first days in Cambodia...

Well, I’ve been in Cambodia for almost 3 days... (wow, it really feels like more than that, so when I checked the calendar I almost couldn’t believe it.) I met up with Kyle and my cousin, Dacia, and her two girls at the airport as soon as I arrived. We went to their house, which is my home base for the time I will spend here in Cambodia. Dacia’s husband Greg works here in Cambodia, so it’s a pretty sweet hookup.

Day 1 - Wednesday

The first afternoon I was here was pretty low key. I took a nap since I hardly slept the whole time I was in transit. That night we went out to dinner with the whole family to a nice restaurant. We ate Cambodian food, and it was awesome. Compared to the food I ate while in the Himalayas when I was there this summer, Cambodia food doesn’t even compare ‘cause it’s so good. The restaurant was really cool, too. Even though it was in a building that, if you looked closely, you could tell needed some renovation, the décor made it look so nice, and very culturally rich. There were large bowls of water all throughout the restaurant filled with water and all sorts of beautiful flowers. After the meal, we went back to the house, where Kyle and I have a large room on the balcony to ourselves.

This evening Kyle and I walked around an area close to the house called ‘Independence Monument.’

It’s a park with a huge monument (go figure…) at one end. We walked through the park and watched as tons of people milled about. There were a lot of kids, which made me think that I hardly ever see that many kids just out playing outside back home. The kids were playing games and running around, and there were other people walking dogs and just sitting around. It was actually a very pleasant atmosphere. After sunset, the park was lit up by colorful water fountains and street lights, which added a cool touch to the already active clientele.

Day 2 - Thursday

The following day we woke up quite early, and headed out for a day on the town. We went to what is called the ‘Russian market.’ It very much reminded me of the markets in Mexico. It is filled with all sorts of shops, from little stalls where you can get food, to places that sell knock-off Rolexes. There are tons of sweet buys there, both fakes and some real stuff, and it’s all very inexpensive, at least after you bargain down at least half the asking price.
Afterwards we went to the Royal Palace, here in Phnom Penh. Why it is “royal,” and whose palace it is, I don’t know. But that’s what it’s called. It was fenced in by tall cement walls, so you can’t see much from the outside, but on the inside there were about a dozen large, and very ornate buildings. We took a bunch of pictures, and walked around for a while.

For lunch we wanted to find something very “local,” so we asked the housekeeper where we should go. So she took us with her went she went to lunch. We walked down this small street (which is pretty much the norm here) and stopped in at a few select locations. Why she picked those particular spots, I don’t know. I don’t know if there was something she saw in the many other little diners that made her choose the one we finally stopped at, or if it was just mere chance (it seemed very intentional, but I doubt I will ever find out exactly why). We actually went in one and she showed us the food we could eat – an assortment of dried fish and pots of funny colored and funny textured liquids that she called “soups” – but we said we wanted to try a different one. So she took us to where we eventually stayed to eat, not because the food looked much better (to us, at least… although I guess we don’t have a trained eye like she must have) but moreso out of pure convenience. That, and the fact that we kinda knew what we were in for anyway and pretty much wanted to get it over with. We ended up getting served several dried fish, which we saw prepared later by putting fresh fish out in the sun for several hours/days(?!), bowls of rice, soup (with vegetables and fish heads), and “water,” which was a light brown colored liquid with a cube of ice. We promptly ate most of it, and sat back wondering what we would be in for. (We are still discovering the extent of that food’s influence on our systems… so perhaps I’ll have an update of the total repercussions in a few days.)

The rest of the day was pretty much spent touring the city a bit. Near our house is a store front with the title “Seeing Hands” about it. We couldn’t resist, so on our way home at one point we stopped in to see what it is. It turns out that it is a massage parlor that employs blind masseuses. That sounded like a cool idea, and with an hour costing $4, we decided we had better check it out. It was a wild experience. First, we had to change into scrubs, and then we went to our tables and lied down. We didn’t even meet our masseuses, they just started working on us after we lied down with our heads in pillows. The girl was pretty young, and slender, but could really pack a punch with her fingers and elbows. Yes, elbows… at one point she got on top of me and jabbed me in the back with her elbow. I felt like I was in a wrestling match and just getting destroyed. At some points it wasn’t bad, and at others I was almost crying form the pain, and then at other spots it felt so good that it made it totally worth it. So I would definitely recommend that if anyone comes to Cambodia, they check out the blind masseuses, ‘cause it’s an experience that will never be forgotten.