The drive in from the airport is eye opening. Oh the traffic. It is crazy and takes forever – 40 minutes + to get to the Queen Grand Boutique hotel. We’ve switched hotels from the Asian Tea House because the Tea House wasn’t very responsive to emails and we worried about what it would be like to stay there (even though they get great reviews). So we booked the Queen Grand which is nearer to the sights around town anyway.
Upon arrival, we have our welcome drinks, then of course, our room isn’t ready – it’s only 10 am so we didn’t really expect it to be ready. There is, though, another room we can have but it has 2 beds, not 1 king. It is on a high floor though and will be an “upgrade” for us. Ok –we’re in! They say it will be a little bit to clean it, so we walk around and try to get our bearings.
OMG it is HOT. I will say this once, right now, and then will not repeat it because it will be a recurring theme and goes without saying this whole trip will be in the hot/humid range. But it takes your breath away here. We walked for about 20 minutes and were soaked by the time we got back. Drenched. Which – as you will see – is going to be the recurrent theme for our tour days here!
So….HOT being said….we changed our clothes in the restroom so we wouldn’t be walking around in long pants, and went out and about. Headed toward the Royal Palace on the riverfront. It is a cacophony of sounds, sights, cars, motos, tuk tuks and sidewalk food vendors. You can’t walk on the sidewalks because they are either under construction, or there are vehicles or food vendors blocking your way. So you just walk in the street. Which is an adventure on its own!
We end up back at the hotel drenched, but our room is ready, so we head up to room number 505 and settle in. it’s a great room, spacious and well equipped, but a great balcony looking out over the city and the river. Most of the other balconies look at the building next door – so we were really lucky with this “upgrade.”
We’re a little nibbly, so we go upstairs to the rooftop Sky Bar and have a drink and a great appetizer platter. Just the right thing to take the edge off. Plus the bartender is adorable (which we will find with almost all the service staff we meet here).
We are taking it easy today – since we’ve just flown for so long. Even though we aren’t that tired, we don’t want to push ourselves. So we are just going down the street to tour the Royal Palace, then to dinner at a restaurant Ed has found. The hotel guys say you can walk to the palace – it’s close – but we just walked through that whole hustle bustle by the river and we didn’t think it was all that close.
We end up taking a tuk tuk – and – well – the hotel folks are right! If you go the “park” way and not the “river” way – it is really close!! Not necessary for the tuk tuk – but we make out all right with that too – it’s only $1 (of course) and we negotiate with the driver, Mr. Chaina, to take us touring tomorrow. So it all works well!
We head into the Palace where it is a zoo. I was worried about our dress – because it says no shorts above the knee or shirts above the elbows, but it turns out they aren’t really all that strict. We do, though, end up with a guide who starts talking us up outside the ticket booth. He only wants $10 and we figure – what the heck – otherwise, we’d just wander aimlessly. He proves he is worth the money when he walks us straight up to the front of a huge line to buy tickets. We’re inside in no time – while the rest of the tourists are still waiting for tickets.
Once in the main area, our guide walks us to the Throne Hall and explains tons of things about the palace and the hall – and how it is only used for coronations and royal ceremonies. We suppose they would have a royal wedding here, but the current king is single –which seems to be a topic of interest maybe. Our guide must have mentioned it 5 times during our tour! You can’t go into the hall, but you can snap pictures outside.
Back out into the gardens surrounding the palace, we next head to the Silver Pagoda (which is pronounced PA-goda). This is an amazing pagoda with the entire floor made of silver tiles – 8 tons of them. They are all covered with rugs and only a few of them are exposed – behind ropes – for us to see. We can’t take pictures, so we just wander around marveling at the Emerald Buddha, carved out of one emerald stone. Plus the diamond encrusted Buddha and other marvels inside the pagoda. Our Guide (yeah, we either never got his name, or have forgotten it!), explains how when the King comes to pray here, they remove all the carpets and lay down special rugs for him to use. They are laying at the end of the pagoda with a guard sitting atop them, actually.
It is crazy busy with student tours here today – and our guide does not like them at all. He’s so funny! He says they smell – either perfume or just body – and then he turns up his nose! He especially gets irritated with them when we go into the display of traditional royal clothing. It is a little building and hard to maneuver anyway – so he’s not happy. But he gives us a good explanation of all the costumes – they have different color clothing for each day of the week. It is Friday, so everyone is wearing blue. Then on Saturday it will be maroon. I’m unsure if it is just the servants (and tour guides – LOL) who do this or the royals themselves. We also view the royal wedding garb that – if the King would ever get married, he would wear on his wedding day.
Outside again we take pictures of the Stupas (these are burial memorials for Kings and other royalty ).
Next we head over to the White elephant stables. Before the Khmer Rouge, there were always 2 white (albino) elephants on the palace grounds. The Khmer Rouge killed them when they took control, but left the stables. It is now a sort of memorial to the huge beautiful beast.
There is also a display of ceremonial litters which is pretty interesting – not to mention air conditioned. nice!
We are basically at the end of our tour, so we say goodbye to our guide and then wander back into the pavilion area for photos. Sunny even gets into the act a bit!
It’s been a nice little tour, but we’re done. First day in this heat and we’re ready to go back to the A/C. So, we call it an afternoon and walk back to the hotel (it is quick) to cool off before dinner.
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