Wot Phnom Revisited

On my last day in Cambodia (not counting my current travel day) I decided to play tourist and take photos. I decided that I would revisit two of the destinations that I visited on my tour of Phnom Penh with Language Corps.  The first one being Wot Phnom which I will talk about now.  I believe I talked about it in a very early entry but I feel that a little recap is in order.  Wot Phnom was Pol Pot's (still not sure if I'm spelling that right) fortress during the Khemer Rouge regime.  Wot Phnom itself is basically one giant pagoda (temple) with several stunningly beautiful buddhist statues inside (can't take photos in there though).  Around the temple are smaller statues and pagodas, the walkway is made out of very old brick.
At one part there is a giant outdoor clock.  The clock was built after the fall of Pol Pot's regime as a memorial to all the people he killed.  The philosophy behind it was that from that point on, Cambodia would start the clock over.

I didn't spend very much time in Wot Phnom this time because I'd been there before but I had a very good time.  When I got inside the central temple I noticed something that I pointed out in an earlier entry.  There are paintings on the wall that resemble a comic strip.  I suspect that this may be one of the first, if not the first "comic strip" format painting.  It has a definite beginning, the large panel at the back of the room, and each panel was spaced evenly from the next and it had a caption.  Not knowing how to read Khmer, I had no way to follow the story.  I spent quite a bit of time in this room, I even sat and meditated (you can do that) there for a few minutes.  It was stunning.

I walked around the rest of Wot Phnom taking pictures and I was disappointed that I didn't see any of the cute feral cats that I saw on my first visit.  As I was doing one final spin around Wot Phnom, I almost stepped on a cat!  I looked down at the floor and there was a very small hole where one of the bricks had faded away with age, inside the hole was a sleeping baby feral cat!  This was the smallest cat I've ever seen in my life!  I suspect he might have been malnourished because he's feral and all, he didn't exactly look healthy either.  Nonetheless,  I snapped a picture of him and there was a leaf right next to him and he was barely bigger than the leaf!  Unfortunately, my commotion kinda woke him up and he started meowing at me.  I wanted to pet him but I think he was saying "who are you? Why did you wake me up?" In cat language and probably wasn't happy.  I walked away and let him be.  I finished my tour and continued to my next destination.  The Royal Palace!

Till Next Time...