We are right next door to the Royal Palace so we walked there; and of course EVERY tuk-tuk driver thinks we need a ride! LOL-we need our steps!
We found our way to the ticket office and paid $US10 each to go in. The place is immaculate and the buildings are beautiful. There are not a lot of items to see inside the buildings like many of the places in Europe but what there was, was top notch!
After going back to the hotel for a few minutes to change out of our “temple” clothes we proceeded almost right back to in front of the palace (which is located with a beautiful view of the river; essentially right where the Tonle Sap River joins the Mekong River). From there we wandered down the river promenade looking for any tour boats (this was still morning time).
We made it to Wat Ounalom and it was there we succumbed to a Tuk-Tuk driver’s offer of a ride.He had an itinerary that included a series of stops and an eventual ferry right back across the river. So for $US20 we got in with V. (I forget his name however I will see again tomorrow so can try again to get his name!). Anyway, a super nice guy and we got along extremely well (which is good because we are very sure we paid WAY too much but he is worth a few extra dollars from us)
A stop or two later after going over a bridge to an island we were at the Golden Temple
Later, on our way to the Monkey Temple (there are real monkeys there-I just didn’t bother to take photo’s -and I forgot to mention that there were a lot of monkeys at the Angkor Wat area as well) some kids hopped on the side of the tuk-tuck, being friendly and real chatty just as we arrived. It became clear after a minute or two that they were begging for money. Not pleasant as they were a little aggressive I thought. Our driver said afterward that they don’t go to school and just wait there for tourists The area is very poor and dirty.
A quick stop at Wat Sampov where there is an old river boat from the Mekong that has been painted up and at certain times of the year is the site of important events.
We caught the ferry from the south side of the big island we were on and I got my “river cruise” fix as we crossed back to the mainland
One more stop at Wat Botumvatey where we did a quick check of the temple and the cemetery beside it
Arrangements were made with “our guy” for a 9 AM pickup tomorrow and at that time we are off to the “Killing Fields” museum, about 11 km out of the city, followed by an in-town visit to S21 Genocide museum.
We stopped for a late lunch in a little restaurant around the corner; one plate of food, a couple of cups of sticky rice, two cokes and a simple desert for $US5.
We still were having problems withAir Asia’s website so thought we would just go a travel agent to get things straightened out. Turns out there was one a couple steps away from the hotel entrance. Well…..when the agent heard it was a problem with AirAsia he apologized, said he couldn’t do anything and suggested we go to an AirAsia office in a high end mall in the city. We grabbed a Tuk-tuk and $US3 later we were at the mall. The office there was able to accept our payment for excess luggage (7 kilos max is all we are allowed on our tickets) but only in cash so we went next door to an ABM and withdrew money from our checking account. Caro suggested we have them do up our flight from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia to Krabi Thailand so we completed that as well and of course we had to go next door to the ABM again-this time taking a cash advance from our credit card as the amount needed was more than our chequing account daily limit withdrawal.
The ride back to our hotel was really nice..
Caro went up to the swimming pool area to read while I wrote this up. Below is a photo she took while up there..
No comments:
Post a Comment