We explored Cambodia’s capital city for almost three weeks, mostly on foot, which ended up being a lot of walking!! 

Royal Palace– The palace, built along the Mekong River in 1866 by the great great grandfather of the current king, includes quite a few ceremonial, administrative, and religious buildings, as well as the king’s residence. The palace structures include classic Khmer tiered roofs and a great deal of ornate gold gilding. Three flags are often displayed together at the palace: the blue, yellow, orange, and white striped Buddhist flag; the red, blue, and white Cambodian flag; and the blue and gold Royal flag. 

King Norodom Sihamoni became king about 15 years ago when his father retired. He is in his 60’s, is a former Buddhist monk, and is not married. He speaks five languages: Khmer, French, Czech, English, and Russian. When he dies or abdicates the Throne Council will select a new king from his relative, such as a nephew. In Cambodia the king is a ceremonial figurehead, not a royal who governs. 

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Juan, our tour guide, told us that King Norodom Sihamoni was in China with his mother so we would not even see him walk from one building to the next. Despite the king’s absence, a royal ceremony for blessing the new year ended just before we arrived. So we did get to see a few distant relatives of the king dressed in traditional clothing and other dignitaries walk down the red-carpeted stairs of the Throne Hall and then climb into official-looking vehicles as they departed. We then watched palace staff, including Juan, roll up the red carpet on the stairs leading up to the Throne Hall. This large, impressive building is used for celebrations, coronations and audiences with foreign dignitaries and government officials. The central spire is 59 meters tall with the four smiling faces of Brahma. The four faces represent the four virtues of parents towards their children: mercy, compassion, sympathy and neutrality. We were allowed to look inside, but forbidden to take photographs. So we do not have a picture of the beautiful gilded throne with the large canopy overhead, also gilded. 

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We spent the most time in the Silver Pagoda, a beautiful building with a pink and grey marble exterior and numerous Buddha statues inside. The pagoda gets its name because of the 5,000+ silver floor tiles, which were 95+% covered with carpets to protect the floor from tourists. We were disappointed to only see a very small section of the beautiful floor. Juan explained that the carpets are removed when the king prays in the Silver Pagoda four special times each month: full moon, 1/2 moon, no moon, and 1/2 moon. According to our guide, King Norodom Sihamoni regularly prays to both Buddha and Hindu gods because “he wants to have more power than ordinary people.” Even though we were not permitted to see the exquisite silver floor and forbidden to photograph anything inside the temple, we did get to see several very notable Buddha statues. The small green crystal Buddha (the “Emerald Buddha” of Cambodia) and an almost life-size solid gold Buddha encrusted with 9,584 diamonds were both very impressive! The courtyard walls of the Silver Pagoda are covered in extremely detailed Khmer frescoes, a few of which have already been beautifully restored. We noticed how detailed the paintings are and wondered how much time, effort, and patience it takes to restore even a small section of the artwork. 

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Wat Phnom– Originally built in 1372, Wat Phnom is the main Buddhist temple in the city. It was intentionally constructed on a 27 meter high knoll so that this wat would be the tallest religious structure in the city. Because of its distance from our hotel, we hired a tuk tuk driver to take us to visit this temple complex on a very warm afternoon. As we explored the surrounding gardens we saw quite a few families enjoying the shade of the large trees.

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Botum Park– We walked through this park on our way to the Royal Palace and Wat Ounalom. And we visited the park several evenings to watch the brief light and water show of the fountain. Several local dance and exercise classes meet at this park and we often saw teens play football in the large open area. The main historical feature in Botum Park is the Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument, built in the late 1970’s by the communist government that took power after the Cambodian-Vietnamese War, which overthrew the Khmer Rouge regime. The monument features both Vietnamese and Cambodia soldiers protecting a woman and her child. 

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Promenade in City Center– In the evenings we often walked the perimeter of this long park featuring fountains, monuments, large areas of green grass, and very wide walkways. We discovered quickly during our first night-time promenade lap that many locals and tourists get their exercise by doing the same thing. So people watching as we walked briskly helped us momentarily forget how every warm and humid the air felt, even after dark. Independence Monument stands inside the large traffic circle at the west end of the promenade so we did not often walk completely around it. Crossing a three-lane wide traffic circle as a pedestrian can be a bit tricky. The 20 meter Angkor-style tower, shaped in the form of a blooming lotus, was built in honor of Cambodia gaining independence from France in 1953. A newer, beautifully lighted monument in the promenade honors the previous monarch, King Norodom Sihanouk who died in 2012. The 4 1/2 meter statue of the late king with its 27 meter, gold leaf, Khmer style stupa reportedly cost over 1 million US dollars to construct. We read that some Cambodians found this a bit excessive, especially after his 5 million US dollar state funeral and the government’s inability to financially assist many Cambodian flood victims left homeless that year. 

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Wat Ounalom– This temple didn’t seem to be on the popular tourist circuit. But we found it to be quite interesting. Built in 1443 as one of the five original monasteries in the capital city, Wat Ounalom is where the top monk in the country resides and is considered to be Cambodia’s Buddhism headquarters. This compound now consists of 40 structures after being severely ravaged and damaged during Khmer Rouge. Wat Ounalom means eyebrow temple and the beautiful, gold Chetdai Stupa behind the main temple building is reported to contain an eyebrow hair of Lord Buddha.  

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