Cambodia ephemera

Accomodation Checklist:

Pnohm Penh: Okay Guesthouse $15
Siem Reap: Hello Paradise Guesthouse $15
Battambang: Royal Hotel: $15
Siem Reap: Villa Siem Reap: $20 (but what a huge difference $5 made!)

Notable Food:

FCC in Pnohm Penh: Cambodian appetizers with Angkor beer, beef lok lak, made with oyster sauce and the famous (or should be) kampot peppercorns, and fish amok

Siem Reap: Cambodian BBQ - quite the production!

General observations:
Cambodia and Vietnam have a great deal of similarities in that they both have recent pasts to overcome in terms of what most people think when they think of either country, they are socialist (rather than communist) enjoying relatively stable political and social situations right now. They are also both in a state of incredible transition, with tourism being a dominant economic force that is changing both societies. All the guide books are way out of date and those written today will be woefully erroneous within a year or two - changes are happening so rapidly. Less third world and more emerging market. There is lots of money around by the looks of all the high-end motor bikes and SUVs, but it has the feel of "Sopranos"-style money, as it's inserted among great poverty. Lots of building construction. Huge new hotels, many sensitively designed, airconditioned shopping malls that are terrribly designed, cosmopolitan restaurants, some lovely crafts shops selling upmarket things for upmarket prices, all alongside cheap guesthouses and noodle houses, with shacks and food stalls and beggers nestling where they still can.

The Cambodians are the sweetest, gentlest people - it is so hard to understand how the atrocities of the 70-80s could have happened.

We heard a wonderful story from a traveller who was staying in a town for a week and hired a driver with whom he got very close. During that time, the traveller asked about the driver's childhood, and was told he didn't know his birthday as it was during the Pol Pot regime, sometime in 1979 he thought. The traveller took it upon himself to go to an internet cafe with the driver and call the driver's mother to ask what she remembered. "A Wednesday, five days after the full moon". They googled all of 1979 and 1978 too, but could not find a date that matched. Then they remembered taht the khmer calendar is different so looked at the beginning of 1980 and there it was. Can you imagine not knowing your birthdate and then having a stranger find it for you? What a gift!