Guest Blog - Caitlin Bell

Below is a guest blog, written by my older sister, Caitlin, who spent the last five days with us in Cambodia. She and her new husband Tyler take off for Laos tomorrow. Below is her experiences/impressions from her first two days...enjoy!

Day one of our honeymoon was "Phnom-enal" :)

 

We began with a quick trip to Cool Mart down the road, which meant that Jeff and I took a 10-minute moto ride during which we dodged bicycles, tuk-tuks, people, and cow dung. We ran into a Liger security guard on the way back, Darath ("da-ra"), who convinced us to stop and grab coffee. We picked up two to go, which were about 2:1 sugar:coffee and were served in small plastic bags with straws. After pancakes and a quick tour of the Liger Facility where Jeff and Caroline work and live, we met up with Mr. Da, the tuk-tuk driver whom Caro and Jeff love, and went to the Russian Market, a partially open-air market. You can get everything from baby clothes to marble buddhas to produce to live fish at the market, which is laid out in a labyrinth of stalls piled high with everything you can imagine. 

 

 

After unsuccessfully trying to locate their favorite iced coffee vendor (the self-proclaimed "best iced coffee in Phnom Penh!), we headed to lunch at a nearby Japanese place. The food was excellent - chicken and pork with rice, bright-green pork dumplings, passion fruit soda.

After lunch we all got massages at a cute spa in the ex-pat part of the city. An hour-long back and shoulder massage plus the opportunity for a nice shower at the end cost us each $12.

Then Mr. Da drove us to the Royal Palace, where the entire city was converging to pay their respects to the former king, who passed away last week and whose body has been laid at the palace. Thousands of people in white shirts and black pants with black mourning ribbons milled around the main palace, praying over incense and sitting on the grass. 

 

 

On the other side of the square, we attracted the attention of a monk, who spoke English pretty well. After he heard that Caro and Jeff were living in the city, he brought over his whole family to be introduced. We aren't sure how exactly everyone was related, but they all may have been related symbolically instead of actually. The monk, Piset, talked with Caro and Jeff for about 20 minutes, and by the end, one older woman had requested that Jeff let her daughter have his nose (she liked his long nose, which she first called a mouth), and another had invited herself and 20 of her closest friends to Jeff and Caro's wedding, whenever that may be.

 

 

We walked to a nearby rooftop bar, which had a great view of the river and the palace, and watched the sunset. Then we walked back to Mr. Da, who took us to dinner at Khmer Surin, a beautiful restaurant that serves Cambodian food. Our dinner for four of fried rice, steamed coconut fish, beef with pepper sauce, pad thai, cucumber salad, and a pitcher of beer cost us $30. We tukked home to Liger (retaining Mr. Da all day cost $20 and a can of beer) and crashed immediately into bed.

My first impressions of Cambodia is pretty much what I've heard from other people who have visited. The people are incredibly, disarmingly, unapologetically friendly, and genuinely so. Just walking back to Liger after visiting the local Buddhist pagoda prompted a neighbor to offer us fresh coconuts, which her husband chopped open - and her mother presented us with straws without missing a beat. No one is pushy, except a few vendors and tuk-tuk drivers. Most people speak enough English to get by, and everyone else is happy enough to pantomime whatever it is you need. The food is excellent. In establishments that are nice enough to have a tile or wood floor, the interior is spotless. The bathrooms are cleaner than many I've seen in the U.S. I feel extremely safe everywhere we've been, even as a foreigner. No one gawks aggressively, just curiously. The (absolutely beautiful) kids yell "hello!" and giggle when you respond. 

That being said, this is a poor country. The roads, even in the city, are horrible, although passable. Huge mansions sit right next to cement huts with tin roofs, and both types abut streets lined with trash and piles of broken concrete. Stray dogs and cats are everywhere. No one has refrigeration, most don't have electricity, the kids don't wear shoes, and most people sleep on the same picnic table they conduct business on during the day out of the front of their house. In the poorest part of the city, a strip of houses on stilts leans out over the muddy Tonle Sap river; the homes are no more than bamboo-plank floors held up by posts and covered with sheets of tin and tarps weighted down with tires.

My main thought though, after Day One, is that this country has incredible potential. The level of universal friendliness will lend itself to a world-class tourism trade here, and with money will hopefully come better infrastructure, healthcare, and government. The kids and people I've met have been very smart, self-sufficient, and entreprenurial. Caroline told me that the kids whose families can't afford to send them to government school (which is free besides the uniform and book fees) will often just stand outside the door and listen to the lessons. These are people who are destined to succeed, and I think they just need the money and education to do so.

Later on today we are heading to Silk Island to check out the famous silk trade here, and then spending the night in the city before taking an early, 6-hour bus ride to Siem Reap tomorrow.