My driver from the Phnom Penh airport was a little standoff-ish at first, but as I asked him questions, he opened up. His English was pretty decent. From his point of view, the government is totally corrupt. No surprises there: I think you could ask a cab driver in any country of the world what they think about their government and they will say it's corrupt, if they know they're speaking in confidence. The ride was about 40 minutes. I was struck by how much more developed Cambodia felt compared to India. Clean, paved roads, for starters. Though it all felt slightly less... colorful. Everything seemed to be coated in a layer of gray. The roads, the sky, the sidewalk.
I arrived at my hostel around 10:00am. As soon as I walked through the doors, the staff gave me the most enthusiastic welcome of any hostel yet. I checked in and put my stuff down on my bed. Inside of the lobby area is a huge chalkboard with a bunch of activities and bus schedules. I was asking the staff about what to do around here and they tossed out a few suggestions. Royal palace: sounds pretty standard. S-21: no idea what that is but okay. The Killing Fields: wait, what? This place where you can go and fire rocket launchers and shoot big army guns: awesome! But way too expensive.
A few minutes later I met SR, a friendly English girl with a wonderful smile. She had been traveling for a while and was flying solo in Cambodia. We had both arrived that morning so we decided to go exploring together.
Our hostel was located right next to the royal palace. So we walked down the road but the area around the palace was completely deserted. We found out later that there were supposed to be some anti-government demonstrations happening soon, so they closed it to tours. Womp womp. The palace is right along the river so we walked along the waterfront. Then we passed by a Dairy Queen! I got really excited, obviously for good reason, but SR didn't really understand why because she's never seen one before. Dairy Queen is one of my favorite ice cream places in the world. Literally in the world, because they have them here on the opposite side of the world! Obviously we had to go in and get some. SR chose to resist my peer pressuring and passed on ice cream, though she did say that she'd have to try it before she left. I'll take it.
It turns out the reason that ATM in the airport gave me a US$100 bill is because Cambodians actually prefer to transact in U.S. currency. The Cambodian Riel tends to suffer from instability and inflation. It's kind of crazy to be on the other side of the world an transacting in my own currency.
We continued to walk for a while and I was starting to get pretty hungry for real food because I hadn't eaten since that McDonald's in the Singapore airport at 6am, so we went to find an authentic Vietnamese restaurant. I ended up getting a duck curry. It was pretty decent. Turns out Cambodian food is pretty similar to Thai food. And I love Thai food.
As we were walking back I noticed... the cars were driving on the right-hand side of the road! What?! How did I not see that before? I drove in a car for 40 minutes to get to the hostel and didn't notice at all. I think because my driver still sat on the right-hand side of the car. SR and I made our way back to the hostel because we were both exhausted and it was definitely naptime. Which was totally the right call.
I got up an hour or two later, left a note with SR, and headed out to go exploring. I walked around for a couple of hours. This is a fairly touristy part of the city, but I did end up walking through some slightly sketchy back-alley area where a bunch of people lived. It was interesting to see that everything was a step up from India, but sort of basically the same. People making traditional food in the streets. Living quarters that were small, closely-packed, and mostly lacking of doors. People in the streets with seemingly nothing to do.
I was making my way back home when I passed by something that blew my mind. Back at home in San Francisco, there's a little ice cream shop called Swensen's in Russian Hill. The ice cream is amazing. Sticky Chewy Chocolate for the win. Anyway, I've never seen it any other city in the U.S. Or anywhere else in the world... until today! In CAMBODIA! Whaaaaat?! I wasn't sure if it was the same Swensen's or not, but then I saw the American flag and picture of the Golden Gate Bridge and there was no doubt in my mind.
I made it back to the hostel, collected SR, and we ventured out to check out this outdoor market the staff had told us about. It was pretty wet outside but we found the place. It was what you'd expect an outdoor Asian market to be. A lot of fresh(-ish) fish, other seafood, fruits, vegetables, all pretty standard fare. It was a lot smaller than I think either of us had expected, so we walked through it in about 15 minutes.
After that we found a local spot to grab some authentic Cambodian food. My rice came shaped like a heart and I'm pretty sure most Cambodian foods come with an egg on top (note: based on a skewed, limited sample size).
We also found the Pretty Woman bar that night. Yup, it's a thing.
When we got back to the hostel, there were four other people about my age hanging out in the lounge so I went to join them. Two of the guys were engineers from Germany, JN and BE, and then there was a couple from Finland, MK and IL. Funny you ask, why yes, MK and IL were both ridiculously attractive, how did you know? Everyone was really cool. The German guys were both hilarious. Also, JN used to work at an embassy in Bangladesh and went on this crazy hike for several days where you have to get special permission from the government to go. Everyone had been traveling for a little while, but the Germans were on the tail-end of their trip and this was one of their last night in this hostel before living it up big tomorrow night at a really fancy place. We talked for an hour or two and then I called it a night. New country, new friends!
CONTINUE ON to Phnom Penh Part 3: Genocide, What?
I arrived at my hostel around 10:00am. As soon as I walked through the doors, the staff gave me the most enthusiastic welcome of any hostel yet. I checked in and put my stuff down on my bed. Inside of the lobby area is a huge chalkboard with a bunch of activities and bus schedules. I was asking the staff about what to do around here and they tossed out a few suggestions. Royal palace: sounds pretty standard. S-21: no idea what that is but okay. The Killing Fields: wait, what? This place where you can go and fire rocket launchers and shoot big army guns: awesome! But way too expensive.
A few minutes later I met SR, a friendly English girl with a wonderful smile. She had been traveling for a while and was flying solo in Cambodia. We had both arrived that morning so we decided to go exploring together.
 |
| The Royal Palace is totally for the birds |
It turns out the reason that ATM in the airport gave me a US$100 bill is because Cambodians actually prefer to transact in U.S. currency. The Cambodian Riel tends to suffer from instability and inflation. It's kind of crazy to be on the other side of the world an transacting in my own currency.
We continued to walk for a while and I was starting to get pretty hungry for real food because I hadn't eaten since that McDonald's in the Singapore airport at 6am, so we went to find an authentic Vietnamese restaurant. I ended up getting a duck curry. It was pretty decent. Turns out Cambodian food is pretty similar to Thai food. And I love Thai food.
 |
| Some other cool buildings we saw on our walk |
I got up an hour or two later, left a note with SR, and headed out to go exploring. I walked around for a couple of hours. This is a fairly touristy part of the city, but I did end up walking through some slightly sketchy back-alley area where a bunch of people lived. It was interesting to see that everything was a step up from India, but sort of basically the same. People making traditional food in the streets. Living quarters that were small, closely-packed, and mostly lacking of doors. People in the streets with seemingly nothing to do.
 |
| I imagine most Cambodians don't realize that that's the Golden Gate Bridge |
I made it back to the hostel, collected SR, and we ventured out to check out this outdoor market the staff had told us about. It was pretty wet outside but we found the place. It was what you'd expect an outdoor Asian market to be. A lot of fresh(-ish) fish, other seafood, fruits, vegetables, all pretty standard fare. It was a lot smaller than I think either of us had expected, so we walked through it in about 15 minutes. |
| How could it love me, it doesn't even know me! |
 |
| Pretty Woman, (saw it) walking down the street |
When we got back to the hostel, there were four other people about my age hanging out in the lounge so I went to join them. Two of the guys were engineers from Germany, JN and BE, and then there was a couple from Finland, MK and IL. Funny you ask, why yes, MK and IL were both ridiculously attractive, how did you know? Everyone was really cool. The German guys were both hilarious. Also, JN used to work at an embassy in Bangladesh and went on this crazy hike for several days where you have to get special permission from the government to go. Everyone had been traveling for a little while, but the Germans were on the tail-end of their trip and this was one of their last night in this hostel before living it up big tomorrow night at a really fancy place. We talked for an hour or two and then I called it a night. New country, new friends!
CONTINUE ON to Phnom Penh Part 3: Genocide, What?
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