Palace, Museum, and Good Food

Jumbriasua!

Today marked my first weekend in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Today, it felt as if though it was 130% humidity and 100 degrees. Not too bad, right? All I know is that I am thoroughly enjoying the feeling of sticky and wet. Attractive, I know.  Regardless of the temperature, I was excited to do something outside of the office.

Well, today Beau, Rosemary, Rachel, Tessa, and I visited the royal palace. As we walked around the palace grounds, I was amazed at the architecture and overall design of the compound. I will eventually be posting photos on this blog because I know that reading a bunch of text is incredibly boring. One of the most interesting buildings was the one given to the King of Cambodia from Napoleon. Napoleon literally transported an iron building on a boat. Posted below is a picture of the building.

The best part of the visit to the palace was seeing Rosemary’s face. Rosemary, Beau’s wife, has this strange obsession with the King of Cambodia. She wants to name her son after the King and is constantly talking about how he is a fantastic king. She literally was smiling from ear to ear as we toured the palace. I hope sometime during this stay in Cambodia that Rosemary will meet the King.

 Once we finished touring the palace, we went to the national museum, which is about a block or two away. Unfortunately, the museum officials do not allow pictures to be taken.  However, I can tell you that Cambodia has many remarkable statutes and carvings of Buddha and other gods. If you have a chance, I would definitely put the palace and the national museum as places on your “things to do list.”

Following the tour of the national museum, we were all really hungry and wanted to eat at a restaurant.  After walking around for a few minutes, we came across a restaurant called Friends. I was incredibly excited to eat at this restaurant because I had heard about it during a news segment on KSL. Friends is a restaurant that was started by a couple that wanted to impact the lives of street children. This restaurant takes children who live on the streets and teaches them skills of the restaurant business, which include serving, cooking, etc. By doing so, the children are given skills to help them obtain a brighter future. If not for the good cause, you should check out this restaurant for the food...it is SPECTACULAR!

Well, that is all for now. Take care!

-Melanie