Phnom Penh

Another early morning departure after breakfast at the hotel. Between dogs barking, the morning propaganda broadcast over neighborhood loudspeakers from the Communist Party, and the maids shouting in the hallway of the hotel, we hardly needed an alarm clock.

The bus took us to the riverfront where we boarded a motor launch for a short trip up river to the "floating market." This was a bit different from what I had envisioned. Hundreds of floating houses are lashed together along the river banks, and I thought we'd see an extension of that. Instead, the floating market is a cluster of 30-40 medium-sized boats anchored separately but near to one another midstream.

Farmers come out in small canoes with their produce to sell. A couple of the larger boats may be buying pineapples, others mangoes or papaya, still others coconuts or bananas. The farmers shout across the water to bargain a price for whatever they have that morning, then tie up next to the boat that is buying, and begin tossing produce up to the crew. Their sale completed, the farmers return home to work the fields. After buying sufficient quantities from various farmers, the larger boats head off to dock at a city, where they wholesale their cargo to local merchants.

Our launch then docked at one of the floating houses near the bank. As it turned out, this was not merely a residence, but also a fish farm. Under the house is a metal cage, roughly equal to the square footage of the house (possibly 800 square feet or so) and extending 15 or so feet in depth. Inside this metal cage were a number of nylon nets, each holding God-knows how many hundreds of fish. River water flows through, the current constantly refreshing the water inside the cage. Floor panels in the house can be lifted. The fish know that opening their panel usually means they'll be fed, and when the feed actually came, there was a tremendous frenzy. Apparently fish farming is quite lucrative here.

We transferred from our launch into a larger, enclosed boat. It was supposed to be a luxury craft, but the leg room in the seats was set up for people a lot shorter than me. It was a less than comfortable ride, and a long one. After speeding up river for a little over an hour we pulled in and docked at a Vietnamese border station. As we waited in a floating cafe and souvenir shop, our passports were taken ashore and stamped. We then got back on the boat and went about a quarter mile farther upstream, where we docked at a Cambodian border station. On the way between stations, a deck hand took the Vietnamese flag off the bow of the boat and replaced it with a Cambodian flag. We stepped off the boat at the Cambodian station, were handed our passports, and waited in line until our visas were stamped here. Then it was back on the boat for a very long three additional hours until we reached Phnom Penh.

Lunch was at a pretty fancy place on the waterfront, and was much different food than we have had to date. Particularly interesting was the dessert, made from tapioca and coconut milk, but also containing pumpkin, potato, and mushrooms. We went directly from the restaurant to the Royal Palace. Unlike some of the palaces we've seen, this one is occupied. Cambodia, like Thailand, is a constitutional monarchy. The palace layout is somewhat different from that in Myanmar, Thailand, China, or Laos, but quite impressive. Also on the palace grounds is the "Silver Pagoda," named for the silver floor (most of which is covered by carpet). This pagoda is home to the "Emerald Buddha," which looks suspiciously similar to the "Emerald Buddha" in Bangkok, though our local Cambodian guide insists this is the real one. She also insists it's actually made of emerald, though jade is far more likely.

Leaving the palace we were dropped from a bus a quarter mile or so from the hotel so that the local guide could take us on a brief neighborhood orientation. After settling in at the hotel, some went for a tuk-tuk tour of a somewhat wider area of the city, but Mary and I declined, both of us now suffering from unsettled stomachs. There was another huge dinner at the hotel. We are seriously overfed.