Our early morning your of the city was very interesting,  as I knew very little about the Kingdom of Cambodia.   We visited first their monument of independence, celebrating their independence from France.   They celebrate for 3 days,  Nov 9-12

It is on the center of a round about at the head of the large plaza with statue of the first king

The largest part of our route was on 1 of the 3 compounds on the Royal palace,  where the king is crowned,  meets dignitaries,  and performs ceremonial duties.   Their king is elected,  by the way,  not an inherited title but comes from 1 of 2 families.

No pictures were allowed inside the throne room but we did get to enter

some of the Royal garments and parts of the longest painted mural in Cambodia depicting a story of the early king

We visited the National Museum of Cambodia next.

The word Phnom means Hill and the word Penh is a lady’s name who helped the local peasants establish the city.   We visited the pagoda to her,  and the city

People were paying her as we entered.   The lady in Red was chatting with a statue of Penh, explaining something on her phone!  quite a sight!  We walked down the other side of the hill and around the bar to our driver.  

We ended the morning with lunch at a nice restaurant near the bus station,  and found out was directly above the dock where we arrived yesterday via boat from Viet Nam.

our lunch was delicious,  Fish in Lemongrass and duck with vegetables in lemongrass.