After enjoying the time we spent in Phnom Penh over Christmas we were looking forward to another couple of nights in the city. We found a basic room for £8 a night and scheduled a visit to the Royal Palace and some time to explore the city on foot.
The Grand Palace covers extensive grounds, a perfect space for ‘the boy’ to stretch his legs and have a run around. However, today he was in a cheeky mood and wasn’t on his best behaviour.
White Temple within the Royal Palace, Phnom Penh
After being told to stay close to mummy and daddy he went toddling off at full speed in the opposite direction towards a large puddle of water, splashed around in his sandals, and after ignoring the requests to ‘come back please’ took his hat off, threw it into the muddy water and trampled on it whilst giggling. Admittadly it was quite amusing, but I certainly wasn’t going to let him know that. The problem was that a small croud had gathered around him, cameras clicking in his face, all laughing at him and telling him him how cute he was. It was one of those ‘Alf-o-rama’ moments, but it hardly re-inforced the fact that he’d just done something naughty. As far as he was concerned, what he’d done was obviously very clever. HELP!
Don't...
Don't you....
Don't you dare! Oh, too late
Anyway, after spending a couple of hours at the Palace we took an afternoon stroll down by the river. The footpaths that hug the waters edge are really wide and attract many of the locals who use the space to skateboard, dance, picnic and play football. The boy was mesmorised watching a group of men kicking a wicker ball around and loved it when they invited him to join in. As the sun set ‘the boy’ practised his novice ball skills, tiring him out perfectly for a good sleep later that night.
'The boy' joins in a sunset game of football on the riverfront, Phonm Penh
Tomorrow we have aother long bus journey up to Siem Reap. I hope he’s on better behaviour tomorrow.
Top tip of the day:
We found a lovely vegetarian restaurant in the centre of Phnom Penh that serves up cheap, tasty and healthy food. Our baby loved the vegetarian tomato pasta. It made a nice change from rice.
The Vegetarian, No 11, Street 200, Off Norodom Road, Phnom Penh (open Monday to Saturday 10am – 8om)
Lovely pics.