Much of Phnom Penh and the surrounding area is flat which means that once out of the city limites and away from the tall buildings the twin hills that are home to the a number of temples, including a giant sitting buddha statue, and in the hills shadows are the main headquarters for Buddhist in Cambodia.
The taxi out to Oudong takes a little more than half hour, and would be quicker if the roads were smoother and less full of motos, slow paced tuk tuks and cargo wagons overloaded with sacks up to the sky and thankfully a return journey costs no more than US $35.
At the base of the twin hills is a small market town, depending mainly on seasonal tourists and so at this time of year the large restaurant areas were empty and although the streets were lined with flower and nic-nac sellers I guessed that they were nowhere near as deep as the throng that would greet the large coach loads of tourists.
The temple was up a ornate and steep flight of steps, flanked on both sides by lush vegetation and pretty white and pinky purple flowers. Climbing the steps required some effort, as they were not only steep but it was very hot and many of the steps were home to beggars, foor and drink vendors and not to mention the small and impish monkeys.
Once we reached the top the view was magnificent and the place was also not so flooded with tourists that it made taking photos a problem. Catching our breath E' and I just gazed out for a few minutes before we decided to take the long road back down again via the smaller hill.
As we reached the smaller hill we spotted a tourist surrounded by at least a dozen frantically anticipating small children and I was puzzled until a few seconds later he began to throw wads of notes up into the air with a real theatrical flair. Realising that it takes over 4100 reils to make 1 US$ I figured that he could throw up a plenty of 100 reil bills without any worry of breaking the bank and so my only real thought was "was this a custom, a blessing or him just trying to appease them and get away without having his wallet or camera stolen?"
On our way down we passed a building that housed over 3000 Buddha statues, a giant golden sitting Buddha and then we were back at ground level and walking along the road back to the market stalls and where the taxi was waiting for us.
We did have a plan to stop and get a bite to eat, but I could not find anything that I thought I could keep down and so instead we skipped dinner and took the Buddish HQ temple that was just a few minutes along the road and thankfully almost deserted of any tourists. What it did have was hundreds of buddhist monks all sitting in the sun while a head monk conducted a sort of sermon while the main group listened. Inside the temple was the remains of the last very venerated and reverred monk, which was only a tiny bit morbid, but the surrounding area was a photographers heaven and I snapped away happily while E' listened and on occassion translated a few bits for me.
Once the sun was low in the sky we felt that it was time to go so jumped back in our friendly taxi and headed on back to Phnom Penh and a meal.
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