Help - Is it Turquoise on Tuesday?

It's a tad tricky deciding what to wear when the heat is so intense yet custom, when visiting a royal palace, dictates shoulders and knees must be covered. Thus, after lunch at Villa Langka (our hotel), shorts were swapped for long, lightweight pants and Sareth pronounced us suitably attired for the off. First stop the royal residence - throne room (no photos allowed), silver pagoda (no shoes allowed) and Bhuddist library (off with your hat please Madam - whoops! And there was me thinking it was respectful to cover your head - confusing). Within the magnificent and manicured palace grounds several buildings required sharp elbows and even sharper hearing to catch the history and different uses to which they are put over the crowds of tourists - yes, the irony is not lost on me here but at least we were just two of us and not 30 at a time spilling off numerous coaches. 

Throne room pagoda - the monarch only ever sits on his throne once, at coronation. Sadly no pics permitted.

Sareth - patient and polite.

The silver pagoda is named after the 5000+ silver tiles from which the floor is constructed. Now a shrine to the Buddha, most of the tiles are these days covered in carpet to protect them from the crowds - understandable. The royal complex also included visits to exhibitions of other regal relics, weaponry, sedan chairs, stupa (pointy stone things where the urns containing the ashes of past monarchs are housed) and clothing. This was where we learned of the dying tradition of different colours for different days. If only I'd realised - I would have posed in purple ;-) 

Past princely pointy post-pyre place (stupa).

From the left, starting on Sunday. Tomorrow we get the blues.

Next stop the National Museum. Here we were handed over to an incumbent guide. If I'm honest I could have done without this part of the day. We left confused and slightly numb as a result of almost incomprehensible commentary and room after room of stone representations of the various Hindu deity which might explain our somewhat silly selfie the moment we were left to our own devices. Sorry statues. 

Garuda - that's this God's name not the sound HRH is making between gritted teeth.

Marble monkeys, possibly Hanuman and another one (slightly losing the plot at this point)...

Go Daddy - Do the Roar! (Had enough by now)...

Final cultural tale of the day coming up. Ever wondered how Phnom Penh got it's name? No me neither - until now. According to legend a woman by the name of Lady Penh found four small statues of the Buddha washed up on the beach outside her home. Realising their significance she took this as a sign that they needed a new home, built a hill ('phnom' in the Khmer language) and ordered the construction of a temple on top to house them. Of course they're no longer there but many still make the short climb, as did we, to view the temple. We stopped short of lighting insence, burning pretend paper money and leaving fruit or scraps of meat in blessing!

Lady Penh

Shrine to Buddha - appropriately draped in purple today.

And thus to answer the call of Happy Hour at the FCC (Foreign Correspondents Club, where journalists congregated to report on the troubles in the 1970s and where so-called independent travellers still share stories). We just wanted a drink.

Two "Fine and Shandy"s later, feeling more human. 

Footnote: This wall painting in The Riverside Restaurant struck me as amusing. Well what do YOU think the guy on the right is up to?