I spent yesterday exploring Phnom Penh in a leisurely and somewhat disorganised fashion and got to see a few interesting things.  Cambodia is exploding at the moment - more and more people are coming here and more money is being ploughed into everything so the city seems to have a greater energy than it did when I was here almost two years ago.

After breakfast and some coffees I set out on a moto to the Russian market which was a massive rabbit warren of a market selling all sorts of things - food (both fresh and cooked), drinks, clothes, books, spare parts for cars etc.  I liked the fact that it's for the most part a market for local people and not for tourists like the Lumpini markets (as an example) in Bangkok.  I think some families must more or less live at the markets because while trying to navigate out of the automotive section I walked past an old lady bathing a toddler while her husband was filing down some car bits.

I grabbed a snack and then set out on moto again to see Wat Ounaloum which kind-of overlooks the Tonlé Sap.  The wat was closed up but I had a bit of a walk around anyway and an old man who was sitting around asks if I wanted to see the statue - so I said yes and he unlocked this little door and motions for me to go inside and there is this great big bhudda surrounded by all sorts of flashing lights and GBH-trivia religious-novelty-lamp-esque illuminated spinning disks.  It was hard not to laugh.  Anyway then the guy gives me a heap of joss sticks which I placed in the right place while managing to knock over all the other ones - then the guy starts this chant in Khmer and splashing water on me and so on.  I have no idea what he was talking about so he was either asking the gods to provide prosperity for me, or asking the gods for me to put a few hundred riel in the offering box!