It's just after 4pm and Phnom Penh's most stately lady packs up after a hard day's work serving her public and heads home southwards down Sisowath Quay. Like dozens of others every day she stops at a few restaurants along the way. Unlike the rest of the customers, however, this particular lady is too big to fit in through the doors, let alone squeeze her ample posterior onto a seat.
Weighing in at somewhere near the combined total of six Daewoo Ticos, Sambo, Phnom Penh's only elephant, is hard to miss as she makes her way slowly to Wat Phnom just after dawn each morning and retraces her steps every afternoon.
Although her history is somewhat of a mystery, Sambo is a survivor. One published account has her being attacked by tigers in her youth, before being conscripted by the Khmer Rouge and separated from her family, finally ending up in Phnom Penh for a well-earned semi-retirement doing nothing more strenuous that walking lazy circles around Wat Phnom carrying tourists.
While the elephants and mahouts of Bangkok may soon find themselves banned from chasing tourist baht around Khao San Road in the interests of modern, fast-paced city living, Phnom Penh loves its only elephant.
So much so that wars of words have erupted over her "signage space" and the city makes regular, but infrequent, noises about getting her some companions.
Sambo is no spring chicken. Like any lady, her age remains a mystery, but she is no giggling girly. While her lifestyle may be relaxed these days, city living does have its trials and tribulations.
Strangely, the traffic, the bane of every expat's life in PP, isn't one of them; even the city's teeming SUVs and four-wheel drives acknowledge the pachyderm's right-of-way. She will step delicately around people sleeping on the footpath as she makes her way to work, leaving them to slumber on oblivious.
The traffic mightn't be a problem, but the paved roads that make life easy for you and me are a bit of an issue. Carrie Bradshaw and her taste for Manolo Blahniks might sniff at Sambo's choice of footwear, but Uncle Ho wouldn't. This elephant prefers comfort, and wears shoes fashioned from Dunlop tires to protect her soles from the rough cobbles around Wat Phnom.
Sambo's mahout and constant companion NAME is understandably protective of his responsibility in guiding and caring for the capital's only elephant.
Although elephants retain a mystical, almost religious quality for many Cambodians, in March last year a full-grown domesticated male in Rattanakiri province named Khamm Kang was poisoned and butchered for his tusks. The perpetrators were arrested and charged earlier this year.
Historically, an elephant is an asset far more precious than any motorbike or tuk-tuk. Elephants were once the nation's trucks, bulldozers, cranes and taxis. The image of the Hindu elephant god Ganesh is available in markets across the country. Elephants still have power for many Cambodians; so children walk under Sambo's trunk, pregnant women seek to touch her for luck, and crowds wait to be sprayed from her trunk.
One account puts Sambo's origin as the same north-eastern province as the late Khamm Kang and the origin of her scars as being due to three tigers. Another account lists Kampong Spue as her birthplace. Still a third says the scars came from a Khmer Rouge machete. The truth was long since lost in decades of war.
Like any celebrity, Sambo values her privacy. Her current residence is kept a relative secret, and once she's off the clock and no longer performing for the tourists Sambo is a homebody and neither she nor her handler enjoy being followed by the paparazzi.
There are many ways to enjoy the Sambo Experience. The obvious one is to get up to Wat Phnom and get yourself a lazy circumnavigation of the city's legendary founding site before feeding her some bananas or sugar cane.
But don't tease her! Children who have been to slow to relinquish food have found themselves followed relentlessly by her snaking trunk, and Sambo's handlers will tell you she is fussy about how she is photographed and hates too much flash.
For the Alternative Sambo Experience, park yourself in La Croisette restaurant at about 4:15pm and wait for the lady to drop by in person. Make sure you have your camera ready, this is a photo-op you definitely don't want to miss and Sambo is such a ham she'll gladly stand and pose for you in between bunches of bananas.
Alternatively, be waiting somewhere near the Royal Palace with a bag of popcorn. Fresh corn can be given to Sambo personally, and popcorn will be taken by her "people" for a wind-down treat later on. As well as bananas and corn, snacks of choice include sugar cane and rambutan. But remember, Sambo eats her rambutan sans skin and it's quite a sight to watch as she throws each one from the end of her trunk into her mouth.
The Advisor, Edition 4