Cambodia 2004

We relaxed the rest of the day. At night the povertry of this country came into our consciousness, when kids were going around not asking for money but for food. There were more mine victims here than in Siem Reap as well.

The next morning we walked to Psah Thmei (Central Market) and we nearly despaired. The traffic in Phnom Penh is unbelieavalbe and hardly to be done by pedistrians. Who ever thought Naples is the horror version of traffic hasn´t seen Bangkok. And who thought Bangkok is it, hasn´t been to Phnom Penh. The central market was realy nice and after we walked around for a few hours we went on to Wat Phnom, the landmark of Phnom Penh. The legend reports, that a woman called Penh founded here, at the only hill (Phnom) of the town, a temple. That´s were the name comes from.

The next morning we went to Psah Tuol Tom Poung (Russian Market), before we moved to the King Palace and the Silver Pagoda in the afternoon. The King Palce can just be visited partely, as the Cambodian king still lives here. First of all the surrounding garden was very nice. The Silver Pagoda got its name because of its ground which is layed out by 5,000 kg of silver plates. It was nice but not that impressive we thought.