{"id":4391,"date":"2015-11-24T02:56:18","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T02:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=4391"},"modified":"2026-05-12T20:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T19:33:17","slug":"grand-fireworks-over-the-mekong-and-a-lesson-in-not-lying-in-phnom-penh-cambodia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2015\/11\/24\/grand-fireworks-over-the-mekong-and-a-lesson-in-not-lying-in-phnom-penh-cambodia\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand Fireworks Over The Mekong And A Lesson In Not Lying in Phnom Penh, Cambodia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lotus
Lotus flower and the Royal Palace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The King Grand Boutique Hotel afforded us the tiniest, least \u2018grand\u2019 bedroom of this trip around Asia. I guess the operative word was \u2018boutique\u2019, not the word \u2018grand\u2019. The swimming pool in the lobby area and the swimming pool on the roof, were also, not grand at all, they were tiny; you couldn\u2019t really swim in them, they were a sort of plunge pool just perfect for cooling off in oppressive heat. If three or more people got in the roof pool at the same time, the water would overflow all across the floor and bar area; I was rather glad we weren\u2019t in the room on the floor directly below. But we did use both of those pools after exhausting days tramping the streets around Phnom Penh.<\/p>\n

\"The
Guide book reading at the White Pagoda in Phnom Penh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

On our last evening in Phnom Penh, after a day of shuffling along the streets and a rejuvenating plunge in the pool, we wandered down to push our way through the astonishing crowds around the enormous Independence Monument. In places it was impossible to cross the roads, which were just as packed as the pavements. Today was the culmination of the Water Festival, a very special day in the Cambodian calendar. As we walked along to the riverfront, hanging on to each other to avoid being separated in the happy, loud crowds, we heard an explosion and looked up to see the red sparkling lights of a huge firework. And then there were more fireworks and more. It was lovely and everybody, just like all over the world, stood mesmerised and uttering that universal sound \u201cOooo, aaaaahhh\u201d. We, of course, joined in.<\/p>\n

\"Crazy
Crazy traffic at the Independence Monument in Phnom Penh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Finally, finding a restaurant for a quick cheap meal, we dived in to the air-conditioned back room of a Khmer restaurant. We ordered our meals and then spotted two young girls wandering through the restaurant trying to sell their scarves and bracelets and toys. One of them came up to our table with goods stretched out in front of her. She could only have been about ten. She told us we needed scarves for our cold country, so I told her we didn\u2019t live in a cold country, \u201cwe live in Australia\u201d. To which she replied \u201cdo not lie. You can lie to me, but do not lie to yourself\u201d. Wow, that one took us aback! She then proceeded to tell us that her Auntie \u201clives in Perth in Western Australia and she pays for my schooling\u201d. So I told her that Perth is colder than Sydney; absolutely not true and I\u2019m now starting to feel guilty about lying. To which she came back quickly with \u201cmy Auntie has moved to Sydney and she has told me that the winter there has been very cold this year\u201d, which was absolutely true!!! I apologised, but said we really didn\u2019t need to buy any more scarves, or toys, or bracelets, so she turned to Rodney, tilted her head and with beautiful big brown pleading eyes said \u201cCome on, be a man, open your heart and open your wallet\u201d. It was a beautiful moment and as Rodney was about to reach for his wallet, our meals arrived and she just faded away back out on to the street. Sadly no sale.<\/p>\n

\"Street
Street seller on the waterfront in Phnom Penh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Rooftops
Rooftops of Phnom Penh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 The King Grand Boutique Hotel afforded us the tiniest, least \u2018grand\u2019 bedroom of this trip around Asia. I guess the operative word was \u2018boutique\u2019, not the word \u2018grand\u2019. The swimming pool in the lobby area and the swimming pool on the roof, were also, not grand at all, they were tiny; you couldn\u2019t really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-snippets-of-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4391"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8254,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4391\/revisions\/8254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}