Sunday, May 5, 2013

Phnom Penh

We are in Phnom Penh - capital of Cambodia! Our guesthouse is beary nice with a wonderful little courtyard that is moderately cool.

Phnom Penh sits on the banks of the Tonle Sap River where it meets the Mekong River - that is a lot of water!

Look... the Cambodian flag has a picture of Angkor Wat on it! I've been there...

There are lots of boats on the river and rumour has it that I might get to go for a boat ride while we are here.

One strange thing (amongst many) in Phnom Penh is that every evening, people gather in parks and along Sisowath Quay to do aerobic exercises. One person leads it and has a big stereo system with massive speakers. And people just gather and do exercise together...

Another thing I've noticed in Cambodia is that every house has a little shrine like the one below. They are called Spirit Houses...

We also went to the Royal Palace... part of which was closed because that's where the Royals live. But we did see the Silver Pagoda.

It was a beary beautiful complex with lots of gold... (but no chocolate!)

These are lotus flowers!! They look like lily pads to me... but apparently are not lily pad flowers.

Some of the buildings were so massive... can you even see me in there?

This guy looks beary angry and has a big sword...

Oh Elephants!! Three of them at once... that's pretty cool.

And gold elephants too!

Hey!!! I got to ride an elephant!!! Yay!!!

Oh... and this is a gecko... they are everywhere... He's not blending into the wall too well.

These are more elaborate lotus flowers - they are super pretty.

Whew... all of those adventures tire a little bear out. We were here for three days, so on one afternoon I convinced everyone (including myself) to chill out...

At a pool at a nearby hotel!!

And... I did get to go on a boat ride!! That was cool...

That's what our boat looked like. One thing I noticed... not a lot of life jackets on board... especially little bear sized ones!

It was a sunset cruise and we even got to see a bit of a sunset in amongst all of the clouds.

Oh... and Ben will like this (sorry for the blurry photos). Can you recognize it??

On our last day we went to visit The Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. It was sad.

6 comments:

  1. More beautiful photos! What an incredible adventure you are having Sandy! We see the QuƩbec flag too! Ben would be very excited. And you got to ride an elephant, we love elephants too.

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  2. I could bearly see you in front of that massive building. It was a kind of "Where's Sandy?" photo. I agree, with all the places you have been chilling out was an excellent idea.

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  3. @Jerry & Ben - Thanks guys! Elephants are beary cool... I'm still hoping to ride a live one but we'll see...

    @Buttons - Thanks Buttons - chilling out is always a good idea!

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  4. Hi Sandy, we finally got back to Minneapolis today and your nice bear postcard from April 8 was waiting for us! Thanks for sending it, we'll make a post about it soon!

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  5. Hi this is Silvia from Vietnam. I'm 15, and I've met your friend - Anne at September 23rd. She said that this is you blog. It's nice to see her and I heared that you're sick. I hope you will be fine. Anyway, nice to see you. ^^~
    p/s: Your blog is perfect <3

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  6. Thanks Silvia! Feeling much better and sorry to miss all the dancing and singing!

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