Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Tidbits

Let me first apologize for not having written for several days. For some reason Google thought that my blog was a "spam" blog and shut it down without any explanation and without letting anyone access it, and without letting me edit it until futher review. After review, however, the blog is back up and running and you get a new post.

Now that that's out of the way, I think I'll start with some tidbits of things you see in Phnom Penh.

On motorbikes (for clarification a motorbike is somewhere in between a scooter and a motorcycle):
--as many as five people
--two people and a refrigerator
--three matresses
--three people, one on an IV (in the middle, with the person on the back holding up the IV)

On the streets:
--cops sitting around (I saw one yesterday testing out his handcuffs on his friends)
--people peeing (apparently public urination isn't a crime or because cops just sit around, it's not enforced)
--trash
--motorbike drivers constantly asking if you want a ride
--delicious looking street food (like fried banana)

In grocery stores:
--very cheap fruit and veggies (it's even cheaper at the market)
--American products at ridiculous prices (my favorites are $11 for a pint of Haagen Dazs and $8 for a box of Frosted Flakes)
--ex-pats galore (I think many are weary of the markets)
--cheap wine (hooray for the French influence)

More updates on what I've been up to very soon (I promise) and I should have some exciting job news to post within the next few days. Keep checking and I'll keep writing.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

It's Electric, Boogey Woogey Woogey

I'll try and keep this one short and sweet. On Tuesday night, Shanti and I decided to take a stroll down to the Olympic Stadium (a short walk from our apartment) to check out the swimming pool. We had a little trouble finding our way in to the stadium complex, but once we did, we saw that it was packed. We wandered up an incline leading to the top of the stadium while trying to figure out what was going on. There were absolutely no westerners around. Was it a sporting event? No. Was it a cultural festival? No. It was people line dancing. Yes, line dancing. Thousands of them. We managed to track down a guy that spoke English and he informed us that, on a nightly basis, Cambodians flock to the Olympic Stadium to exercise by way of line dancing. There were groups dancing to hip hop, rock, Cambodian music, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. Though the pool looked pretty disgusting (Shanti's probably going to join a health club), I think I'll get my exercise for free and in style. Line dancing style.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Phnom Penh Craziness


A bus back to Phnom Penh from Battambang and a quick shower letter and there were visitors at our door step! One of Shanti's good friends from Spain, Laia, and her boyfriend, Diego, happened to be traveling through Southeast Asia and had a few days in Phnom Penh - our first guests!

We had a lovely Khmer dinner on the riverfront which, although beautiful, is very touristy and the moto drivers and souvenir-peddlers are very pushy.

Shanti had to work Friday, so I hung out with her Spanish friends, going to Wat Phnom - where you could feed, ride, and take pictures with an elephant (go jumbos!). There were also wild - but very tame - monkeys that you could feed. From the Wat, we went to the Central Market, and enormous area, indoors and out, of people selling handicrafts, jewelry, housewares, fresh produce, clothing, and almost anything else you can imagine. Incredibly overwhelming, but also quite a bit of fun.

The same afternoon we met Shanti at Tuol Sleng, or S-21, the infamous high school turned Khmer Rouge prison and torture camp where about 20,000 people were killed. It was the most disturbing place or thing I had ever seen. Though turned in to a museum, it was as if nothing had changed in the past thirty years. What appeared to be blood stains remained on the floor and the cells, some brick and some wood (and all minuscule) were left in tact and untouched. The most haunting part about the "museum" was not the small collection of skulls with descriptions of how that particular person had been killed (whether by bullet or "blunt impact" to the head), but the incredible photographs of thousands of the prisoners and images of some during or just after being "interrogated." It was an experience I will not soon forget, though I plan to return just to remind myself what Cambodia went through not too long ago.

Saturday morning brought our first true monsoon. Pounding rains and heavy wind for several hours. Instead of going to the Royal Palace or the National Museum (as planned), we decided to treat ourselves to an hour-long massage by the blind (apparently this is a popular, non-sketchy alternative to other massage parlors) for a mere $5. It was the first massage I paid for and it was pretty damn good. I think Shanti and I will treat ourselves to a half hour massage every few weeks.

Though we thought our day had been lacking in adventure, we returned home to discover a leak in our kitchen (the floor was flooded) and a critter - a spider with boots if you're my mom, a mouse if you're anyone else). Though the leak has now been fixed, the critter remains at large, though we think we have him under control.

Sunday brought more adventures, perhaps as expected. We made a trip to the Olympic Market (Pshar Orussey) to purchase goods for the house. We ended up with cookware, a battery charger, trash cans, a laundry basket, an iron, a hair dryer (not for me), and a cute charcoal barbecue. Can't wait to use it!

If I haven't bored you to tears yet, you can wait until my next entry, hopefully within the next few days.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Battambang


On Wednesday, Shanti went to Battambang (fairly large city of 150,000 in the Northwest of Cambodia, not all that far from the Thai border) for work. Being unemployed and eager to see the Cambodia that lies outside of Phnom Penh, I graciously accepted the offer of her co-worker, Vuth, to join on the trip.

Only a half hour outside of Phnom Penh, the landscape was dramatically different. The road was fairly good - smooth and wide enough for two trucks - and lined with an odd variety of modern shacks, thatch huts, and roadside stands. Just beyond these structures, however, was a long, flat, green landscape of rice paddies and palm trees. The heads of workers could be seen among yaks and oxen, dotting the paddies. Truly a sight to behold.

After about four hours we arrived in Battambang and I took off on my own while Shanti and the others went to a meeting. Just wandering around, I could tell that Battambang was much poorer than Phnom Penh, but the people seemed much friendlier and the moto drivers were far less pushy than in the capital. Shortly after I took off, a moto driver stopped me and asked if I would help him teach English in his village for an hour. While I didn't agree, I promised him that Shanti and I would come back and allowed him to take me on a small tour of Battambang - to the Museum which housed relics dating back 1500 years and to the touristy bamboo railroad where a shack full of kids shouted "Hellooooo," "What's your name?," and "I loooove you."

Back on my own, I wandered into Wat Phephittam (a wat is a Buddhist temple and all of the wats in Cambodia are beautifully ornate). An English-speaking monk waved me over and chatted with me for a few minutes before asking if I'd like to see the inside of the temple. Before showing me, however, I was led into a classroom in which another monk was teaching English to a group of ten Cambodians about twenty years old. I quickly went from the subject of amusement to the teacher, helping to work on pronunciation and basic conversation. Good times.

One final anecdote from Battambang: I was stopped by a family living on the street - parents and four kids, all of whom were adorable. After saying hi, waving, and giving the kids some candy, I asked to take a picture (with my digital camera). I took it, and then to the delight of the kids, showed them the picture on the camera. They couldn't stop laughing in delight and posed for several more pictures (including a full family shot) until my camera batteries died.

Conclusion: I liked Battambang very much.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Greetings from the Other Side of the World


Much to report in the last few days! After a crazy day 1, days 2 and 3 were dedicated to apartment searching. All told, i think we looked at twenty apartments (maybe a little over the top), but it was a good way to get a sense of Phnom Penh (and for free). On Sunday, we chose our favorite, a two bedroom apartment in a central location. It's got a huge balcony, big living room with wicker/bamboo furniture, two full bathroom and two half bathrooms, a cute little kitchen, an "office," and a room for storage (pictures soon!).

Our "host family"is awesome - it feels like we've been adopted! There's a lot of kids around and the dad (maybe a little sketchy) is a member of the National Assembly and has a driver, who has already fixed stuff in our apartment and driven us around. After moving stuff in on Sunday, we went to one of the traditional markets, the Russian market, and got sheets, towels, a hammock, and some stuff for the kitchen. As we were leaving, it poured...our first monsoon-like rains since arrival. I think this was our true introduction to Southeast Asia.

Shanti started work yesterday (her co-workers are really cool and, yes, adorable). I wandered around the city a bunch, opened a bank account, and just hung out. Work stuff for me is coming together, albeit a bit slowly (several of the people I want to meet with are out of the country for the next two weeks). So we'll see what happens!

Lastly, the food. So far it has been fantastic. Fried banana, the best pineapple I've ever had, a do-it-yourself Cambodian style melting pot-type dinner, delicious baked goods and cheap wine (thanks to the French), and pretty much anything else you could want.

I suppose that's more than enough for now. Hopefully we'll have internet at our apartment soon. Please keep me up to date on what's going on with you all and hopefully we can g-chat or skype soon!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

We Made It!


After nearly getting bumped off of our flight to L.A. (Alaska Airlines sucks), we made it to Taipei and Phnom Penh without incident. Great first day, which included many cute Cambodian kids, a flat tire on a tuk-tuk, getting lost several times, delicious food, meeting Shanti's co-workers, finding a cell phone (after getting a different story from every cell phone store we went to, including cell phone price dependent on the ease of remembering the number) - brief side note: if you wish to drop me a line, my number is 011-855-11-430-560 and Shanti's is 011-855-92-578-245 - all around a fantastic first day. Off to find an apartment...more updates soon!

Best,
Steve and Shanti
(in order of most curse words yelled at the Alaska Airlines ticket agent)