Day 2

Saturday morning, we woke up and went to the Mekong River for breakfast, which offers a $2.75 buffet breakfast. I never got the buffet, though, and ordered fresh breakfast for about a dollar more. We ate at the Mekong River a few more times during our trip. Our hotel was about a block away from the riverfront, so the area attracts many people, especially the tourists and foreigners. There are restaurants on every corner catering to tourists, so many of the restaurants, including the Mekong River restaurant offered a mixture of Khmer (pronounced kmai), American, and European-styled foods. That morning I ordered a Khmer fried rice with egg for breakfast - but I forgot to take a pic!

After breakfast, we went to the Central Market, which is a huge marketplace full of venders selling anything and everything! We exchanged our American dollars for Khmer Riel ($1 = 4000R) and wandered around the Central Market. Throughout the trip, we would realize that there was absolutely no need to ever change our American dollars as literally every business/vender would take US money. I bought a watch for $5 and a blanket for $2.50. I kept my eyes out for other things I would want to buy later on in the trip. It is very interesting shopping at the Central Market because they charge foreigners at least 30% more than they charge Khmer people. We would never pay the price they first said, as we could always bargain down, and could bargain very well if we bought multiple items. We mainly eyed what we wanted and made sure to come back with Pheany to help us bargain even more, as they would always give Pheany a better price, the Khmer price, not the foreigner's price! Here are some pictures of the Central Market:

The Central Market is huge. It sells Tshirts, jewelry, scarves, watches, blankets, food, toys, books, flowers, souvenirs, bags, hats, pretty much anything you can think of. The only problem is that it is outdoors and we went midday, so after an hour of wandering through the many aisles, we got very hot and tired and were ready to leave. As we waited for everyone to gather at the front, we wandered through the flower aisles and smelled the strong smell of jasmine. Jasmine flowers are often used as gifts, but especially as decor and offerings for Buddhist alters. Here are some pictures of the flowers that were being sold at the Central Market, one bouquet in particular I caught a dragonfly resting beautifully on the flowers and got a close up of it!

Well, after the Central Market, we went back to the hotel to meet Pheany (pronounced like the flower Peony). Pheany is a 4th year university student studying archeology and would join us to the National Museum. She has a lot of knowledge on ancient Khmer history and religion, so she was very helpful, teaching us so much about all the statues and artifacts at the National Museum. I was able to take pictures of the structure of the museum, but we were not allowed to take pictures inside the museum. Here are some pictures of the National Museum:

The pictures of the pond were taken inside the courtyard at the center of the National Museum. Inside the museum, where I could not take pictures, were many Buddhist and Brahminist statues, mostly ranging from the 9th through 13th centuries, when the Khmer Empire was at its height, and many temples and structures were built at Angkor Wat in Siem Riep province. 

After going to the National Museum, we went to a Thai and Khmer restaurant called Boat Noodle for lunch. The atmosphere of the restaurant was very tropical and I loved it! I took some pictures of the restaurant before we started eating. 

Well, back at home in Riverside, at my favorite Thai place, my favorite dish is the eggplant and tofu, so I thought I would try that at Boat Noodle. It was good, but definitely very different than what I get back home. The eggplant they use is green instead of the darker purplish color of the Japanese eggplant I am used to. Here is a picture of my eggplant dish, as well as a picture of me and Pheany at the table.

Well, we ate upstairs on a covered balcony, and while we were eating, a sudden rain and thunderstorm hit us! It seemed to come out of nowhere. Well, we would find out during the rest of our trip that an afternoon or evening rainstorm was almost a daily occurrence in Cambodia. Well, we were unprepared for the rainstorm, well everyone except me was unprepared. For some reason, I had a plastic emergency poncho in my bag! Well, I was designated as the person to ride on the back of the moto instead of inside the Tuk Tuk, since I had my poncho! So I put my poncho on and hopped on the back of Somol's moto to ride back to our hotel in the rain! I loved it!  I only wish someone would have got a picture, but it was raining so hard that nobody stopped to take a picture of me in my poncho on the back of the moto. By the way, I was able to get a little video of the rainstorm, but it doesn't really look like it is raining as hard as it is. The sound quality isn't that great either, but if you listen hard you can hear the rain coming down:

Well, after all of that, we had a few hours to ourselves back at the hotel to rest. I hadn't slept well the night before, so I took advantage of the few hours to take a good nap and get rested for dinner which wouldn't be until 8. So, for dinner, Alex took us to a local restaurant called El Pasteur. We were the only foreigners there, but I didn't quite feel comfortable with the location of the restaurant, so I would not return there again if I ever came back. The restaurant had delicious food and also had some entertainment. I was able to try a Tiger beer as well! The picture below the beer is the stage where we had the entertainment, but since it was night and outdoors, I was not able to get a very good picture.

I also got some video of the ladies singing and dancing:

Well, after that, we called it a night, and headed back to our hotel to get some sleep. Speaking of my hotel, though, I never did get any pictures inside my room, but I will try to describe it. The hotel would be considered nice for Cambodia, but not much at all for American standards. It was more like a small dorm room. The room was very simple with a small bed and very small closet. There were no drawers or shelves. The bathroom was also very interesting. The bathroom is what you can call European style I guess - with the toilet, shower, and sink all in the same space pretty much. Very small - when I showered, I got the toilet and sink wet with my bath water! Well, that is it for Day 2 of my Cambodian Adventures.

Day 1

After traveling for about 14 hours on EVA airways, we landed at the Tai Pei Airport in Taiwan. My first sightseeing had begun. I immediately noticed how clean and modern the airport was. I snapped a photo of these funny cartoon characters hanging from the ceiling. We would stay at this airport for a couple hours before taking our 3 hour flight to Phnom Penh. Upon arriving in Phnom Penh, we were immediately struck with the heat and humidity we would face for the entirety of the trip. As soon as we arrived, I faced some of the corruption I had read about from governmental organizations. We had to pay for our 30 day tourist VISA, but somehow I got charged 25 dollars instead of 20 dollars. I am sure that the man who charged me pocketed the 5 extra dollars, but I took it as I was contributing to his family! We were exhausted when we arrived, I had literally been traveling for over 24 hours by this point, but we still had to get to our hotel. As we approached the bag carousel, I noticed two men helping us out. They were Saka and his son Robert who Alex knows from his friend Darith. They helped load our luggage onto carts and into our van. There I also met Somol, a man who would come to be our guide and my friend by the end of the trip. We got in the van and headed to our hotel. As we drove, I was immediately struck by the poverty filling the sides of the streets around me. I was amazed by the insane traffic situations in the city and I just couldn't stop moving my eyes all around, trying to absorb and see as much as I could. We reached our hotel, the Indochine II and Somol helped me carry my bags to my room. I wanted to crash but we still had plans. We had time to shower and change, and then meet downstairs to go out to see the town and then go out for dinner at Le Duo, an Italian restaurant in town where a lady named Hap works. Hap is the sister of Pheany, who is my uncle's adopted daughter in Cambodia. So I took a much needed shower, changed and went downstairs for my first Tuk Tuk ride.

Before leaving on the Tuk Tuk, we met Pheany in the lobby of hotel. She would be joining us for the remainder of the afternoon and evening. She got in our Tuk Tuk with us to point out the city sights as we drove around. Pheany, as I would come to know better and better throughout the weeks, is very talkative! She explained the city to us and I already started feeling comfortable in Phnom Penh. 

I would like to talk about something I was immediately reminded of as I got to know Pheany at our first encounter. I read a book prior to this trip entitled Reflections of a Khmer Soul by Navy Phim, in which she refers to the stigma of having dark skin in Cambodia. I also had a chance to meet with her at one of our pre-trip orientations at Cal State Long Beach, in which she was able to discuss more about the idea of light skin being associated with class. Meeting Pheany and only talking with her a few minutes, the topic of skin color had already come up in our discussions. Pheany mentioned how light-skinned and beautiful Minh was. It is so unfortunate that light is beautiful and dark is ugly in Cambodia. I know so many dark, beautiful women, and it would be disappointing to know that in Cambodia, they would not be seen as truly beautiful as they are. I studied this topic a lot while getting my bachelors in Chicano Studies at UCR as well, as unfortunately the same stigma is true in many Latin American countries. The idea is that if you have dark skin, then you are a worker, out in the sun, low class. Later in the trip I would meet a Cambodian teacher who would also tell me that I looked like a movie star, with my light skin. I would also see another teacher, Soklim, cover her arms with a thin, long-sleeved glove everytime we were outdoors in the sun.  I often told Pheany and Soklim that they were beautiful whether dark or light-skinned, but they seemed to not really hear what it was that I was saying, because unfortunately cultural norms are much stronger than the words of a foreigner!

Back to our Tuk Tuk ride through the city. Well, here is a picture of what a Tuk Tuk actually looks like:

We drove by a number of temples as well as the Royal Palace and National Museum. Cambodia is a Buddhist country for the most part, so we saw a number of Buddhist structures and temples. We also saw many orange-robed monks throughout our trip in Cambodia. On our trip around the city, Pheany, for some reason, wanted us to go to the bridal convention that was in town, so to please her we stopped and checked it out with her. It was interesting to see the colorful wedding dresses and matching attire that brides and grooms wear. I even took a picture with Minh under a wedding arch/gazebo thing.  





On our way back toward the main part of the city to get ready for dinner, I saw many street venders selling all kinds of things! I saw someone selling fried crickets to eat. They were piled on a big tray that the lady was carrying and selling to people on the street. We also saw an elephant just walking down the street! By the time I could get a picture, though, I only got his backside!

Well after our little trip around the city, we got ready for dinner. We went to Le Duo, an Italian restaurant, where Hap, Pheany's sister works. By this time, I hadn't had any rest since Tuesday evening, and it was Friday evening, so I was exhausted and thought of skipping dinner, but I didn't want to miss out on any experiences during this trip, so I made myself go to dinner and ordered a prosciutto pizza which was about $6, and was much too large for me to finish as you can see! 

After dinner, we went back to the hotel to finally get some sleep! Here is a picture of the hotel we stayed at:

Keep reading to find out more about my Cambodian adventures!