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Published: July 19th 2009
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Hey all! Sue'sdei to anyone who speaks khmer!
Just now am wrapping up day 2 of my visit to Phnom Penh, and it should go without saying that this place is worlds different from the cozy beaten tourist paths of Southern Thailand. Not saying that there aren't many foreigners here - in fact there is still quite a good amount - but it's not exactly the happy kind of destination most vacationers are looking for, so not as many come here for obvious reasons. Visiting this city requires reading up on Cambodia's recent history a little though, because after I arrived I noticed just how little teach they teach us about this era in our high schools back at home. It's been only 30 years since this place was liberated from one of the bloodiest revolutions in history, and it's been even less time since the ensuing civil war that finally came to an end. It's impossible to escape the level of emotion here - when you're walking on the streets you see the effects everywhere you go, as kids sell books recounting peoples' experiences from the period or a restaurant showing documentaries on Pol Pot's rise to power and
the land mines his soldiers left behind in the countryside. But it's also very impressive to imagine how much must have changed since that time, and you definitely have to use your imagination to even picture what this city must have looked like while it was entirely evacuated for almost 4 years after the Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975. A very sobering place to visit, to say the very least.
US dollars is the de facto national currency here - you can use Cambodia Riel, but practically everything is priced in USD, even in places that foreigners don't normally visit it seems. Of course, what more fun way is there to find this out than the hard way! The processing fee for visas was $20 USD,
strictly only dollars, and then later upon exiting the airport I saw taxi cab drivers offering rides into the city and quoting prices in dollars, I figured those things might have just been isolated to this place, because people might not have had a chance to change their money yet. Right!?!? So I moved on to an ATM to withdraw some local currency - or so I thought until even the cash machine
spat out a clean, crisp $100 bill at me. So I got confused, took Benjamin over to the exchange booth and asked for him to exchanged into Riel, and the ladies behind the counter started giggling as they handed me the cash, which confused me even more. Then of course later I realized after the cab charged in USD, as did the guest house, as do the restaurants, as do the little kids hawking books on the street corners, and on and on... that EVERYONE does business in dollars here! It's not quite home, but close! So looking back now I'm definitely a sucker for taking a bad rate and losing out on commission when I could have just used the cash as it was. It's the little things that hit you in funny ways sometimes.
Another thing I found to be different here in Cambodia is that practically everyone who is selling one thing is practically trying to monopolize your business during your stay here. It's obvious that everyone's trying to capitalize as much as they can from the growing tourism industry, and I'm being asked by everyone from my guest house to the tuk tuk drivers if
National Museum
Inside the courtyard I'm up to anything in the foreseeable future that I would use their services for. My guest house even offered to send someone off to the market to find me a cell phone to replace my old one, which went kaput on my way over here. Once I heard the word "market" I respectfully declined the offer. On the streets people stop and offer rides on their motorcycle to wherever you're going, others offer you more illicit products - completely in broad daylight on the main tourist drag! Much different here than in Thailand.
So yesterday I ended the day with a few drinks by the riverside nearby where I'm staying. Kids were everywhere selling various things and I can't help but wonder how many of them must be orphans. Everywhere you look here there's some sort of NGO doing some work to help the disadvantaged, and the children here are of course central to many of their missions. I bought "First They Killed My Father" from one child, memoirs of a girl from a middle class family in Phnom Penh who survived the Khmer Rouge era (though her parents and two siblings did not) and met a tuk-tuk
Wat Phnom
Looking up driver, Saki, who I spoke with for quite a while. I'm so impressed with how well locals speak English here. He seemed to be a very nice guy, and even was the first (and so far only) person who suggested I go to an actual Nokia store, and not the market, to buy my replacement phone, so we arranged to meet up again on Thursday and he'd take me to S-21 (the genocide museum) and the Killing Fields (via the store, of course).
As for my first full day in Phnom Penh, I decided to keep the content light knowing what was in store on day 2. So I started the day off going to the Lao Embassy to obtain my tourist visa (they charged $50! I wonder if I got played yet again here - they didn't have a price posted anywhere!) and then ate lunch at a restaurant called "Friends" before visiting the National Museum. Friends is one of many establishments in downtown Phnom Penh that is run by yet another non profit - this one give children from the street special training in hospitality and sends them on to the popular hotels and restaurants in the
Wat Phnom
Look at the waterfall down the staircase! city upon graduation from the program. Oh yeah, and the apple-lime smoothie was awesome as well! The museum itself displayed many centuries of fine ancient artwork from the Khmer Empire and before. Much of the work on exhibition was Buddhist and Hindu, as the region was heavily influenced by Indian culture early on, and I even was asked to make an offering to one of the Buddha statues inside! I then skipped the Royal Palace (closed at that time) and went straight to Wat Phnom, the temple behind the story after which the city was named, got trapped in a downpour, met another Cambodian (they seem to very often strike up conversation by asking the same questions such as "where you from?" and "how long have you been here?") as I was taking shelter, then toured the temple once it got lighter outside. Tons of Buddha statues where inside, also many tall candles and offering dishes with small amounts of cash in them. Turning the corner behind the Buddha I found what must have been the mother of all offerings though - three stacks of $100 bills just sitting there, completely unattended! Oh man that was so tempting! Bad karma
be damned!
During that downpour I looked over the city map and saw that the US Embassy was just a block away, so afterward I made a little pilgrimage over there, getting the closest I've been to home territory in over 3 weeks! The immaculately maintained green lawn and tastefully colored building really stick out though - very different from the shades of gray that color the rest of the city.
So that's it! Not much else to report. Keeping with the theme of the visit so far I watched the Pol Pot documentary after dinner a little earlier, and now I'm ready to go to bed dreaming of hopefully more pleasant things than forced peasantry and oppression!
Wish you all the best!
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