Phnom Penh – The rest
We did eventually make it to the Royal Palace one hot afternoon. It really wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but maybe we just weren’t in the right mood to appreciate it. And it didn’t take me long to tire of taking my shoes on and off as we entered different temples on the site.
But possibly the funniest moment of the entire trip happened on the way to the Palace. As we walked along a main street that the palace shares a wall with a van drove past. I don’t remember it being a commercial van – I’m pretty sure it had a couple of rows of seats – but this was hard to tell because I was so distracted by it being absolutely chock full of cabbages! I’m sure some were even resting on the driver’s head! It was definitely a clowns in a Mini scene, and it definitely overshadowed the sombre visit to the Palace.
Street 242 was the place to go for upmarket shopping. Nicole bought a funky red dress from one of the shops and I looked at everything wanting to buy something, but not really finding anything. There was a very cute bakery that had things I hadn’t seen for weeks like lemon tarts, but I’d prefer to have the wonderful mangosteen fruit (which we were reguarly buying at the markets for a few dollars a kilo) easily accessible at home and do without lemon tarts altogether.
We decided to sample some of day spas of the area too. It was the first time I had somebody scrub me down, wrap me in plastic and a blanket and then leave the room, but I’d do it again.
There’s a second hand bookstore on 242 as well, but while it had more books than the one on Norodom Blvd, there wasn’t anything I liked as much. So later I went back to the Norodom store and bought The Girl With A Pearl Earring as an easy read to tie me over for a couple of days in Bangkok. It was a nice change from reading Chandler’s book on S-21 and Douglas Rushkoff’s Bull (which was most enjoyable).