While their partners wrangled with world affairs at the Asean Summit on Monday, the delegates’ spouses had their minds on more light-hearted matters.
Led by a beaming Bun Rany and flanked by a trotting team of parasol-carriers, members of the official spouses’ program were driven between Phnom Penh’s more up-market tourist attractions in a high-security bus convoy on Monday morning.
First stop on the tour was the Silver Pagoda. Tensions ran high as the convoy approached the Royal Palace, with onlookers physically removed from the roadside as official photographers ran to keep up with the VIP bus. The coiffured procession stepped neatly into the palace and out of the sunshine almost before any shots could be taken.
The National Museum was next on the itinerary, with paying visitors hurriedly ushered out of a side entrance as the pastel-tinted VIPs wafted up the main stairs. Artifacts didn’t hold the group’s attention for long though; after less than fifteen minutes in the museum, they were off again—this time to a “cultural performance” at the Chaktomuk Theater by students of the Royal University of Fine Arts.
Participants in the tour included Lao An, the wife of Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji; Kyaing Kyaing, the wife of Burmese leader Than Shwe; Khammeung Vorachith, the wife of Lao Prime Minister Bounnhang Vorachith; and Kim Joon Sung, wife of South Korean Prime Minister Kim Suk Soo.
More fun is in store for the spouses today, with a trip to the Bun Rany Hun Sen Ang Snoul Development Center on the agenda.
