This morning however we visited the Royal Palace, which is spectacular in many ways. On the way in spotted a group of western girls being told to cover up. They did not really understand why!
King Norodom Sihamoni and his family actually reside here. The beloved King-Father Norodom Sihanouk died very recently and the new (elected) king is his son. The Royal Palace seems mostly to have been constructed in the 19th century by his grandfather and later, however it seems to have been an important spot for 'stupas' - burial ossuaries as far as I can make out - for a while. Burial traditions in Cambodia currently follow Buddhist practice of burial followed by disinterment, cleaning the bones and storage. In some areas they do cremate but still extract the bones and store, often worshipping the ancestors on a yearly cycle of ritual after that. We saw such a cemetery later in Kompong Thom.
The layout of the royal palace, which is a large complex, the centred on the Throne Hall, shown in my photo, where foreign dignitaries are received and important meetings held. It's very grand with a gold kingly throne at the end. No photos allowed. The ceiling is magnificently painted with the story of Buddha I think and in good nick. The Hall very much brought to mind the Hall of Gondor in the Lord of the Rings movie, being the same size.
Further buildings on the complex are not in quite such good repair. Externally they look very fine but there is for example a pagoda or pavilion designed by Napoleon III that the current king would like saved however apparently it is in such a bad state that it is beyond repair! It was completely covered in scafolding at any rate. This is true of a lot of the items proudly on display.
We walked on to see the Silver Pagoda. Chamrong, who is all of 18 at best, was by now reaching the extent of his knowledge and I was gathering more from other tour guides.
Chamrong is from Battambang, about 300km northwest of Phnom Penh, so I was quite wary of offending him as I suspected he would be quite conservative. He is here doing an internship while at University. Ther are quite a number of students in Phnom Penh. I think he is a comparatively devout Buddhist. Whenever I asked him the date of something it was 'ancient times' often meaning 19th century and any slightly more complicated ideas or attitudes were explained as 'not simple' (simple being a good thing, like pure). 'Simple' could cover everything from a type of stone to a type of dress. He did his best though, when he saw my interest in the trees and flowers he admitted to me that he enjoyed green spaces and the quiet of the parks compared to the hustle and bustle of the city and we had a good time practising the names of trees in Khmer.
The Silver Pagoda is actually remarkable in that the floor is made up of over 5000 silver tiles. Visitors may enter and walk on the floor, which is covered by carpet and a section has been peeled back to reveal the floor. Again no photos. This sounds very sumptuous, in reality the floor that is revealed is therefore tarnished while the floor that is carpeted is beautifully rubbed by the passage of feet ( no doubt gradually wearing away the silver). The tiles themselves are about 20cm by 20cm, just like ordinay tiles however most of them are slight bent or moving and in an effort to prevent this someone has taped most of the edges down with selotape! In some areas this tape has then been removed. I supect a conservator would have a fit. The same is true of the items on display inside the pagoda. Small Buddhas, statues, boxes, sculptures of elephants etc are crammed, neatly into old fashioned wooden display cases. All the silver is unpolished. There are some items of jade, quite pale, as this is officially the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, (Wat Preah Keo Morakot) - 'Wat' means temple - and also marble and ivory. In front of the Emerald Buddha is the Buddha Maitreya, 90kg of golden buddha encrusted with 2086 diamonds but still looking a little shabby. Several swords with falling apart scabbards, and a large wood framed mirror ("of ancient times").
We headed out into the courtyard in the direction of a very classic horse sculpture, which turned out to be of the current kings grandfather King Norodom, again. 
The courtyard it was set in though, a stupa on either side (previously containing kingly remains, recently relocated to the Udong Mountains), was lovely, full of large, tall pots with water and water lilies, topiary and lotus flowers.
Waterlily (apparently the national flower of Cambodia, presumably because Vietnam snaffled the lotus) is "romchornt"
Lotus is "pka chhouk"
Frangipani tree is "chom pey"
There were also guava trees, the "romdoul" tree, ('poporia aberrans. p. annonacee') which is apparently the representation of Cambodia and smells good when in fruit, the "tkol" which is 'mimusops elengi sopotacee', and small fish in the water of the pots. The courtyard was very hot.
Under the promenade surrounding the courtyard is a long series of frescoes of the Ramayana. This is not in such good repair and therefore may be closer to 'ancient times' in date. Chamrong and Sython are both trying to teach us about Buddhism with some Hinduism.
Next we visited a small Wat in the centre of the complex, completely surrounded by trees. I honestly might have missed it altogether if I'd been alone. This is Phnom Mondop, an artificial hill symbolising Mt Kailassa. (Phnom means mountain). We met a monk (or guard?) who I smiled enough at that he beckoned us over. Inside the very small temple was a large footprint of the Buddha, in sand, silvered. It was adorned with 108 Buddha images representing the 108 lives of Buddha. I was not allowed to take a photo, however I could photograph the monk. 
Here I had my fortune told using an ancient book. (I think it was something to do with fortune for a young woman, I cannot remember!) The technique is dying out as there are fewer and fewer legible books. You place the wooden covered oblong 'book' on your head and without seeing what you are doing, use the attached pointy ended marker stick to divide the 'pages' (palm leaf) at the point at which your fortune is written.
The Phnom itself had numerous statues and carving surrounding it, including dragons and 'Song' (a type of lion). The other two animals most often seen guarding buildings at any rate are lions and 'Hong', a type of stork, that brings good favour.
On the way out we stopped to look at various displays of everything from elephant palaquins (?) and Aspara dance costumes to invitations to balls and international events. A group of musicians struck up on traditional instruments and again I have to say I rather enjoy the music.
We also saw some loom weaving and a traditional stilt house.
Link to Wikipedia page for the Royal Palace: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Palace,_Phnom_Penh
Ont the way back to the apartment for lunch we passed the Independence monument, (independence from the French,1953):
At lunch I met Herman and Ella, a father daughter combo who are doing the Khmer project for two weeks before going to diving. They are from flemish Belgium, they talk constantly and tell you every detail of what they are up to. Dad is 49 and was previously a Taekwondo Olympic athlete. He has travelled in south east Asia before, including North Korea, but never Cambodia. Ella is his 18 year old daughter who is at Uni and is studying to be a clinical psychologist. They are good if loud and embarrassing company. I suspect they think I am quite dull.
After lunch it was The National Museum, which Chamrong informed me most foreigners visit. A one floor museum packed with rich Cambodian private schoolchildren. The exhibits, of which Chamrong is extremely proud, are in a similar state of repair to the displays in the Silver Pagoda. The Neolithic artefacts were of interest and a display of a German archaeological excavation would have been informative but Chamrongs presence meant I was mentally rushing. I also rather liked the 19th century painted wooden shutters! Otherwise there were an inordinate number of Buddhist sculptures and statues in stone and some Angkor friezes. Incidentally, "Angkor" is not only a place but also a time period, an empire and a reference to official HQ during the Khmer Rouge period. There was a statue of Jayavarman VII, the 'golden age' Angkorian King of the 12th century, who built Angkor Thom and introduced Buddhism. He was shown in Buddhist pose. Chamrong declared him his hero so I decided to go along with this too and he is now my hero too. I took a stick of "Pka Malis" flowers, (lovely sweet smelling flowers often threaded into bracelets or onto incense sticks) and made an offering. Monetary too of course! (While fake prayer money is big in Vietnam I have not seen much of it here and am wondering if the cash offerings are real).
Other items of note were a lovely, decrepit wooden elephant about a meter high, palaquins and small carts, a floating house ( which was fantastic), a cremation layout and a lot of info from both exhibit and Chamrong on clay pot shapes, some of which are still used everywhere for cooking. Chamrong was also keen to point out the display relating to the professor who standardised the Khmer language (fairly recently) and who is much revered.
It rained. And stopped. We went on to Wat Phnom which was my favourite bit of this very muggy day.
Wat Phnom is an island of green (including the environmental meaning) on a roundabout in the middle of Phnom Penh. The city takes its name from here. It means 'mountain temple'. It is on a small hill. It is Chamrong's favourite spot. It is dedicated to Dom Penh, a woman who discovered five Buddha sculptures in the river near here and was visited by dreams during their re-erection in a temple. I think this was in the 17th century. There is a statue of her across the road. We saw no evidence of the infamous groups of macaques that patrol the hill, er, mountain, however there was some installation art! It was cooler here which was great and on the way back we stopped at the pharmacie de la gare.
Feeling a little better after dinner and a cold shower, I went to the Bayon supermarket again with some of the French speakers and stocked up on Le Petit Marseillaise.
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