We got up late. It's been a while since we've had a lazy morning and it was good. Once we were finally ready, we hopped into one of the Tuk-Tuks that are always waiting outside of the guesthouse. It takes us to the National Museum of Cambodia, but we find a place to eat before going inside. The museum is full of Buddhas, Vishnus and more Vishnus. There really were a lot of Vishnu statues. Just like all the other museums we've visited in Southeast Asia, the descriptions of things aren't very thorough. If you look at a sword in a glass cabinet, it will have a description saying 'Sword', and if you're lucky, a date. Regardless, we enjoy the museum.
The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda that we want to visit are closed for lunch, so we go to The Pizza Company - a restaurant branch I'm assuming is American. We essentially went there for the free cola refills, because it is a very hot day and I especially needed hydrating after running through a bunch of pigeons, but the pizza was good too.
The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda are combined as one attraction and cost around 7 pounds to see. I was particularly wanting to see the Silver Pagoda. First you see the palace; a grand building with decorated outer walls and roof. Then we go into an area with a small scale model of Angkor Wat, a statue, three grey monuments, some other buildings and it was enclosed by a painted wall. The sign had said 'Silver Pagoda' at the entrance to the area, so I was excited. However, we looked around the whole area with no sign of it. Maybe it was one of the grey monuments? I doubt it. Rachelle and I were both confused and disappointed. There was a map, but that didn't say where it was either. We never saw the Silver Pagoda.
After the Royal Palace and invisible pagoda we bought Rachelle a book and me a pen. Then we went for drinks at a bar to pass the time before the shadow puppet show. Shadow puppet shows are a Cambodian tradition and the show starts at 7:30PM. When it's 7PM, we ask a Tuk-Tuk driver to take us. At first he doesn't seem to know of it, and then, all of a sudden, he does. We get in the Tuk-Tuk. We knew where the theatre was on the map and realised from the street numbers that we weren't headed towards it. We worried he might be taking us somewhere to mug us, and when I noticed a restaurant that wasn't a restaurant (but had dressed up girls on benches who looked like they were waiting for someone) I panicked further.
It turned out that our worries were just paranoid thoughts. The theatre had moved and we had an old map. We saw the puppet show after all. It was a lot more wordy than I thought it would be and the words were Cambodian. Rachelle enjoyed it though and we were allowed to play with the puppets after the show. Then we took a moped back o the guest house before going to a Cambodian fast-food burger restaurant called BB World. Rachelle said it was the best burger she's ever had.
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