Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Whew, 28+ hours later, I'm on the other side of the world!

My day started at 4 AM in Chicago...

Watery hot cereal that exploded in the microwave. Oops.

I took the shuttle from my hotel to O'Hare at 5:30 AM which proved to be a wise decision since I wasn't able to check in at a kiosk. The employee needed to check the status of my visa which took almost an hour since only two employees out of the four at the desk were helping people and they weren't in a hurry. I had a nice uneventful flight from ORD to Vancouver, with the in-flight entertainment being Journey 2: Mysterious Island (awful unless you're on an airplane with nothing else to do) and Big Bang Theory. One thing I never realized about international connections is that you still have to go through customs and it often takes an hour or more, so always use the restroom before you get in line!

YVR to Guangzhou, China was the longest flight of the day, clocking in at 13 hours. This was more than twice the length of my longest flight up until that point. Combine the fact that I was traveling alone with my audio jack being missing and an inability to sleep on planes and I was rather restless by the end. The guy sitting behind me was actually from Grand Rapids! He has spent the last 3 years in China as a chef and often makes the flight to and from the US.

Meal #1 An already eaten dinner roll, aloo gobi with rice and green beans, chickpea salad, and melon

Roughly halfway there!

Flying over Siberia

Meal #2 Same dinner roll as before, mixed veg with rice, a bean salad, and some sort of cheesecake

Despite my haggard appearance after traveling for so long, I made some friends on the flight and while waiting at the Guangzhou airport during a 5 hour layover. Long sat next to me on the plane and offered to show Carlos and I around in Saigon whenever we end up there. It will be nice to know someone who can translate for us. Jocelyn is a Canadian student who is doing an internship in Phnom Penh working with victims of sex trafficking. It was great to meet another female traveling alone who was just as overwhelmed with culture shock. We joked about squat toilets and the difficulties of accessing the airport wifi since the directions were in Chinese.

Carlos met me at the airport and whisked me away to a tuk tuk so we could quickly get to our hotel as it was after midnight. It was definitely a good decision to pay a little extra for a super comfy bed and air conditioning. The first thing I did was take a shower! I was able to get about 5 hours of sleep and started the day at a normal time without feeling too tired.

Our improvised breakfast

We checked out after seeing the most curious parrot in the country club lobby. His pupils would grow and shrink very quickly which was quite unnerving. We had the same tuk tuk driver from last night take us farther into the city to our next hotel and then ate lunch at a vegetarian restaurant.

Mixed vegetable Buddha bowl $2.50 including rice

Carlos's lunch of a traditional Khmer curry which was delicious

The view from our table

From there we walked around the tourist section of town a bit. The market was the most shocking. Meat was laying out in the open with flies on it and smelled horrendous. Even if I wasn't vegan, I would probably opt out of meat on this trip... One guy was hauling 4 dead pigs on the back of his motorcycle. Naked children were running around. Monks in orange robes were walking through the streets collecting donations in exchange for prayers. They make good street crossing buddies as pedestrians are on the lowest rung of the right of way totem pole. Traffic here doesn't really have any rules or lanes. People are often driving the "wrong way" and honk constantly to let others know they're there. Most people drive scooters or motorbikes.

Surprisingly I haven't experienced a lot of culture shock. Everything just feels surreal, like I'm in an unfamiliar part of the United States, not on the other side of the globe despite all of the lifestyle differences. Perhaps it will be more apparent in a hostel or while traveling on a bus. The best part so far is definition having lots of delicious, cheap food ($1-3 per meal) available. It's rather strange to be seen as a minority and stared at by the locals. I've experienced some difficulty with communication and have been learning which words to use to explain simple concepts like making sure what I'm ordering is vegan and where we want to travel to. The hardest thing to get used to is not being able to drink the tap water and thus, always buying bottles that we can't refill. I also should have brought more t-shirts instead of tank tops for modesty's sake, but it is hot (90-plus degrees Fahrenheit) and humid. Luckily, they will be more appropriate for the beach which is our next destination.

After staying in hotels for the first two nights, we moved into a guesthouse/hostel. I was a bit nervous but we have a great room with a private bathroom, balcony, and air conditioning... for $10 per night! We decided to walk the mile or so there from our previous place so we could take some photos and get water. We walked along the waterfront of the Mekong River which is the main tourist area and led to being asked to buy all sorts of items and transportation. Carlos was giving me a quick tutorial about photography when two little boys, maybe ages 5-6, came up to us and held out their hands, asking for money. We attempted to ignore them but every time we said no, they would move closer to us, first sitting at our feet and then hugging my legs. It was so adorable that we couldn't resist and luckily Carlos had 50 euro from his time in Germany. We also saw three monkeys walking along the power lines which is quite a feat since they are a huge jumbled mess.

Could you have resisted these two?

The Tonle Sap River

A 1.5L bottle of water for $0.60

Although mainly US dollars are used in Cambodia, they have the riel for change less than $1 (4100 riel = $1) 

We've decided to postpone seeing the Genocide Museum and Killing Fields until after we get back from the beach as we've both been sick and aren't in the mood for something like that. If you weren't aware, the Khmer Rouge was the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975-1979 which systematically tortured and executed almost 4 million people. Essentially, a whole generation of Cambodians was lost.

The building we've nicknamed the Devil Temple

Today was a lazy day spent recovering from our colds. We're getting quite used to being here now and seem to have the "lay of the land" down. We successfully got a tuk tuk driver down to half price, $3 to take us to pick up take out for lunch and dinner and then back. The best way to arrange a ride is to tell the driver what street number or landmark you want to go to and the price you're willing to pay. If he says something higher, then you say no and walk away. Most likely, he will accept your original offer or even go lower since most drivers sit around the majority of the day with competition being so stiff. We went to a pharmacy for cough drops and had to say "cough pills" after which the pharmacist make a lip smacking sound and handed us a package of "Strepsil." I also had my first solo interaction in order to get change from our guesthouse for the tuk tuk driver. It was only after the fact that I didn't have backup in case I wasn't understood. What a long way I've come from being scared to talk to strangers in my home country where they assuredly speak the same language.

Tomorrow... the beach!