Stories from Phnom Penh

When a monk stopped our crazy bus driver, I was deeply sleeping while having a coffee in Dolce Sicily of Dublin. He was sitting just behind that guy from the Hula Hula beach in where things were working differently and it was way too difficult to understand in this land.

As the monk couldn't connect to the WiFi on the bus, he just got off a few meters later and walk through that country-side which was so complicated to describe with my sleepy head. The epic bus trip was coloured by the epic sunset in the traffic when we reached Phnom Penh...

Cambodia`s busy capital sits at the junction of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers. King Jayavarman II announced himself King of Kings on this land during the Era of Khmer. He would not imagine the tuk-tuk traffic during the rush hours thou. We were already missing our tuk-tuk driver Tu in the madness of Phnom Penh. Our new tuk-tuk driver was trying his best to make our trip to the hotel as short as possible while discovering each narrow side street along the main road. There was no sign of a Monk to guide the new driver..

When we reached our hotel, we firstly welcomed by the tiniest shiny fish, that I was ever seen. They were looking at us underneath the white lotus flower at the top of the deep and dark clay pot. Then, we had again blessed my a dose of an amazing smile even if we were not the relatives of Jayavarman. The sun was disappearing while leaving shades of different colors behind, meanwhile, the temperature was high enough. Before discovering Phenom Penh at night, we did chill out with our local drinks at the same time watching the city at the top of  Okay Boutique Hotel.

The weather was not that hot but still highly humid when we left the hotel to have our last dinner in the city.  Walking through the night market of this city was way too complicated which was mixed with our feelings and the food smell as well as the voices of ladies from clothing shops. The Asian fashion was also mixed with the impossible designers brands. We passed a few Western tourist who was trying to negotiate on a few purse which embodies the spirit of colorful Asian flowers. Although, I did not think why they were not buying any Guccy T-shirt or Amanni belt. As the time we reached the coast of the river, the food stalls became a little local food corners. Some of those were even looking like having a night picnic in the middle of the capitol. The smell was calling us but we were not sure if our Mediterranean bodies could have cope with very local spices.

Our epic day ended at the roof top bar on the other side of the Royal Palace where we did witness the glorious moon rise above the rivers of Phenom Penh. It felt like the moon rises in a different way as the sun does than the other side of the world where I did grow up differently. I do not remember if I was told any lullaby, despite the way moon and sun were used to rise. I do not know a lullaby from this land either. Did lady Penh ever told one? I asked to the waitress if she was part of any lullaby when a big branch of tree was floating on the river. 

No-one saw her. Many stories were told about her but her story was not starting with the phrase of once upon a time. During the time of the rainy season at the coast of rivers, you could see many people on the coast searching for firewood. Lady Penh walked further along the river to escape from the crowd and had more chance to get firewood for herself. She was wearing an old sampot which is not as old as her age but colored in dark green with orange colour flowers on it. She draped her sampot different then the other women in the village. She was walking bare feet and very slowly when she saw the floating koki tree in the river. She chased the tree for a while and fished it from the river quickly. She found four hidden Buddha statues. One was Vishnu and the other one was Shiva. Vishnu had six arms and holds the lotus flower while bringing solutions from Brahma. 

The waitress added that no-one know what he was holding with his other hands. She looked at the other side of the restaurant while being sure that there is no customer calling her from any of those metal tables. Metal tables were not French style but they were pretty heavy while trying to move them on the yellow bricked floor. She continued after being aware of my curiosity with the smile in the middle of my nodding head. 

There were the mountains, snow and the snake around the neck of Shiva according to the story I heard from my grandma. She used to say that Shiva was bringing the calmness and peace to the universe.

Lady Penh found a new home for the found objects on the skirts of a hill. It was taken as a sign of a divine blessing and just after that the Khmer capitol was moved from Angkor to this place. In the same way, the hill was called Lady Penh`s hill but all in Khmer language in which Phnom means `hill`. So you are in Lady Penh`s hill at the moment. Phnom Penh...

She did not tell me a lullaby that she used to hear from her grandma but she told the legendary story of the hill like the way her grandma used to tell her. 

There are kids in this universe who hear only legendary stories..
Not lullabies...