Wednesday Morning, Part III
After our little walk-around and tuk-tuk tour, we met the other three at the National Museum to tour the sculptures and artifacts there,mostly from the Angkor and Pre-Angkor periods, and largely excavated during French colonial times. It was a very impressive display that reminded me somewhat of one of the arms of the British Museum or the Louvre--only these things had NOT been stolen and taken to the colonizing power's country. We couldn't take photos inside--just on the outer courtyards--so that save a lot of photo time for me! From there, we walked around the city more, including a stroll through another local market that allowed us to be splashed by snake head fish ready for the kitchen, to see plenty of exotic fruits and vegetables, and also to see more chickens in various states of "market readiness." We next stopped in at another Buddhist monastery that was being rebuild in various stages, and then came back to the hotel to clean up and check out before going to lunch and then catching our flight to Siem Reap.
Wednesday Part II
We then continued along the streets past the palace to the Wat Ounalom Buddhist Temple (where we had our own personal Buddhist blessing from one of the monks), then the Central Market before meeting the other three cadets at the National Museum.
Wednesday Morning
We've had another eventful morning. Winston and Dylan decided to wake up early and serve as my bodyguards for a photo tour of the city over two hours by tuk-tuk. Our guide did a good job and kept us safe, too, for $15 and we covered a LOT of ground. Here are a few photos from that. We hit went to the Independence Monument, then walked down a typical PP street to see morning life, then we visited the Cambodia-Vietnam "Friendship Memorial."
Barbecue with Cambodian NDU English Language Students
Last night we joined some English teachers and officer and NCOs from SOCPAC for a barbecue and discussion with Cambodian National Defense University students who are in the English Language Immersion Program. The cadets had a good time discussing issues with the Cambodian students and officer trainees as they also learned more about Cambodia and it's military.
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
Our next stop was the complete opposite of our temple visit--the dark, terrifying Genocide Museum at the former school that wwas turned into the Pol Pot Regime's center for torture and execution of many of Cambodia's educated citizens and leaders from the former Lon Nol Regime. This house of horrors was the final stop for over 17,000.
Buddhist Temple
From Wat Phnom, we went to another Buddhist Temple to see the monks praying and also watch as they were served lunch--very peaceful and interesting. There was also a fair-trades gift shop there and working areas for craftspeople who were sewing silk articles and doing wood carving..
Wat Phnom
From the Palace we went to Wat Phnom, the large Buddhist temple on a 27m high hill in the center of the city with a large traffice round-about surrounding it. Here, we saw hawkers sellers with cages of sparrows. They sold the sparrows to the faithful who then released them. As usual, there were also lots of dogs and cats laying around.
Royal Palace
We started off with the usual wonderful breakfast at the hotel with just amazing fruit and coffee. Winston had multiple omelets again, too, while Hansena and Luke tried out the exercise/fitness room to stay in shape for BCT cadre next period.
Senh (pronounced "Sing") met us at 0830 and we went immediately to the Royal Palace for the first of our tours. Here are a few of the better (IMHO) photo from that tour--showing the opulence of the royal family's palace--kind of like a smaller version of Beijing's Forbidden City.
Monuments, Temples, Lunch, S21, the Killing Fields, Streets of Cambodia
Too many things to say and too many pictures from today. Let's get 'em posted and then add something tomorrow as time allows. Most of these speak for themselves... More photos loading now! I'll edit and add commentary later. Must sleep!
