We "heart" Phnom Penh

First, Cambodia was WONDERFUL!!! It felt like being in rural Hawaii: ultra-laidback with lots of great Asian food.

I have discovered that because we live in K, going on vacation is awesome because it takes so little to please us elsewhere. It's kinda like when I went to Madrid and my sister's friends thought I was crazy because I kept saying how quiet and clean Madrid is.

Anyhow, Phnom Penh was very chill (I have been using this term b/c of my friend Ryan from New Zealand) compared to K. I guess when you go from a city of 18 million to a city of only 2 million... Uncrowded streets, not much traffic, and QUIET (in comparison to K)! During the taxi ride from the airport to our hotel, I felt like I was watching a movie on mute b/c of how quiet it was and we got in around 6pm! I have a feeling that if we had come from the US, we would not have enjoyed PP as much. Another great thing is that prices are almost always in dollars.

Why couldn't we have been sent to Cambodia instead of K? Well, we figured that out pretty quickly - God did not want us to gain weight. Jerry and I have each lost 20 pounds in six months (without trying). If we were living in Phnom Penh (PP), we would have each gained 20 pounds. The food is so good and so cheap. Another thing about living in K is that we were free to eat any and all of the street food in PP b/c our stomachs have already been trained to handle whatever. Here is what we ate in food stalls - fried chicken, hot dog, donut, grilled squid, roast pork (siu gee), spring rolls, and wonton. Asian food is probably our favorite and you can get it in abundance for very little money. We had Korean, Khmer, Vietnamese and Chinese, including 2 stops at a really good tapioca milk tea place. We also had great sangria and tapas at a Spanish place and a great bacon hamburger and pork loin stuffed with goat cheese! YUM!!

The markets were fun, too. They are organized by product and even have maps of the layout! I used my bargaining skills that I have been honing in K and we bought a few things, including a “North Face” laptop bag for $10. Actually, it is a real North Face bag. The factories for North Face, Columbia, Gap, etc are located here and th local markets sell the seconds and irregulars.

We really needed this vacation and I already feel better. I was on skype with a friend and she said that I sounded so much better than before. I could tell, too, b/c I could not stop chatting. And on video skype, another friend said I was glowing!

Here are some pictures:

Our transport - a tuk tuk

Another mode of transport - I saw 4 people on one of these!


Street Food - we got the roast pork: siu gee


YUM - bubble tea!

A Khmer (pronounced Khmai) restaurant with friends

Our guesthouse room - quite spacious compared to our flat in K, probably 3x the size!

Food court at Central Market

More street stall food - grilled seafood - the squid was deeelicious!


The Summer Palace

Yummy donuts - The guy on the right is Khmer and lived in California for 15 years and decided to make and sell donuts as well as import stuff from Sam's

Scales were everywhere - basically pay and weigh

North Korean restaurant

We were in the mood for Korean, so we ventured to a N Korean place. (Apparently, State Dept employees are not allowed to patronize this place.) It was a tasty and entertaining evening.

We walked in and there were tables and tables of Korean men. We also saw a stage and wondered what kind of entertainment there would be. The waitresses were all pretty Korean girls in traditional dress. Soon after we ordered, the waitresses started getting ready to entertain us. Because of all the men there drinking lots of alcohol, I asked Jerry,

“Honey, what if they start taking their clothes off ?!”

His reply, “That would be really funny.”

They did not take their clothes off, but instead treated us to some good singing, dancing and playing of instruments.

In Bangkok

After my last post, I thought I would post twice a week. And I see it has been over a month! Well, if you saw our last email update, you know why. I have even been keeping a list of things to blog about - right now it is up to 15. I hope to catch up on all those posts during our vacation to Cambodia and Thailand.

Why these places? Well, we have friends there and I prefer to visit places where I know someone. One of my friends I have not seen in over 10 years and she lives in Cambodia now.

Right now, we are in Bangkok, on a 9 hour layover on our way to Phnom Penh. We will be there until the 17th, then fly back to Bangkok and then over to Chiang Mai until the 22nd and then back to Bangkok, then on to K. Crazy schedule, eh? Well, it was half the cost to fly in and out of Bangkok instead of flying directly to Phnom Penh and Chiang Mai.

We really need this vacation and already it is proving to be a great one. As we left the Thai Airways plane, we got on a very nice, A/C shuttle to the terminal. Remember my shuttle ride when I landed in K, coming back from Madrid? 'Nuff said. Anyhow, I was marveling at how nice the Bangkok airport is and getting very excited about not having to bring my own toilet paper to use the airport bathroom.

We are hanging out at an airport hotel. It is a free 5 minute shuttle from the airport here and quite nice. We bought a half day's worth of wireless connectivity and after lounging in the lobby for a while talking to my dad on skype, Jerry suggested going to the business center where we could plug in and juice up the laptop. This business center is really nice. In addition to comfortable seating, there is a little library of books, magazines and newspapers to read.

We checked the weather for Phnom Penh and Chiang Mai. PP will be in the upper 80s and CM in the mid 90s, just like K. Oh well... We hear that CM is a great place for expats to rest and rejuvenate. I'll tell you all about it later!