After breakfast we met Sam at his Tuk Tuk for the trip to the Royal Palace. The Royal Palace complex and attached 'Silver Pagoda' compound consist of several buildings, structures and gardens all located within 500x800 meter walled grounds overlooking a riverfront park. It serves to this day as the Cambodian home of King Norodom Sihamoni. Within the Royal Palace compound is the extravagant Silver Pagoda, the floor of which is covered with five tons of gleaming silver. An extraordinary Baccarat-crystal Buddha sits atop an impressive gilded pedestal. Adding to the lavish mix is a life-sized solid-gold Buddha, which weighs 90kg and is adorned with 2086 diamonds, the largest weighing in at 25 carats. From here we then headed to the Russian Market but alas it was closed due to New Year holidays. There were a few stalls on the outer open but nothing really to look at. I wasn't happy with Sam because he did not tell us it was closed. We had passed Aeon shopping mall earlier so I asked Sam to take us there. We headed inside and wow was it big for Cambodia standards. It had 4 floors of shops and various eateries. We wondered around and had lunch at a small bakery before walking back to the hotel. Late afternoon Kevin decided to go for a walk to the park area we had seen this morning. He came back 40 min later exhausted by the heat. It got to 40C today. For dinner we went to Mini Banana which was down a side hem and run by an Italian guy and his lady. We had a lovely salad each. Would recommend to anyone.
