Welcome to Cambodia!
Finally my blog has caught up with me! We are currently in Phnom Penh, halfway through week 4 of 8 of our volunteer placement. Here's our first day:
When we landed in Phnom Penh after a 60-minute flight from Bangkok, I thanked myself for suggesting we spend time in Thailand first, because nothing else could have prepared us better for the culture and lifestyle into which we were about to be dropped for 8 weeks!
Unfortunately the visa officers were not a good representation of Cambodia's people, no "Hello", or "Welcome to Cambodia", just a demand for $30 for the visa. The officer literally threw our passports to the first person in a human assembly line, and luckily they came through the other end intact with visas inside. The Immigration officer didn't offer a smile or say a word as he checked my visa and waved me through the gates. I grabbed our one bright yellow suitcase and went to get SIM cards for our phones.
We were collected from the airport in a pristine vintage Jaguar XJ6 and taken downtown to another lush small boutique hotel called The Pavillion. The driver didn't seem to happy about having to work that evening. I'm wondering where was the amazing Cambodian hospitality and warmth that I'd heard so much about.
I finally found it at the check-in at the Pavillion. Two ladies and a gentleman took great care of us, and offered us a room with a private courtyard...too bad we were only there for one night. It was Saturday night, which meant I was going hop in the shower, grab the dance shoes, and get moving to Duplex bar, a place in the middle of a busy street lined with bars, nightclubs and restaurants. Duplex is a Belgian-themed bar (go figure) with fantastic staff, a creative menu, and a terrible sound system (LOL). The dancing was extremely basic (even more so than Bangkok) and the music obviously on a randomised playlist. Nevertheless, the crowd was mostly expat and I made friends with the organiser (of course).
After dancing, we wandered across the street to another bar, which featured a reggae DJ from France who was well-versed in dancehall (yay). Expats and backpackers (and all the salsa people) ruled the place, all free and happy and loving life. Then the reggae party ended, and we hopped back across the street to a techno club above Duplex - it was quiet a night. We enjoyed the 'modern' side of Phnom Penh for a night, because the following day we were to be collected and taken to our volunteer accommodation in a local suburb, far away from the Western malls, shops and restaurants.
As we got closer, we started to see all the things that make you think "I'm definitely in Southeast Asia now": A family of five on a single motorbike, a truck piled high with stuff and people hanging off it to hitch a ride, small children running to the car in traffic asking for money while the mother watched on from nearby, stray dogs, cats and puppies (it was difficult to resist petting the cute little fur faces) following your every step.
Our house is a typical three-story Khmer house, with balconies and think silver/gold railiings and a multi-purpose rooftop area. It's near the airport in a quietish middle-class neighborhood - the kind of place where kids play in the street (especially after the heavy rains) and he neighbours invite you over for a drink. It's pretty far away from any kind of entertainment, so weekends are reserved for fun.
We settled in, had lunch (one of many delicious meals cooked by the volunteer staff) and took a walk around the 'hood. I immediately noticed the blatant contrant between wealthy and poor: the large, gated mansions with lush gardens alongside makeshift tin-patchwork roofs of some family homes. Stray dogs wandered the street, motorbikes weaved between pedestrians, and children asked us for money. At one of the many markets we were to encounter on our daily travels, raw meats hung questionably from umbrellas in the hot sun and humidity - and I was sure at that moment I was going to be a quasi-vegitarian for most of this trip!
In Thailand, we noticed that the ground floor of many homes had been converted to shops; at the end of the day, the gate was closed and the family went upstairs to retire, or put a mattress on the floor for sleeping. Here in Phnom Penh it's even more common: shops, barber shops, beauty salons, photography studios and motorbike repair shops, all in the ground floor of residential homes in an effort to make ends meet. But everyone we encountered offered a "hello" and a smile and whatever else they could in English.
We later met our Australian roomies who were there for three weeks. The following day, Monday, was our all-day orientation to the volunteer program. It was going to be a looooong day, as IVHQ and CVF* staff prepared us for life in Cambodia.
*International Volunteer Headquarters and Cambodia Volunteer Foundation
When we landed in Phnom Penh after a 60-minute flight from Bangkok, I thanked myself for suggesting we spend time in Thailand first, because nothing else could have prepared us better for the culture and lifestyle into which we were about to be dropped for 8 weeks!
Unfortunately the visa officers were not a good representation of Cambodia's people, no "Hello", or "Welcome to Cambodia", just a demand for $30 for the visa. The officer literally threw our passports to the first person in a human assembly line, and luckily they came through the other end intact with visas inside. The Immigration officer didn't offer a smile or say a word as he checked my visa and waved me through the gates. I grabbed our one bright yellow suitcase and went to get SIM cards for our phones.
We were collected from the airport in a pristine vintage Jaguar XJ6 and taken downtown to another lush small boutique hotel called The Pavillion. The driver didn't seem to happy about having to work that evening. I'm wondering where was the amazing Cambodian hospitality and warmth that I'd heard so much about.
I finally found it at the check-in at the Pavillion. Two ladies and a gentleman took great care of us, and offered us a room with a private courtyard...too bad we were only there for one night. It was Saturday night, which meant I was going hop in the shower, grab the dance shoes, and get moving to Duplex bar, a place in the middle of a busy street lined with bars, nightclubs and restaurants. Duplex is a Belgian-themed bar (go figure) with fantastic staff, a creative menu, and a terrible sound system (LOL). The dancing was extremely basic (even more so than Bangkok) and the music obviously on a randomised playlist. Nevertheless, the crowd was mostly expat and I made friends with the organiser (of course).
After dancing, we wandered across the street to another bar, which featured a reggae DJ from France who was well-versed in dancehall (yay). Expats and backpackers (and all the salsa people) ruled the place, all free and happy and loving life. Then the reggae party ended, and we hopped back across the street to a techno club above Duplex - it was quiet a night. We enjoyed the 'modern' side of Phnom Penh for a night, because the following day we were to be collected and taken to our volunteer accommodation in a local suburb, far away from the Western malls, shops and restaurants.
As we got closer, we started to see all the things that make you think "I'm definitely in Southeast Asia now": A family of five on a single motorbike, a truck piled high with stuff and people hanging off it to hitch a ride, small children running to the car in traffic asking for money while the mother watched on from nearby, stray dogs, cats and puppies (it was difficult to resist petting the cute little fur faces) following your every step.
Our house is a typical three-story Khmer house, with balconies and think silver/gold railiings and a multi-purpose rooftop area. It's near the airport in a quietish middle-class neighborhood - the kind of place where kids play in the street (especially after the heavy rains) and he neighbours invite you over for a drink. It's pretty far away from any kind of entertainment, so weekends are reserved for fun.
We settled in, had lunch (one of many delicious meals cooked by the volunteer staff) and took a walk around the 'hood. I immediately noticed the blatant contrant between wealthy and poor: the large, gated mansions with lush gardens alongside makeshift tin-patchwork roofs of some family homes. Stray dogs wandered the street, motorbikes weaved between pedestrians, and children asked us for money. At one of the many markets we were to encounter on our daily travels, raw meats hung questionably from umbrellas in the hot sun and humidity - and I was sure at that moment I was going to be a quasi-vegitarian for most of this trip!
In Thailand, we noticed that the ground floor of many homes had been converted to shops; at the end of the day, the gate was closed and the family went upstairs to retire, or put a mattress on the floor for sleeping. Here in Phnom Penh it's even more common: shops, barber shops, beauty salons, photography studios and motorbike repair shops, all in the ground floor of residential homes in an effort to make ends meet. But everyone we encountered offered a "hello" and a smile and whatever else they could in English.
We later met our Australian roomies who were there for three weeks. The following day, Monday, was our all-day orientation to the volunteer program. It was going to be a looooong day, as IVHQ and CVF* staff prepared us for life in Cambodia.
*International Volunteer Headquarters and Cambodia Volunteer Foundation
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