Call it serendipity?

The pavement along the Mekong river

Ah! Sometimes the simple pleasures can brighten up your whole day! It has always been my greatest wish to see a ROMDOUL (Mitrella mesnyi) flower, the national flower of The Kingdom of Cambodia. By sheer stroke of luck it happened today! On my way  to buy flowers I expressed my desire to see a romdoul flower to my helper and she told me that I might see the trees inside the Royal Palace. Only in the palace premises?! We were buying lotus flowers on the river side … suddenly  I could hear her shouting with excitement!                                                                                                      Lo!  Those lines of trees that I always presumed as the Spanish cherry trees are nothing but Romdoul trees… My joy knew no bounds. The kind hearted vendors sitting under the trees helped me to pluck some.

Romdoul flowers, blessed with that heavenly fragrance

The sweet scented flowers are creamy yellow in colour and like most of the night flowers the intoxicating scent fills the air. It is similar to the Indian Champaka flower (Magnolia champaca) in some ways but the tree has a close resemblance to Elanji tree (Mimusops elengi- Spanish cherry). The flowers of elanji have a heady scent but are very tiny.

 Romdoul or Mitrella mesnyi tree

 

Sometimes when you realise that you’re going to miss something, everything about it makes that thing more endearing and charming. When I leave this place I will surely miss these small things that cheer up my days. The lovely lotus blooms that are seen everywhere, the winged angels that make my days musical, the vast skies here; the list is long.  Such are the ways of life!