Sharing Our Journey
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Bits and Pieces

Bits and Pieces of Our Lives in Phnom Penh

Just a few remembrances of our time in Phnom Penh.

Volunteer House - wonderful housemates Heidi from Canada, Rachelle from Australia, and Ruchika from India. No hot water in the house - dishes are done in 3 large tubs with the first filled with water and suds, the second for a first rinse, and the third for a second rinse, then into the drain board. No hot water for showers, but in the hot season who wants a hot shower??? The house was 4 stories - ground floor kitchen, dining/tv room, and one bedroom & bath - second floor was our room with bedroom, study and small bathroom - third floor with one bedroom & bath, extra bathroom, teacher study area with computer and books, balcony - fourth floor with 2 bedrooms & bath. Our cook (Mony) made our meals during the weekdays - everything was always fresh, bought the same day at the market in the morning. There was lots of rice, pretty much at every meal. Interestingly there is a lot of diabetes there because of the quanitity of white rice that people eat. We finally switched to brown rice! Meals were often vegies and rice with some chicken or pork. If there was ground beef to be made for pasta, Mony bought the beef and pounded it until it became like ground beef. The heat was the most challenging aspect of our time here (At least the classrooms were air conditioned)- everywhere in the house there were floor and ceiling fans - but during the hot season it was still very, very hot. A shower before bed (sometimes again a quick rinse in the middle of the night), a cold cloth on the head, even a spray bottle to spray water on at night - all helped to some degree. Now about bathrooms for those who have not been in Asia before. Most times the shower head is mounted on the wall and not enclosed, so the whole bathroom becomes the shower - floor and walls are all tiled with a drain in the floor. It's convenient and easy to use. The toilets were western (not squat) with another hose from the wall (not the shower) for cleaning yourself after using the toilet. Now that is something that western cultures should embrace! All tissue goes in a bin, not in the toilet - it's difficult at first to remember after years of putting it directly into the toilet!


Azahar Yoga Studio - Jackie introduced me to this wonderful studio with excellent, friendly, caring instructors. Jackie, Ruchika and I would usually go twice a week - on Saturdays to a Vinyasa Flow class and then on Tuesdays to a Fly Fit class. The Fly Fit class was really fun - there are large slings hung from the ceiling which you use to do many of the traditional yoga moves along with many different ones including aerial and unside down!  


Phnom Penh Sports Club - this is the health club that we went to. In the realm of health clubs it was nothing special but it had many varied machines (most of which worked at any given time), free weights, lots of room, ping pong tables and a great lap pool. It was a quick 5 minute walk from our house so was super convenient, the main drawback was its lack of air conditioning - you could work up a good sweat just standing there! Heidi was the ping pong queen and we had some fun times at the club with her.


Tuk-Tuks and PassApp - we traveled everywhere buy either tuk-tuk or auto richshaw. The tuk-tuk is a motorcycle and trailer for passengers which fits 4 comfortably while the auto rickshaw is a 3 wheeled vehicle powered by CNG of LPG. The vehicles are convenient and there are many so that you never have to wait long. There is an interesting old/new dichotomy with an old style of transportation mixed with an electronic ordering system. You download the PassApp app onto your phone, it knows where you are by GPS, you key in where you want to go, what kind of vehicle you want and it shows all the vehicles near by. One of the vehicles will accept the ride and it tells you how long it will be until they arrive (for example 1 minute 23 seconds) and shows on the map the vehicle approaching. This service is also nice because there is no bargaining - the prices are usually cheaper than vehicles that don't use the app. So convenient!! (Although sometimes the drivers had a hard time reading the map on their phone to see exactly where to go!)


Cafes and Restaurants - Phnom Penh is great because you can get most any kind of food you want - Italian, Mexican, American, Indian, Thai, Vegan... There were so many small cafes tucked away on side streets where you could get a good meal in a lovely atmosphere. Most meals were $6 or less, unless you chose a high-dollar restaurant. Often the cafes were connected with an NGO to help local people, some employed girls taken off the streets or out of the sex-trade industry. There are many NGOs in Cambodia - more than we have seen in any other country - to help in many ways such as education, water sanitation, training, upskilling, tourism, supporting women and children and much more. There is street food all over the city - small restaurants that set up on sidewalks with grilled meat and vegetables, freshly squeezed orange or sugar cane juice. There was one interesting street side restaurant near the school - by day it was a wide sidewalk witrh a mobile moto repair truck and by night it became a full restaurant with tables, stools, meat, seafood, rice and more.


Traffic - we've talked about the traffic before, but until you see it working in action it's hard to wrap your head around! There seems to be about 80% motos (small motorbikes under 150 CC, then the tuk-tuks and auto rickshaws, then cars and commercial trucks. Most cars there are high-end cars, as only the rich can afford them. Everyone drives a moto - girls/boys/women/men, young, old, mothers, fathers... The motos fill every inch of space on the roads weaving in and out, lanes are non-existent, going down the road the wrong way is normal, the few sidewalks there are make extra lanes, making a u-turn in the middle of traffic is common... what is most surprising is that it all works pretty well! There are never horns blown in anger, everyone co-exists and makes way for each other. We have decided that it only works because of  a low-speed environment.


Wedding Tents - roads are closed when a wedding tent is set up for 2-3 days right in the middle of a road. It's a big business as tents, tables, chairs, music, portable kitchens arrive to make the party.

Markets and Grocery Stores - there are local markets everywhere which offer fresh fruits, vegetables, and meat. There is a wide variety of fruits such as dragon fruit, rambutans, mangos, longans, watermelon, jack fruit, durian, 3 varieties of bananas (very small, medium size but fat, and long 'regular' ones), and much more. Then there are markets which include soft good such as clothing and shoes and some are geared to tourists with clothing and souvenirs. The 'Russian Market' (Toul Tom Poung) was close to our house - it is a large enclosed market with narrow isles selling food, fruits, meat, vegies, clothing, silk scarves, DVD's, hardware, moto parts, and every kind of souvenir imaginable. There are also western type grocery stores where you can get most items, just realizing that you have to pay a hefty price to have some of the more familiar food from home! I mean, what would life be without an Oreo now and then!

Fruit smoothies are the best!!
View of area of city where we lived.
Ruchika and Billy outside our house.
Jackfruit growing on a tree.
Local market.
All kinds of food at the market
Ruckika enjoying one of the many cafes.
Rambutan - interesting looking fruit!
Ann at Fly-Fit yoga class.
Upside down!
Nightlife at Riverside.
Indian food.
Trash in the canal.
Wires, wires everywhere!
Everything moves by moto.
All kinds of food!
Making sugarcane juice.
Peeling the sugarcane.
Crowded intersection
French influence
Pop-up street side restaurant.
Wedding tent in the middle of the road.
Petrol for sale.
Drying rice.
Fried bananas
Small petrol station.
Pizza with marijuana!
Horrible traffic coming back from the sea side.
Tuk-tuk driver getting a nap.
We went everywhere by tuk-tuk.
Street side restaurant.
Portable motorbike mechanic station set up on the sidewalk.
Plants ourside our favorite massage parlor.
Fresh coconuts - cut open the top and stick in a straw!
Sewing isle in the Russian Market.
Monks are a common sight.
Delivering ice
A beautiful home
Extra water cooling on an air cooled engine.
Auto rickshaw
Welding shop
Welding shop
At the health club
The last leg of the journey home - waiting for train at Ronkonkoma, NY, USA
  • Home
  • 2025
    • Vieques
    • Costa Rica >
      • Tour Part 1
      • Tour Part 2
      • Our Costa Rica Getaway
  • 2024
    • Canoe Trip
    • Erie Canal Bike Trip Part 1
    • West Coast
    • Erie Canal Bike Trip Part 2
    • Little River
    • All the Rest 2024
  • 2019-2023
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  • 2017-2018
    • Hiking/Biking Sept-Dec >
      • December 2018
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      • October 2018
      • September 2018
    • Moving to Vermont
    • Cambodia >
      • Intro Phnom Penh
      • First Days
      • Temples & Drumming
      • Organic Farming
      • Khmer New Year
      • On the Beach
      • Royal Palace
      • Siem Reap
      • Water Sanitation
      • Teaching
      • Bits and Pieces
    • Super-Blue-Blood Moon
    • Great Allegheny Passage
    • Texas Motorcycle Trip-1
    • Texas Motorcycle Trip-2
    • Short Travel Videos
  • 2014-2016
    • Azerbaijan >
      • Nakhchivan May 2016
      • Quba Apr/May 2016
      • Museums Feb 2016
      • Friends & Gatherings Baku
      • House and Plants
      • Around Baku
      • Qax June 2015
      • Billy's Decade Party
      • Ganja & Goygol Oct 2015
      • Lahij Feb 2015
      • Yanar Dag/Ateshgah
      • Petroglyphs/Mud Volcanoes
      • Oguz, Xal Xal: Oct 2014
      • Absheron Park: Sep 2014
      • First 2 Wks Baku: Aug 2014
    • Turkey >
      • Cappidocia Nov 2015
      • Trekking Lycian Way >
        • Overview
        • Kayaköy
        • Ovacik-Faralya
        • Faralya-Alinca
        • Alinca-Gey
        • Gey-Sidyma-Gey
        • Patara Day 1
        • Patara Day 2
        • Patara Day 3
    • USA >
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      • Summer 2016 >
        • Vermont 2 Trips
        • Long Island, Connecticut
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      • 2 Birthdays: Jan/Feb 2015
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  • 2011-2014
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      • Year End Summary 2013
      • Romantic RoadOct 2013
      • Jan - May 2013
      • Ahr - Blankenheim Oct 12
      • Aug - Dec 2012
      • Trier, Luxembourg: 2012
      • Nov 2011-March 2012
      • Mainz Frankfurt: Feb 2012
      • Windeck: Oct 2011
      • Eifel Park & Ahr: Oct 2011
      • Vineyard Tour 2011
      • First Impressions
    • France: April 2014
    • Netherlands: May 2013
    • Ireland: July 2013
    • X-Country Motorcycle: 2012
    • Paris: Oct 2012
    • Spain: Oct 2012
    • USA >
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      • Motorcycle MA & VT: 2014
      • Mom Memorial: Feb 2014
      • Wedding & Ft Wayne: Feb 2012
      • Greg & Jess Wed: July 2011
      • Summer 2011
  • 2008-2011
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    • Xian, Chengdu, Leshan
    • Yang Shou: Apr 2010
    • An Hui Province: Apr 2009
    • Harbin: Jan 2009
    • Singapore: Dec 2008
    • Nanjing: 2008-2011
    • Habitat Humanity: Nov 2008
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      • Motorcycle Trip: 2010
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    • Rocky SX Daihatsu
    • Honda NightHawk 750cc
    • Nutmeg: 1971 Super Beetle
    • Volvo C70 T5
  • Mom & Dad
  • Seattle & Bellingham