Monday, March 16, 2015

Adventure to Asia: Cambodia Pt. 3

Monday, July 28: Phonm Penh

Jillian and I decided that we weren't going to set alarms for the next morning because we felt like we had a schedule for the past week. We got up around 9 and then around 10:30 we headed out to explore with our dorm mate, Paige. One of the scams the tuk tuk drivers (actually a lot of people) try to pull is telling you that the place you are going is closed. Sometimes, it is, like the Royal Palace which is closed during lunch, but you need to figure this stuff out on your own and not trust what they are saying. The first place we wanted to see was the National Museum but it was really hard to find it and they kept telling us it was closed. We took their word but decided to walk on our own and tried to go to the Royal Palace which was actually closed. We decided to go eat instead to pass the time. Jillian wanted us to go to a place called Connecting Hands which was a restaurant and store which employed women who were rescued from human trafficking.

After lunch we found the National Museum, which was actually on the same road as the restaurant. Turns out the National Museum had been open the entire time. The museum was really small, and it took us no time at all to walk through it. It wasn't that impressive either, but Cambodian history is very shaky so I imagine they don't have a lot of money to fund the museum.
After walking through the museum we decided we weren't hungry but we still had time until the Royal Palace opened. We went to a coffee shop where we ordered frappes and talked. The coffee shop overlooked the river too. I love a good view.
A little after two we walked to the Royal Palace. We were really confused about the line, and I'm pretty sure we cut a whole bunch of people. We completely forgot that this was going to be a religious site and that you would need to wear pants, so I ended up putting a $3 deposit down on some pants which I ended up taking. Oops.

The grounds of the palace were really pretty, but a lot was blocked off. It was kind of sickening seeing so much stuff made out of gold as well. It was really hot wearing pants and walking around, so after we went into a room that had air conditioning and just sat there to cool down.
We spent a greater part of the afternoon in that part of Phonm Penh, so we walked back to our hostel to hang out for a little bit before Jillian and I went out again for the night.
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