Day 2 of the Honeymoon

After I sent the email yesterday, we did make it out of the hotel for a bit. We walked through Wat Phnom on our way to dinner. Wat Phnom is on the will where Lady Penh found 5 Buddha statuettes, which were the inspiration for the founding of the city of Phnom Penh. We ate dinner last night (some very tasty sweet and sour fried fish, and a slightly spicy beef dish) across from a Scottish guy and a Cambodian who lives in Santa Rosa, but is visiting family here for a few months. We walked to and from dinner, which is a bit chaotic. Traffic seems to flow in every direction all at once, and they've certainly never heard of a crosswalk, you just kind of step into the middle of it all. The tuk-tuks are a much better way to get around.

We then enjoyed a cocktail at the hotel's famed Elephant Bar. I had a e sling and Stef had a Femme Fatale, invented for Jackie O's 1967 dinner at the hotel. Both were served in signature glasses. We ended the evening with a Swedish massage at the hotel spa' we erased any kinks remaining from the flight over.

Today, Wednesday, we got up around 7 (actually easier than at home, thanks to jet lag), then headed out around 8. We had breakfast at the FCC (Foreign Correspondents Club), which had a beautiful view of the Mekong River. We then visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. My words won't do it justice, you'll just have to wait for pictures. We also stopped by the national museum and the Russian market before grabbing some Thai fried rice and cold beers for lunch.

Currently back at the hotel avoiding the midday heat. It's on par with mid-July on the east coast, very warm, and very muggy. Fine for sitting by the pool writing email, not so great for traipsing around.

We're going to try and head out later for some dinner and maybe a sunset river cruise. Tomorrow morning at 8, we catch a bus for Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom.

It's been really neat learning about all the Khmer history, particularly the ancient and the very recent (the current King was a ballet professor in Paris immediately preceding his coronation!) and we're both having a blast. I'll see if I can figure a way to upload a few photos later.

Love,
Pete and Stef

P.S. - I'm going to send all future updates only to our daily blog at http://peteandstefdaily.blogspot.com/ so I don't spam up everyone's inboxes. I'll try and get something up there every day or so.

Sent from my iPad