Meg's Trip to Cambodia
November 2006
The Foreign Correspondent's Club, or FCC, has the reputation of being a rather upscale place (think the Broadmoor Hotel in the Springs). It's a big, open restaurant generally frequented by ex-pats.
A shot of the FCC bar. I was told that during the days of the Khmer Rouge, many foreign journalists hid out here to escape the soldiers.
Part of the outside of the FCC, weather and war-worn. The bright yellow color of the buiding is common on most buildings in Phnom Penh. (Guess why I found this city so pretty. ^~) In the background you can see the rooftops of the National Museum.
The view from the FCC Balcony. This is the corner of the street opposite; note the many beer advertisements that are literally EVERYWHERE. On the right you can see the Tonle Sap river.
This group of monks passed by the riverfront and I had to get a couple of pictures. Buddhist monks appear everywhere in Phnom Penh, and they're easy to spot with their bright orange robes.
Note how they all have yellow and orange umbrellas except the guy in the back. Wonder if that means anything?
A pretty little boat on the Tonle Sap.
A typical fishing boat.
Flags of just about every country imaginable are flying all along the riverfront. Cambodia likes to make friends. :)
This is a typical scene outside every restaurant, bar, and store in Phnom Penh: a mass of parked motos, which are driven right up on the sidewalk and parked in a somewhat-organized jumble outside the door.
This is a tuk-tuk, like the one I took to and from the airport. They're colorful little carriages attached to the back of a moto. It costs a lot more, but you feel just a little safer and more secure than hanging on for dear life to the back of a moto. Note: if you pay a moto driver to take you somewhere, you're not supposed to touch him. You have to hold on to the seat beneath you to keep from falling off. Awkward!
Mak goofing off on the little Hello-Kitty themed pink moto belonging to her friend's wife. Don't you think it's her color? >D
Traffic outside the grocery store. You can see at least two motos with three passengers each. I wish I'd gotten more pictures of the traffic, because it's probably the thing that startled me most about the entire trip.
Another traffic shot, this time with a tuk-tuk passing a woman carrying a basket on her head. How she manages to balance that thing I don't know...
The obligatory "look what I'm about to eat!" photo. Actually, I ate mostly Western food while I was there... Hamburgers and sandwiches and the like. But this is a traditional Khmer omelette made with salty fish. It was SO GOOD!!!
The rooftops of the National Museum, as seen from the FCC balcony. It's an absolutely stunning building. Apparently it used to be someone's palace. I kept walking around the place trying to imagine what it must have been like to call such a huge work of art home.
The architecture is so ornate and beautiful, and there are so many fine details. We sat for a while under those pink flowers, which kept raining little petals down on our heads.
The National Museum is built around a central courtyard, with four large koi ponds and a central pagoda. I had to pay them a dollar to let me take pictures.
A closer shot of the statue in the pagoda. I thought it was a Buddha, but other pictures I've seen have labeled it "Yama". Either way, it's gorgeous.
The pond surrounding the statue had Buddhist sayings, spelled out in stones, at the bottom beneath the water. On this side it says "If you want a good rebirth you must liberate from the delusions."
One of the four koi ponds. The koi swimming around in here were longer than my forearm.
This is one of my favorite pictures from Cambodia; a shot of the pagoda and the main museum building from across the courtyard.
I don't think I was supposed to take pictures inside the museum itself, but I didn't realize that until after I'd snapped this one. This was the most incredible room in the whole place; filled with ancient Buddha statues. There was an amazing feeling here, like at any moment the statues might start moving. Creepy, but awe-inspiring.
I visited the East-West International School, where I was offered the possibility of a job starting in August 2007. While I was touring the place I took a couple photos of the kids. This little boy appears to have hurt his eye somehow.
The kids were playing a dancing game, running around and falling down. These are some of the cutest children I have ever seen! In the English class, I had about 20 of them coming up to me and saying very carefully, "Hello, Miss."
At a roof party at Karen and Pooja's house, this was the scene on the table, fairly typical of ex-pat life in Phnom Penh: booze, cigarettes, and Mak's passport which was stolen by the police and recovered via a rather miraculous chain of people-who-knew-people.
From left to right: Karen, Pooja, Brandon, and Mak. Karen is Mak's best friend in Phnom Penh and Pooja's her housemate and business partner. Brandon's Karen's fiance. They are extremely cool people. Pooja designs some amazing clothes!
Chris, a gay sci-fi writer who showed me around and gave me some incredibly valuable advice and information on getting around and functioning in Cambodia. We have a lot in common so we had some really great conversations. He's awesome!
At Elsewhere, which I think was my favorite of all the restaurants we visited, we caught sight of a bunch of bats relaxing under the eaves. At one point I counted more than seven of them.
This is Jax, Chris' sister, relaxing at Elsewhere. She's just as talented and nice as he is, and works in Cambodia as a photographer. She just married a Khmer man who was formerly a Buddhist monk!
We spent a good amount of the afternoon hanging out at Elsewhere so Jax and Mak could get some work done. Mak's legs were still healing from her moto accident a week ago - she was hit by a car.
I got a couple shots of Mak's injuries, though they'd been healing up for quite a while by this point. This was a puncture wound that went several inches deep. She had a pretty impressive bruise around her heel, too.
The scratches on her other leg were bigger and more impressive looking, but actually not as deep. And her ankle was so swollen you could press designs into it like memory foam. X.x