After settling into our place for the night at You Khin House in Phnom Penh, we hurriedly went out to explore the city. We planned to check out the Genocide Museum first, but our tuk-tuk driver misheard our instructions and instead took us to the Phnom Penh National Museum. We did not mind since we would still have another day to spare in that city, on the way back to Saigon from Siem Reap later in the week.
Phnom Penh de Sarapen: Exploring the Royal Palace | Cambodia
After being awed by the vast collection of Angkorian era artifacts, lingas, and other statues such as the "Leper King" at the National Museum, we took off on foot toward the Royal Palace, which was located only a few meters away.
It was supposed to be only a short walk, but we decided to walk toward the Tonle Sap River first and savored the cool breeze along Sisowath Quay and Preah Sisovath Boulevard. We also had our lunch at one of the many restaurants located along the boulevard. After struggling to come up with a hard decision of choosing from a menu, my brother and I ordered spring rolls and a chicken dish, which we later found out was mainly a vegetable-based dish, with only sprinkles of chicken on it. Cambodia was definitely a haven for vegetable lovers and a head-scratching one, but we dealt with it anyway, for meat lovers like us.
Entering the Royal Grounds
After our lunch that cost us $10.50 plus two soft drinks in cans—oh, before that, it took me a few agonizing minutes subtracting that amount from our budget, and after a few mind calculations, blah blah blah, we took it in stride that next time, we needed to search harder for a cheaper restaurant that served beef or either meat and chicken dishes. We then walked along Sothearos Boulevard and finally saw the Moonlight Pavilion, and as my excitement grew, so did the number of pigeons on the street. Good thing, though, none of them dropped bomb-shit on my shirt. We then entered the Royal Palace after paying $6.25 each. It was yet another moment of mind computations. I kept hearing cha-ching sounds in my brain that signaled an amount being debited from our pocket money.
However, the moment I finally stepped inside and saw the number of buildings erected around me, all worries about our budget just flew away into the bright blue sky. The unique style of Khmer architecture made its presence felt almost enchantingly. From its defensive wall to the ornate garden landscape, the different halls, stupas, Temple of the Emerald Buddha, and mural paintings, all conspired to make the place as fitting as it could be for what it was called. A "Royal Palace" indeed.
We first entered (without our shoes) the Throne Hall (built in 1917), a place where the royal officials used to carry out their duties and was then used as a place for royal coronations and religious ceremonies. The interior was anything one would expect from a palace. Steep ceilings with intricate paintings, carpeted flooring, and at the edge sat a massive set of chairs (most probably for the King and Queen) and accompanying seats for guests. That section, though, was off-limits to visitors who were only allowed to linger at a certain section of the Throne Hall.
The Treasures of the Silver Pagoda
Inside the vihara of the Silver Pagoda, one could see such Buddhist statues as the "Emerald Buddha" of Cambodia, a small 17th-century icon made of baccarat crystal, and the Maitreya Buddha, which was decorated with 9,584 diamonds (which included a singular diamond that weighed twenty-five carats).
At that time, we were then immersed with a group of Western tourists, most of whom clearly exhibited the look of fascination for the history of Buddhism. Their faces lit up from the delight for every new piece of information that had been relayed to them by their guide, as Oriental religion was almost somewhat like an enigma in their culture. That trip certainly was a wonderful opportunity for people from the West, and even such as myself, to further dip our knowledge into the amazing history of Buddhism and the ancient Khmer, as well as modern Cambodia.
Tracing the Khmer Legacy
The Royal Palace was first built in the 1860s, and the Royal Family of Cambodia had resided there since, except for a short time spanning the brutal Khmer Rouge regime and its short aftermath. Construction began after then-King Norodom, who ruled Cambodia from 1860 to 1904, transferred the kingdom's center of seat from Udong to its present location in Phnom Penh.
It was kind of fitting that we started at Phnom Penh, and eventually, my brother and I would take our trip toward Siem Reap, where the original Khmer Kingdom was founded in the ancient city of Angkor. We kind of synchronized our trip on a backward trail toward the history of Cambodia. Along the way, we had learned more things that definitely could not be read only in books and other forms of publication. That further reinforced my belief that the world was really one gigantic book; every step of the way, each place you wandered to represented a page.
As I saw the stupas and other buildings inside, which were all a sight to behold and already provided distinct architectural designs, I could not help but get giddy with excitement, knowing that was all just a humdinger to the great Angkor Wat complex that awaited us in the next day or two.
