A colorful afternoon at the Royal Palace

On a sunny and blue-sky day in early March 2024, the KKEV children, staff and teachers had the opportunity to visit the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh in the afternoon. Two local guides supported our group and shared additional knowledge about the palace buildings, where the elected monarch of Cambodia, King Norodom Sihamoni, normally resides (but he was out of town on that day).

The KKEV children were getting extremely excited after lunch during the one-hour long bus transfer to the Royal Palace eastern courtyard, where the main entrance is located. The western courtyard takes up half the total palace area and is still private to the king's family.

We entered the spacious palace grounds under the hot sun and took a group picture, then followed our guides to enter the cross-shaped Throne Hall (Preah Tineang Tevea Vinnichay Mohai Moha Prasat). Standing on top of the stairs, we had a pleasant view of the open Moonlight Pavilion (Preah Tineang Chan Chhaya), where the king regularly invites guests to dinner and dance banquets.

Our visitors Stephanie, Jan and Eugen asked about the figures holding the roof of the throne hall. The children happily shared their knowledge about Hanuman and Garuda – the guide helped translate their vivid comments into English.

We also visited the Silver Pagoda with the unforgettable Emerald Buddha (Wat Preah Keo Morakot). At the entrance, all visitors removed their shoes and walk on a carpet-covered stunning silver-tiled flooring. The room was filled with precious treasures. Some children pressed their noses close to the Royal Palace display of silverware. As this temple displays one of the world's richest treasures, we all tried guessing the value of this room.

The younger children learned about the Phnom Penh palace guards' colorful costumes. Higher ranked guards wear blue and green uniforms, whilst delivery guards wear yellow and orange uniforms.
At our farewell from the group, we asked the KKEV children to share their knowledge of the colors of tradition in Cambodia. When the question was translated, several kids' faces lit up in smiles: they knew that the king and all workers within the palace wore different colored clothes on each day of the week. Our visit was on a Saturday; thus the guards and workers wore purple clothes!

All KKEV children benefit from such special village outings as guests, kids, staff, and teachers create colorful memories together.