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First Days in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

A 14 hour flight on an ENORMOUS Airbus A380 (DOUBLE DECK, wide body) took us to Seoul, Korea to one of the most upscale airports in the world. The airport is huge, new, quiet, and has a million plants, flowers, and trees throughout. Seems strange to think that all this modernity is right next to North Korea. A smaller Airbus took us 6 more hours to arrive in Phnom Penh where we entered the 'Asian lack of lines' to all crowd up to the counter to get our entry visa. The process was actually not too bad and within 30 minutes we had our visa, bags and headed out to find our contact.  The 'Conversations with Foreigners' organization had arranged a pickup for us with one of their staff members and it always makes us feel important to be met by someone holding a sign with our names on it! Our first surprise was to be chauffeured to our guest house by Tuk-Tuk  which is a small carriage pulled by motorbike, which are common throughout the city. It was a great way to get right into the local culture :) Another memory of our late night arrival was the half moon over our heads. It was not tilted to the side like we are used to. It was exactly cut in half with the upper half lit up and the bottom half dark.

We had arranged to come 5 days before the orientation started so that we had some time to adjust to the time change, get to know the city and local area, and try to become somewhat used to the heat (temps of 90's in the day, 70's at night and it's still in the dry season.) So, how to describe Phnom Penh.... chaotic, loud, exotic, growing, troubled history, looking toward the future, poor, rich, expats, locals, temples, rivers, monks, markets, street food, upscale restaurants, garbage, aid workers, tourists, bundles of wires hanging from poles, WIFI everywhere, massages, human trafficking, Buddhist shrines, delicious food, ancient, new... I guess it's a blend of everything! We've already had 2 massages and at $7 a pop I'm sure we'll be getting lots more. The food has been varied, delicious and inexpensive - you can get any kind - Thai, Indian, Khmer, Italian, British, American...we even saw a place that advertised itself as a NY Deli.

The traffic is really interesting - you know how fish swim in schools with no real boundaries or direction but don't bump into one another? - traffic is kind of like that. There are many more motorbikes and tuk-tuks than there are cars and no real lanes on roads (except for the major streets which have a large concrete barrier down the center of the road to try and keep drivers on their own side and curb some of the aberrant driving habits), the motorbikes and tuk-tuks swarm around the cars, on the sidewalks (in the few places that have sidewalks), cross in front of one another, drive facing oncoming traffic, young girls maneuver the bikes as well as any of the boys/men, families travel by motorbike with all combinations of parents/children - some helmeted many not, also expats on motorbikes, AND it all seems to work!!! People watch out for one another, you never hear a horn in anger, and somehow it all blends together. Miraculous for a western mind used to strict rules, lanes, and road rage!

​A few odd facts: We sleep under mosquito nets - dengue fever is a problem here. We learned to count to 5, then 6 = 5+1, 7=5+2 etc. to 10. Then 11=10+1... 16=10+5+1... The moon when we arrived was very strange to us - it was directly overhead with the half pie on the bottom instead of on the side. We joined a health club where we can workout and swim - however there is no aircon in the club, so talk about sweat!!

Just click on any photo below to see a larger image and then use your arrows to advance.

Seoul Airport
Aerial storybook in airport
One of many children's areas in airport
Tuk-Tuk
Mekong River
Boat cruises on the Mekong
World Toilet Association???
Tourist district along the river
Royal Palace
Wires everywhere!
Lovely doorway
Us by a friendly lion
Selling gasoline
Garbage in the canal
Orange clad monks abound
Indian food - yum!
Everything can travel by motorbike
Motorbike family
Russian Market
Short traffic video from our tuk-tuk - relatively tame to some of what we've seen!