The main room we saw in the royal palace was the throne room, which was all gold and red with a fantastically painted ceiling and a huge gold throne. Cambodia is a constitutional monarchy, and so has a king and a prime minister. This room is where coronations take place. There is a waiting room next door, from which the garbed king and dignitaries mount elephants.
The silver pagoda isn't silver as you can see from the shot of it with the monks in front above, but gets its name because the floor is made from solid silver floor tiles. They weigh a lot. This room has lots of Buddha statues and, in particular, a jade green one raised on a high gold plinth.
The next day was a travelling day up to Kratie, further up the Mekong river. We met our guide and driver for the wildlife part of the trip, whose name is Ra. He's great fun and very young. More about him as we go, no doubt. Here's a picture of him and his mini-bus from later.
Our overnight hotel in Kratie is an atmospheric old French colonial place called Le Bungalow.
It only has two rooms and we were the only guests. We had some beer on the balcony watching the sunset on the Mekong.
It also had a good French restaurant and some cats, one of which obviously ended up in Claire's lap.
The wildlife part of the trip starts now with dolphins, elephants and gibbons.
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