Museum and palace day

26.01.2017

With the visa stuff all sorted out, I had the whole day free until Jo came. I woke up early to visit the royal palace, but it was closed until 2 p.m. So, national museum, it would be. There was a nice courtyard and a lot of old statues from the 10th century with hindu and buddhist sensibilities. An interesting attribute of the sculptures here are the "Khmer smiles", all of them have a slight smirk, which makes them look either serene or condescending, I don't know which. There were no paintings or anything else, I guess it was all destroyed in the years of warfare.

By the time I was finished all that, my brand new sunglasses had completely snapped, beyond repair. Ugh. I went back to the hotel to call the shop in Sihanoukville to see what she could do for me. The answer was nothing. Actually it was worse than nothing, she offered to sell me another pair for half price! What a scam! I was so angry, I went out and bought another pair right away. This time the shop keeper sold me a stronger pair, because I told her the story of what happened to the last one. I was moderately happy with the new sunglasses, even though the total I spent on frames now came to $45. Not outrageous but it could have been half that if I didn't get suckered in.

I ate more bananas and went back to the palace, which was just opening again, so I had a brief moment to see it without any crowds, I was one of the first ones in line somehow. So that was nice. By the time I was finished, the crowds were back in full force. I was glad to go for dinner, i had some noodles at another charity cafe and went back to the hotel early again.

National Museum of Cambodia