March 7, 2009-Welcome Cambodia

We started our day in Kuala Lumpur, said goodbye to the fair city and headed to the airport shortly after lunch. We experienced a short delay as a huge storm rolled in, socking in the airport and drowning the run-way. After a little clean up, we boarded our flight. Just 1 hour and 45 minutes later we were flying over the vastness of Cambodia. Through the airport without any issues, we found a taxi (well they furiously found us), and headed into Phnom Penh city. As we drove into town, we immediately noticed a difference here compared to the other places we have visited on our journey. There is a slower, more relaxed pace of life here but also an obvious and saddening level of poverty. We chose to avoid “backpacker row” and checked into a much less tourist dominated neighborhood. For 28USD we have 2 nights in a hotel room with 2 double beds, hot shower, western toilet*, 70 channel TV, Air-conditioning, Fridge, in addition to friendly staff and security. Following a little freshening-up we hit the streets to find some dinner…
We found ourselves walking around the area blindly without any travel books or city maps to help guide us. *Now, we had done so much research and planning into Thailand and Malaysia before our arrival and everything along the way came to us much easier than we expected so maybe because of this we took the whole travelling thing for granted for a minute. Regardless, we hit the Cambodian Public Bank to pick up some Riel. To our surprise, the bank machine was only offering US denominations for withdrawal…Away we went with American funds in hand looking to scrounge up some food. We noticed some intriguingly bright-lighting in the distance so decided to check it out. We really lucked out as we stumbled upon an official soccer match in the Olympic stadium. As we walked up to the stands we felt more than welcome with countless smiling faces and locals saying hello to us. For 1US dollar (totally overpaying but the smallest cash we had), we grabbed a cold drink and a couple cobs of corn and joined the crowd on the bleachers. The soccer wasn’t the only thing fetching attention at the game. We had a little audience of observers too. An older gentleman finally approached us to ask where we were from. When we answered “Canada” he tried his luck with communicating in French. He basically explained the importance of the soccer match as it had gone into overtime. After the penalty shots and lots of excitement, the home team won 5-2. The friendly gentleman wished us a “Bonsoir” and we soaked up the remainder of the experience as the stadium lights went down for the night. After some more (mainly aimless) wandering we decided to sit down for dinner at “No Problem” bar and restaurant. We were so obviously out of place here that people stood up from their seats to gawk at us from across the room. The only menu the restaurant offered was in Cambodian but luckily one of the hosts spoke some English so he explained that they had rice, noodles, vegetables-to keep things simple we ordered fried noodles with chicken and some fried vegetables. Nearly everyone in the restaurant watched when our food was brought out and we had a crowd of service staff around our table as we began to eat. We felt like we were under a microscope as people were in awe of the 2 foreigners in their Saturday night hotspot providing entertainment for all. Besides the spot light we were in, the service was incredible, the food was great and after a pitcher of draught, a coke, 2 seriously full bellies, and a generous tip, our billed totaled 14USD…unreal. A “Smilemart” (convenience store) was having its grand opening so we wandered in to grab some snacks to take back to our room. The owner was there for the occasion and turns out he is from Ottawa and this is the second store he has opened in the area-*A man with the right idea*. Another shockingly cheap deal there at 9USD for 12 cans of beer, chips, chocolate bar, and a Snapple. Back at our pad we relaxed, watched some tube, and agreed that so far Cambodia has smacked us in the face but also that we are loving EVERY minute.