Lukas in Cambodia: 2008-10-25

Another thing on the list of touristy things to do was visit the Royal Palace, so that was first on the list this Saturday. The palace compound is a short walk from the guesthouse, near the riverfront.

Elephant-motif gates in the palace compound wall

More gates, this time with a fancy bit on top

Looking along the front wall, the gate to go in is where the people are, and the riverfront is on the right

The palace compound is a big place – tourists are only allows to go inside the yellow square (a walled area) and in the area directly above it

Stop #1 – throne room – people are allowed in, cameras are not

In front of the throne room, there is a pavilion that is built against the perimeter wall, where addresses to the people are made I think

One of the main gates – the king & co go out here and in a straight line to the river to watch the water festival that is on in mid November

Close-up of steps to throne room – the 7-headed snake (naga) handrail (you can see the tail at the top of the stairs) and a guard lion

Roof detail

The palace is quite impressive inside, with a painted ceiling in the gaps between the beams, with each gap showing a different scene from Cambodian life. It is essentially the same floor plan as a cathedral, with the throne and a large Buddhist parasol behind in the middle of the cross in the building. Lots of gold-painted lights, chandeliers, wall murals and so on.

Looking towards an entertainment pavilion, which has a projection booth in the back too; the white-leaved tree in front is artificial, and the white things are lights; on the right in the background is the silver pagoda

Pavilion given by Napoleon III to the Cambodians in 1876 – shipped here after originally being assembled in France

The pavilion is falling apart – it used to house a painting gallery according to the guide book

More roof detail

Ceiling in the entertainment pavilion

After seeing all the royal bits, you enter through some gates into the yellow square section on the map, which is the area housing the Pagoda of the Emerald Buddha / Silver Pagoda. The first name comes from the jade Buddha figure inside, the second because the entire floor is made up of 5329 silver tiles (which are mostly covered by carpets to protect them from grubby tourist feet – it is another shoes off area). Inside are various (and numerous) Buddha statues and other religious items.

Mural inside the perimeter wall – it goes all the way around, some 600m worth, but was painted in about 1900 and is in poor shape

Topiary

Wall mural scene

Model of Angkor – the damage is not part of the plan

Turtle in the “moat” around the model

Fishies in the moat

One of the Buddhist-style tombs – these have the ashes one of the kings in them

Silver Pagoda

Back of the Angkor model

Statue of King Norodom from the French – apparently they had a spare Napoleon statue (as you would expect from the French), so they just changed the head and shipped it over; ironically, one of the later kings built the pavilion over it after managing to boot out the colonial French (and in thanks for the spiritual guidance from the earlier king)

The mountain temple – there is a small hill of dirt inside the yellow square, with lots of plants and a little temple on top

Buddhist-themed relief – carved from wood and about 3m long!

Strange flowers from a strange tree

Once you leave the yellow square, there is a thin strip you walk along to get back to the gate, which is crammed with little museums containing palace-related things and a few generic Cambodian things too.