Cambodia – Part 1

A week ago I left to Cambodia for a school trip. The plane ride was about seven hours long. When we got to the airport in Phnom Pehn we were greeted by our tour guide and a tour bus. As we drove to our hotel he told us a bit about Cambodia and his life. Our hotel was an apartment style area with three separate bedrooms. With just enough time to unpack our stuff we went to our first meal in the country. One of the coolest things about the restaurant were how many lizards there were all over the ceiling. I got a smoothie and some very delicious Khmer food.

The next day in the morning we went to the royal palace where the king is living now. Our guide told us that the spikes on top of the buildings were supposed to be dragons. The Khmer people religiously believe that there ancestors were dragons so they include that in there architecture. We went inside the crowning room where the king and king would be crowned. There was a lot of really cool artwork in there but we couldn’t take any photos of it. Scattered across the grounds there were also dance hall, places to keep elephants and various other places.

There was one French building that looked completely out of place. It was a gift from Napoleon the third and was previously a library. The silver pagoda was located nearby the royal palace. Its floors were made out of silver taken from coins from when they stopped using coin currency. There was also a golden, life sized Buddha covered with hundreds of diamonds.