Cyclo Tour of Phnom Penh
Including Imperial Palace & National Museum
What a cool morning this morning was! Woke up around 5 am and could have gone back to sleep, but instead I was up in the lounge to upload photos and work on the website since the Internet connections was so good. And while there saw the amazing sunrise over Phnom Penh where we arrived last night. Had a very good breakfast and then we met our new local guide who is a Cambodian native. Much like our well-liked Chung from Vietnam this guy is great - super sense of humor and oh-so-knowledgeable. He introduced himself and led us out to our own personal cyclos. We were told to choose one and take a photo of him so we'd always be able to find him. Well, my guy literally picked me, and I was the ONLY one of the tour with a pink cyclo. It was truly one of the best experiences of the trip.
Check out the short video of the cyclo experience.....
Check out the short video of the cyclo experience.....
Phnom Penh Cyclo Experience
We set off from the pier and quickly blended into traffic, pretty much "cruising along" in single file through the very busy streets of the capital city. Cars, motor bikes, "hondas" as they're known, and trucks....we were just one piece of a mass transit flow! We passed several temples and hotels and finally arrived at the Imperial Palace complex.
We had been informed ahead of time - both in our cruise documents and in our various briefing meetings that here in Cambodia they are "very serious" about the dress when entering their most important and/or sacred places. So today we had to be certain to have our shoulders covered and our knees nearly covered. That's why when you see the photos below of Kim at the Imperial Palace complex she has on a white sweater despite the 90 degree weather and high humidity. We had a briefing outside the palace complex - which had a huge portrait of the queen because they had recently celebrated her birthday, and Kim and I took a selfie "with the queen."
Once inside we saw the main hall where many important meetings and dignitaries have been held with the king. We could take photos outside, but not of the interior.
The photo immediately above doesn't even do justice to what we saw as we exited the main hall. The length of the building was a hand-painted mural depicting various scenes of the ancient history of Cambodia. Our guide was very good about stopping about every ten to fifteen minutes so we could sit in the shad and drink some water....he'd tell us information about the building we were at or going to and/or tell us some local legends. We then moved on to the highlight of the palace tour, a visit to the silver pagoda. Like the main hall we were not allowed to take photographs AND we had to remove our shoes. Of the many things that were fascinating here, one was that the entire floor was covered in silver! Here's a photo of the exterior that I took, followed by a photo of the interior that I grabbed off the Internet (would be interested to know who took this and how they got away with it!). We exited the palace and made our way back to our cyclos.
I knew I wouldn't have any trouble finding my pink ride, but before I found him I saw my guy excitedly pointing and me and jumping up and down off in the distance. I LOVED by "driver!" He was so considerate about trying to avoid the bumps and potholes in the road and so gracious - always with a huge smile on his face. We proceeded to the National Museum. We were given the option to skip the museum and head directly back. And the thought crossed my mind because neither of us are museum kind of people. But then we thought, what the heck we're here, why not? Especially with no afternoon activity.
SOOOO glad we stayed. Instead of turning us loose for the hour (which was how long they told us we'd have here) our guide walked us through the complex and explained everything. It was so amazing. Now THAT is how you do a museum! Pay attention cruise directors! There were so many artifacts from as far back as the fifth century! Two that caught my attention were the horse pagoda (now wonder why THAT would have caught my attention!) and a large carving that was taken from Ankor Wat - the highlight of the trip in a couple of days. The entire temple complex is covered with carvings like this. It was truly be something to see. As we left the museum we had one last photo of us together taken.
We went outside and found our cyclos, again my guy was so excited to find me :) Before we left the museum complex our guide told us that like all of our other tours provided by Avalon Waterways the guides had not only been paid but tipped. But, he added, if we felt like we wanted to they would be very appreciative of an additional dollar or two tip. It was ironic he mentioned this because I had just been thinking that I would like to do that - the cyclo trip had been one of the highlights so far and my guy was very much appreciated in the care he gave me! When we arrived back and the ship and I handed him the two one dollar bills his face lit up and he just beamed. I waited for Kim (who had also tipped her guy) and as we headed back to the ship I heard a hollar and looked over my shoulder to see my guy waving and yelling "bye bye!" with the huge grin still on his face. What a great morning!
We had been informed ahead of time - both in our cruise documents and in our various briefing meetings that here in Cambodia they are "very serious" about the dress when entering their most important and/or sacred places. So today we had to be certain to have our shoulders covered and our knees nearly covered. That's why when you see the photos below of Kim at the Imperial Palace complex she has on a white sweater despite the 90 degree weather and high humidity. We had a briefing outside the palace complex - which had a huge portrait of the queen because they had recently celebrated her birthday, and Kim and I took a selfie "with the queen."
Once inside we saw the main hall where many important meetings and dignitaries have been held with the king. We could take photos outside, but not of the interior.
The photo immediately above doesn't even do justice to what we saw as we exited the main hall. The length of the building was a hand-painted mural depicting various scenes of the ancient history of Cambodia. Our guide was very good about stopping about every ten to fifteen minutes so we could sit in the shad and drink some water....he'd tell us information about the building we were at or going to and/or tell us some local legends. We then moved on to the highlight of the palace tour, a visit to the silver pagoda. Like the main hall we were not allowed to take photographs AND we had to remove our shoes. Of the many things that were fascinating here, one was that the entire floor was covered in silver! Here's a photo of the exterior that I took, followed by a photo of the interior that I grabbed off the Internet (would be interested to know who took this and how they got away with it!). We exited the palace and made our way back to our cyclos.
I knew I wouldn't have any trouble finding my pink ride, but before I found him I saw my guy excitedly pointing and me and jumping up and down off in the distance. I LOVED by "driver!" He was so considerate about trying to avoid the bumps and potholes in the road and so gracious - always with a huge smile on his face. We proceeded to the National Museum. We were given the option to skip the museum and head directly back. And the thought crossed my mind because neither of us are museum kind of people. But then we thought, what the heck we're here, why not? Especially with no afternoon activity.
SOOOO glad we stayed. Instead of turning us loose for the hour (which was how long they told us we'd have here) our guide walked us through the complex and explained everything. It was so amazing. Now THAT is how you do a museum! Pay attention cruise directors! There were so many artifacts from as far back as the fifth century! Two that caught my attention were the horse pagoda (now wonder why THAT would have caught my attention!) and a large carving that was taken from Ankor Wat - the highlight of the trip in a couple of days. The entire temple complex is covered with carvings like this. It was truly be something to see. As we left the museum we had one last photo of us together taken.
We went outside and found our cyclos, again my guy was so excited to find me :) Before we left the museum complex our guide told us that like all of our other tours provided by Avalon Waterways the guides had not only been paid but tipped. But, he added, if we felt like we wanted to they would be very appreciative of an additional dollar or two tip. It was ironic he mentioned this because I had just been thinking that I would like to do that - the cyclo trip had been one of the highlights so far and my guy was very much appreciated in the care he gave me! When we arrived back and the ship and I handed him the two one dollar bills his face lit up and he just beamed. I waited for Kim (who had also tipped her guy) and as we headed back to the ship I heard a hollar and looked over my shoulder to see my guy waving and yelling "bye bye!" with the huge grin still on his face. What a great morning!
Cyclo Tour Video
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