Panom Pen

March 28, 2010

I spent my last morning in Siem Reap trying to find a bus to Phnom Penh, since I slept through the morning ones. Fortunately I was able to find one for noon at a slightly inflated price.

The morning was consumed with some breakfast, a little packing, and a chat with a firefighter from Hong Kong named Eric. Hopefully we can meet up sometime when I'm in his city.

Although the van to pick me up was half an hour late, the bus ride was six uneventful hours. There were some seat shufflings which left me in the dust, and we got a good look at the Cambodian country side. It was pretty cool, everyone was finishing up work for the day, so everyone was in sarongs, lounging and bathing.

I got to Phnom Penh and made way to a hostel, Me Mates Place. Fortunately there was room since the place is really nice and cheap.

The hostel is a mere 50 meters from the river, so I decided walk along it in search of some food. I ended up running into the night market which was a spectacle. There was a huge traffic jam outside, a band playing in the center, and tons of vendors. Unlike some of the other night markets I've been to, this was aimed mainly at locals, and nearly no one spoke English, which posed a bit of a problem when eating.

Basically the food is set out and you put what you want into a basic to be prepared. This took me about 15 minutes to figure out by watching everyone else. I picked out some spring rolls, some bread (which they fried), some peppers (which they fried), and what I was told was a fried ball of duck. I was a bit surprised to find this was actually an embryonic duck, and even more surprised to find how amazingly tender, rich, and juicy it was despite the tiny embryonic feathers.

The eating scenario was all on the ground in laid out mats. It was a lot of fun, and I lounged around with some Angkor beers while picking at my feast (which only cost 5000 real, or $1.25) but I left feeling the grease seeping out of my pores. So I walked along the river a bit more, it was cooler at this point and a bit refreshing.

I was beat after this and headed back to the hotel to work on the internets. I ended up chatting with a Medical Anthropologist named Ben, as well as the bar manager Tony "Montana." Ben is doing work in the area through USAID, some pretty awesome stuff, and Tony is an extremely fun and energetic local guy. They both gave me some pretty cool tips about what to check out.

Unfortunately I had to call it quits early, those bus rides take it out of you. So far this city is extremely exciting and beautiful, and the Khmer people are even more friendly than in Siem Reap.