It was the right day to go to the Royal Palace today as it’s a Royal Day in Phnom Penh – the Queen of Spain was in town – didn’t catch a glimpse though, but there were big banners over the roads welcoming her in Spanish – of course as I am such a fluent Spanish speaker, I had no problem translating. I nearly called the Palace and offered my translation services. The Palace is a large complex with lots of individual buildings, the centrepiece of which is the huge space where coronations and important receptions take place – very impressive, with lots of gold and yellow, Buddah’s and parasols, glitter and gilding. Another housed some Royal costumes – apparently there is a different colour for each day of the week. The seven life sized models in a row, each clothed in a different day colour unfortunately had the look of a series of blow-up dolls all sporting different but rather badly fitting modern wigs… In some there were also exhibits of various treasures. Amongst some ancient jewels and in the corner of a dusty case, incongruously displayed were an old 70’s gold cocktail watch and big sapphire dress ring from the same era – the identifying label was in khmer so I have no idea what on earth they were – perhaps it was a queen’s watch and ring but it seemed so out of place with all the much older grand jewels and cases. On the way out there are a series of other museum and art gallery type places which are interesting to see. One is a reconstruction of a typical wooden Khmer house on stilts. I realise they must be the original “over water” bungalows so loved by luxe hotels worldwide…. This was a house that would hold a largish family, but I realised it was probably smaller than said overwater bungalows in those luxe hotels. If it were given to me I would certainly ask to change rooms. There was also a recently completed exhibition of the latest King’s coronation with a scale model of the procession and along each wall, a wall painting depicting the riverside celebrations. Assuming this survives another 1,000 years of Khmer civilisation, what those future people will make of the balloons and the video cameras being held up to faces, I’m not sure. But in a lot of these display rooms, there are things out in the open, and no sign of any staff or even a security camera. Their trust is pleasing, but I hope they don’t become disillusioned as the number of Western tourists grows. And then to a different scene altogether, just a few hundred yards from the splendour of the Palace. I walk to the river, where you can see the join of the Tonle Sap and the Mekong. It’s filthy. There are all sorts of boats plying their trade – big cargo boats slowly carving a route through the middle, large tourist boats, long thin open boats, small fishing boats and some that look like small houseboats. And this part of the river edge is a far cry from the tourist area just up the road. There are people sleeping everywhere, families sheltering under tarpaulins with their clothes drying on the wall, people cooking on makeshift barbecues, ragged children playing. Families washing in the edge of the river, a man beating carpets clean (he’ll be lucky) in the water, people with handmade lines trying to catch fish, and horror of horrors, someone doing laundry. I have taken my laundry in to be done this morning, and I just hope that flash of blue I noticed was not my Lacoste t shirt….
