. The top layer houses many Buddha statues. The second layer is where the king’s ashes are placed. And the bottom layer houses the personal items belonging to the king. Once the Stupa is closed, it is never reopened.

Ceremonial dress is identified by colors for each day of the week. If the ceremony is held on a Monday, everyone will dress in red. And so on.

Phnom Penh (literally means, ‘Penh’s Hill’) takes its’ name from the present Wat Phnom (‘Hill Temple’). Legend has it that in 1372, a wealthy widow named Lady Penh found a Kiki tree floating down the Tonle Sap River after a storm. This is a statue of Lady Penh. Isn’t she quite the beauty?

There were MANY gorgeous statues placed throughout the courtyard of the Palace!

After the tour, John and I walked along the Riverwalk (which, by that time was bustling with people) until we arrived at Grand River, a restaurant that was recommended to us. It did NOT disappoint!

We grabbed THE PERFECT table for people watching, ordered an Angkor beer and an order of calamari, sat and watched the sights! (We could do just that for HOURS!) By the way, the hotel in the background was the one that housed the people from the Westerdam cruise that first docked at the port of Sihanoukville. 😳😳😳 There have been conflicting reports on how many of the passengers are still there, trying to figure out flights to get home.😳😳😳

The calamari was the best we’ve had the entire trip (and we’ve had some GREAT calamari) so we decided to stay for dinner! That ended up being a great idea as the food was DELISH! Pad Thai for John; salmon and avocado salad for me! Best EVER!

After dinner we walked down a side street, heading to the National Museum. Look at this ADORABLE cat cafe we walked by! OMG!!!

We made it to the National Museum where we sat in the open-air theater and watched “Earth & Sky” —a breathtaking celebration of Cambodian music and traditional dance. It was wonderful!

After the show, we are happy to report, we found a massage shop nearby and both enjoyed a fabulous massage! Ahhhh, there is no better way to end a very good day!