Playing Tourist

On Saturday, 6/26, I went to the National Museum and the Royal Palace.

The museum was very cool. Most of it was Buddhist and Hindu stonework. There was also some more recent historical artifacts from the French colonial period. One of the differences between the national museum and museums that I had seen before was that there was a lot more repetition. Rather than seeing 100 different paintings, no two of which look alike, I would enter a room with 100 different Buddhas. Perhaps it reflects different cultural values: in the west, everyone wants to be unique, so we value distinct pieces of art, whereas here there is more acceptance of the community's values, so the focus is on deeply understanding and perfecting those values.

The tour guide also refreshed some concepts about Buddhism and Hinduism that I hadn't thought much about since taking Values and Beliefs in my sophomore year of high school.

The Royal Palace was less interesting. Much of it was fenced off. The focus was more on larger structures rather than small crafts and statues. The structures themselves were very interesting. There was still a theme of repetition -- there was one structure that was at each corner of the main compound.

One prominent sight was the temple of the Jade Buddha. This part of the Royal Palace was similar to the National Museum. There were a lot of artifacts, and at the center of the room was a large jade Buddha. It's interesting to think that a leader valued for a rejection of the material world and extravagancies would have a jade statue made in his figure (not to mention the gold and silver figures all surrounding the jade).

Interestingly enough, this was the first day that I experienced Cambodia's monsoons. As soon as we entered the palace and got under cover, it started raining. As an Oregonian, I always make fun of Californians when they say that it's raining, but this was real rain. After a few seconds in it, there would not be any dry spots on you.

Unlike in Oregon or California, when you are soaking wet, you still feel warm. Thus, it's not too annoying to get soaking wet, as long as your shoes can take it.