Life in General in the 1st Week

4-10 June 2007
Phnom Penh
Various
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Hospitality

Our group stays in an area where many hotels and guest houses are located. It's called Ste. 278, otherwise known as 'Golden' Street. Everywhere you go, the hotels and establishments are called golden... Golden Comfort, Golden Inn, Golden Castle, et cetera. It's a paved road that centers a lot of activity day and night. I really like the area we are in.

The little street we stay on is also surrounded by many little shops, restaraunts, and a Wat (temple). In fact, I see monks walking up and down the street all the time, conducting their business in their saffron / gold robes. Most are young and curious but slightly distant and polite. Sometime I hope to visit the temple grounds and chat a bit with a monk.

After I got a chance to inhale the various and conflicting aromas in the first few minutes in the hotel room, I marvelled at the heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. The first thing I did after unpacking clothes and showering was buy water. Vidal (roommate) found the air conditioner switch and it got a little better. Now that we're in a rhythm I keep the fridge stocked with water and water and more cold water - plus a little fruit in case of hydro emergencies.


Transportation

There are three types of vehicles that most folk use to get around. There's the 'moto' moped style 2 wheel bicycles; the 'tuk-tuk' - a moto hitched to a carriage that sits between 1 and 6 people; and the car. There are a fleet of individuals that provide transportation to and from locations in the city and they all hang out outside of the hotels and guest houses waiting for business. It's kind of a funny thing - the price of the ride depends on how far you want to go and how much you are willing to way. It took a while to get used to this, but you always have to negotiate a price that you are willing to pay - and it's haggling at its best. This is a very new skill for me! We learned VERY early on to negotiate the price early for moto rides or tuk-tuk drives.

Khmer folks pay far less for their rides than westerners. Like 20% of what I pay often. Urrrrg!

Traffic is insane during the major work rush hours - 7:30 am - 9:30 am and 4:30 pm -7:00 pm. The streets are a cacophony of vehicles. There's very very loose observance of driving rules and conventions common in the USA. For example, in the USA, vehicles tend to travel in the same direction on the same side of the street. Or another example - vehicles use signals to indicate turns... or mirrors to observe vehicles behind them .... or observe stop signs - NOT SO IN PHNOM PENH!

On one of the main access points to work (Sihanouk St) You can have multiple lanes of traffic, going everywhere and everywhere else, opposite direction streams of traffic. Most but not all car drivers, moto riders and tuk-tuk drivers will break the flow or traffic, cut others off, signal one way and drive another, et cetera. It's kinda crazy and quite scary.

A note about infrastructure: The infrastructure is spotty and patchwork. Power is sporadic in many spots. (most hotel and hospitality establishments have a power generator, but little shops and stores have definately had the sporadic power outage!) Main roads are paved, but many side or secondary roads are not completely paved. Public lighting is also patchwork. Bridges, public parks - all of the things I may have taken for granted in the past are open questions.

Food

Food is a daily concern for anyone, and especially me. In a visit to my mother a few months back, she teased me about how I would declare "I love food! "as a toddler. Some things just don't change.

There is access to many different types of food here. I love it!

The most common is street vendors that have noodles, grilled chicken, pork, beef and seafood and fresh fruits such as coconut, pineapple, rambutan, lychee and mangosteen.

Equally ubiquetous in the tourist areas are restaraunts. There are many Khmer, Thai, Malaysian and Indian restaraunts. There are also always western style establishments - the Khmer version of McDonalds, Starbucks and such as chain restaraunts, and stand alone western style places. I've also been able to sample the western style places a little bit, but it's not my favorite option. (Note: There are a ton of pizza joints here. I'm lactose intolerant and from NYC, so it's not to my liking most of the time...)Finally, there are plenty of Chinese style, Korean style and Japanese style options.

The main factor is money. The most expensive options are western style dishes like pasta, steak - really the prices are 'normal' for American. The next most expensive seem to be Japanese. The most affordable options are street and market Khmer cuisine - but honestly, I'm not brave enough yet. It shoudl be said you can go to the Khmer restaraunts and do really well on $3-5 a day. Indian, Malaysian is only slightly more expensive so I've also been a regular at the places on my street that serve that type of food.

I like Khmer food for the most part, so I've been very happy.