Phnom Penh 3

We returned to the busy capital and after being caught in bad traffic for an hour we made our way to the Mad Monkey. It was already early evening by the time we had showered and sat down for some food. We had decided to venture into the city the following day instead.
I made my way to the bar to write up some more of the blog and Blair napped in the room and joined me for a beer later on. By now he had stopped taking the doxycycline in hope that he stomach aches would cease.
We walked from the hostel towards the river where the city's main attractions awaited. Since we had been on a day tour during our stay we were familiar enough with the city's layout.
It was a particularly baking hot that day and no amount of shade or cold water suppressed the heat or relieved the sweating.

We walked through the square that led to the royal palace and pagodas. It was the district where the grandest hotels stood.
A tuk-tuk driver sat with a friend and was clearly enjoying the music blaring from a small radio. "Hey, fat man!", Blair and I immediately turned. The driver was standing now and beaming. I could already hear Blair chuckling behind me. "No tuk-tuk thank you" I replied. I had misunderstood, "No, come dance, nice music!". He began dancing on the spot, his friend laughing at his cheeky antics. Blair and I laughed, declined and walk on. "Did he really just call you fat man?”, Blair chuckled "No, I think you misheard".
We took photos of the royal palace, the surrounding pagodas and their grounds.

Then we continued walking towards the mighty Mekong. The district was also home to universities and political buildings. We passed 'The Cambodian Communist Organisation of Parties and Holidays' and 'The School of Buddhist, Pagan and cult Teachings'.
Being an affluent district, the streets had its fair share of poor citizens who set up shop selling anything they could. We were offered ice cream, rice, fruit, coconuts, flowers, herbs, even jewellery or souvenirs made from recycled materials. We passed several monks wrapped in their orange robes and continued until we were now in front of the royal palace. We didn't stand for too long as we were completely exposed to the sun. Blair's tshirt and my top were soaked though with sweat Blair suddenly let out a huge sigh of relief and when I followed his eye line I realised why. He'd spotted the sign he had been searching for: Dairy Queen. When Blair had first read about the sights of Phnom Penh and noticed that they had a Dairy Queen, he had stored it away in the back of his mind, and waited patiently until we visited the capital again to go. We walked into this holiest of grails and the blast of cold air con was a welcome.
I ordered a bottle of water and a mango smoothie. I turned to see Blair looking rather disappointed. I found a table and when he joined me, told me it was nothing like the Dairy Queen of the U.S of A; they didn't even offer the pecan mudslide he had so craved, and sufficed instead with an Oreo blizzard.
Next, we walked to the city centre and the central market. Its listed as the twelfth largest dome in the world. I spotted the domed roof a few streets before.

Stalls spilled out from the main building and onto the pavements so pedestrians were walking along side the busy traffic and using the main streets as walkways. We made our way inside and were greeted with glass cabinet displays on mass selling jewellery.

This was the main hall, under the huge dome. The building branched off to other sections which seemed to never end. There was no air-conditioning, but there were fans on almost every stall; this kept us cool enough to walk around for a short while. In short, the market sold everything, from clothes to fruit to cooking utensils to pedicure treatments to toys. The sellers weren't as pushy as street sellers, we assumed it due to the continual flow of tourists and locals. The stalls also made use of every inch of space available. As we walked through the maze of stalls we were towered by stacks upon stacks of products on display. After twenty minutes or so we made our way back to the street and flagged down a tuk-tuk back to the Mad Monkey.
Unfortunately, it was rush hour and the city's streets were absolute mayhem. Lights and traffic wardens were ignored entirely, and crossroads were crammed with standstill traffic. Nothing but blaring horns and the revving of engines. Only the feistiest made any progress, and the mo-peds were on, what appeared to be, suicide missions, pulling out in front of huge trucks, cutting up tuk-tuk's and other mopeds.
Once we were closer to the hostel, we notices an odd sound coming from our tuk-tuk and that people were staring at the wheels. We both looked down on either side but could see nothing. The driver knew something was wrong but persevered regardless. He pulled up however when a group of drivers flagged him down. We jumped out to see a perfectly flattened wheel. We paid the driver and walked the short distance to the Mad Monkey.
We showered and went over to the XXL Aussie cafe. We ordered and Blair went to work on his ice cold beer and I on an ice cold coke. Our food arrived and was incorrectly placed. My 400g monster cheeseburger was placed before Blair and his dainty cheese toastie was given to me. We rectified the waitresses' wrongdoing, which was received with a giggle and a look of "no way will you finish that!". To my own delight  I polished off the monster burger and most of the chips, whilst Blair helped hoover the rest.
That evening I booked my bus ticket to Sihanouk Ville, and Blair booked an extra night, since his Vietnamese visa wouldn't be issued until tomorrow afternoon.
I packed my things up ready as I will be leaving early tomorrow morning. I'm excited to get to lie on a beach for a while. Although it will be odd being without Blair, not making decisions with him and talking things through. It will be the first time in over two months of spending all the time together, and now being apart!