I have arrived in Phnom Penh the capital of Cambodia. I really didn't do much research on Cambodia or Phnom Penh but I assumed since it was a major city that it would be pretty well established and boy was I wrong. My first eye opening experience was when our tuk tuk driver was taking us to the tuk tuks the first thing I saw was a four lane road with hundreds of motobikes and tuk tuks. He expected us to walk across the street to get to the parking lot where he kept his tuk tuk. I thought we would never cross but all of sudden he tells us to come along and just starts walking and miraculously the motobikes, cars, and tuk tuks either stop or swerve around us. I have never seen something so crazy before in my life I was sure we were going to get hit or cause an accident. Once we got going I saw the neighborhoods we passed through and it was heartbreaking. There were either no sidewalks or there were sidewalks horrible shape, giant pot holes and cracks in the road, dirt and trash everywhere, and you could smell the pollution in the air. My first thought was I don't think I am going to like it here. I think I am going to stay in my room the whole time and figure out how to find food later.
Once I made it to the hotel I began to meet my fellow LanguageCorp participants and began to feel more at ease. Our tuk tuk drivers had arranged for us to go to dinner at a local restaurant and that really helped put me at ease. We went to a semi out door restaurant with buckets in the center of the table. In these buckets men from outside the restaurant would bring in another bucket full of hot coals and place it in the center bucket of the table. Then the wait staff placed a metal grate on top of the bucket, we were going to cook our dinner. We had a BBQ beef shish kabob, fried rice, noodles, and vegetables. Everything tasted amazing, the seasoning on the meat was great it was really easy to cook and with the giant pitchers of beer we all had a great time. This whole feast cost us $6. The great thing about Cambodia is they accept US dollars and either give you US change or Camboadian Riels.
The next morning a group of us decided to venture out into our neighborhood. We found an outdoor food market which when we first walked in had loads of fresh fruit and vegetables but as we walked further down the narrow lanes that were filled with people and moving motobikes we saw every part of a pig and chicken hanging from various stalls (I mean everything- snouts, beaks, feet). There were baskets of fish (no ice) sitting out, buckets with no water with fish still squirming, buckets of water with fish swimming around, a flopping fish or two in the path, and blood and guts from a recently cut open fish or piece of meat. Even though it was totally unsanitary and gross I still found it quite interesting. The rest of the day we took at tuk tuk tour around the city. We were shown where we would go to school, the embassies, the Riverside (tourist area), Hospital, Wat Phnom (Buddhist Temple), the local markets, and took a tour of the Royal Palace. The architecture and attention to detail is just amazing in the Wats and the Royal Palace. There are intricate details on every part of the building from the roof, to the walls, to the stairs, to ceilings. It is amazing to find such beauty in a city that is in such disarray.
The night before we started our first day of classes was spent in a local bar called the Pirates Den, it was located on the Riverside and we ate buffet style while meeting our trainers/coordinators. It was a nice dinner not some amazing Cambodian feast but it filled our starving stomachs. After dinner we were free to go back to our hotel or wander around the city. We all decided to go to the night market down the street that is only open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It is like your average outdoor market it has food stalls, clothing stalls, and stalls that sell accessories. The food looked amazing. Everything was very fresh and very inexpensive. We sat at tiny tables with kiddie chairs to eat some of our food but they had an option to sit in the center of the market on blankets. It seems to be common to sit at tiny tables or the ground when eating street food people usually do not eat and go. We ended our last night of freedom but having a beer at a local bar before calling it a night.
No comments:
Post a Comment