Oudong

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I found my zodiac sign, the rabbit!
Oudong was royal residence and Cambodia’s capital for more than 250 years until 1866. In 1866, it was abandoned by King Norodom, taking his royal court along with him to the current capital, Phnom Penh. It was extensively damaged by the Khmer Rouge in 1977, along with the other temples, monuments, and religious structures there.

We drove to a modern pagoda with displays of farming tools and machines and carvings made of beautiful dark wood. Then we toured the grounds to see the menagerie of animal statues including the all of the zodiac signs.  We searched until we found our own. Mine is the rabbit.

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These kids were hanging outside the temple. Even though we spoke different languages, I managed to have them all line up by height and they got a huge kick out of me trying to explain this to them. I was counting in Khmer and it probably sounded pretty funny to them. I think I enjoyed this even more than they did.

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