I know calling this post ‘part 1’ implies that there will be a part 2, but I would like to add a quick disclaimer here to say that I am not making any promises.
Anyway, the past couple of days have been pretty hectic, but now that I am sitting here on a white sandy beach overlooking a beautiful bay with colourful fishing boats and contemplating a massage on the beach and the first cold beer of the day ($0.50 a beer so I might have a couple of those), it has all been worth it.
This time 2 days ago I was starting my last day at work. Since then I have shared some departing beers and a few laughs with my workmates, spent about 10 hours on a plane and 6 hours on a bus, and now, after a good sleep last night, here I am on a beach in a place called Sihanouk Ville.
I didn’t know a lot about Cambodia before arriving, and still don’t, to be fair. I suppose I expected it to be a bit like Thailand, and there are certainly plenty of similarities. I know that sadly it isn’t unusual for many countries in Asia, but one of the most noticeable things is the rubbish everywhere. We spent a few hours wandering around the streets of Phnom Penh before getting the bus down here and it is striking just how much litter there is.
I love just wandering the streets in cities I have never been to before. Walking is one of the best ways of discovering. You really get to experience the sights, sounds, smells and feel of a place up close a personal rather than behind the glass window of a bus or taxi. The streets of Phnom Penh were no disappointment. They are hectic, eclectic and very interesting.
Although there are pavements, it is impossible to walk on them as they are full of parked scooters, the occasional car and plenty of street vendors. This means that you are largely forced to take your life in your hands and walk along the edge of the road. At first this seems pretty scary, but you very quickly get used it. There don’t appear to actually be any rules of the road at all, but I assume that cleaning up foreigners is particularly bad karma so they seem to mostly avoid it. This is in itself quite impressive when you consider that just about every available inch of road is filled with scooters, tuk tuk’s, medium sized trucks and the occasional car heading in every direction quite randomly.
Crossing the road is actually quite fun. Best thing to do is just walk at a steady pace in a straight line and don’t do anything unpredictable. If you follow this basic procedure it seems to put you in a kind of ‘karma bubble’ and the traffic just kind of flows around you. Anyway, that’s enough talk of traffic, after my last post people will start to think I am obsessed with it.
We also spent a bit of time yesterday wandering a very large and crowded market area. I always find food markets particularly interesting and seeing what new and exotic ingredients I can find is always inspiring. Food and drink is actually one of the most pleasurable things about travel. I love finding out how and what the locals eat and learning how it is prepared and cooked so that I can give it a go. The butchery sections in Asian markets are usually a bit confronting though, what with pigs heads and a variety of fly blown innards of some description usually being front and centre.
The most surprising thing about Cambodia so far is the coffee. It is actually very good. If this is one of the last remnants of the French influence here it is a very good one. I say surprising because I think that our coffee culture in Australia is probably amongst the best in the world, and it is usually very disappointing getting a coffee in most places overseas because it is so bad in comparison. Last year, with a mate of mine who lives in Fremantle, WA, we cycled across a not insignificant part of Austria, Slovakia and Hungary in search of a decent cup of coffee, and failed miserably. We did find a few very nice beers though. But here in Cambodia, decent coffee is everywhere, even the most run down ramshackle places seem to have an espresso machine.
OK, so what else can I tell, you about Cambodia? Well maybe I need to see a bit more first so perhaps there will be a part 2 after all, but for now, the beer is cold, the shine is shining and the water is clear and inviting, so I have got better things to do at the moment.
Take The Leap 