In the morning I elected to go for a walk to the river about 1.5 km from the hotel This walk was quite the adventure. All the sidewalks of the big streets are parked full with cars, vendors and Tuk Tuks, so we were usually forced to walk on the road. The road is crazy with (luxury) cars, motorcycles and Tuk Tuks. Tuk Tuks are motorcycles with a one axle carriage mounted to them that takes four people. There are few traffic lights and circles. Mostly traffic just weaves in and out of each other. As we found: you just have to cross and people go around you.
We eventually made it to the riverside, which was OK. There was construction going on in one place along the bank and the rest is kind of dreary. Overall the city is smelly and busy. We dropped by a few hotels on the way in order to decide if we wanted to stay in ours. There were nicer ones that had no pool or others that did not have twin rooms available, so we decided to stay in the one we were at.
We took a Tuk Tuk to the National Museum, which featured Cambodian sculptures and an interesting exhibit about women in villages. I don't remember much of it. We met two college students, who sold us tickets to a show to be performed that evening. From the museum we went to the Central Market, a covered slightly upscale market that sells jewelry among others and to the Olympic Market, where I bought durian, the quality of which disappointed me.
That evening we say the show run by a 120 person dance troupe including technicians, committed to paying its staff a living wage called Plae Pok of the Cambodian Living Arts. Plae Pok intends to rebuild Cambodian performing arts: the performers were in their low twenties. The dancers broken into two groups: three women were Apsara dancers: the traditional slow dance with the curved fingers using poses found on temple walls. And six men, six women that did village dances that were about fertility, harvest and rain.
Dinner was at Friends restaurant. Friends is a charity directed at slums. They train people there how to improve their lives. They run a restaurant and shop to raise funds and to train people in waiting tables and shop. We enjoyed the food very much as it was authentic Cambodian. Our favorite is the rice soup, which I did not find there: perhaps too mundane!
I started to make a connection with the hotel front desk staff. All young kids in their late teens or low twenties. Three women ran the day shift, three men the night shift. They work six days per week. I tried to remember their names and keep them apart, which I found quite hard. So much for my memory. At one point, we tried to figure out where Saitha's village was and the guys showed how proficient they were online.
The hotel was a large past-glory place. It had the expected amenities, but breakfast was mediocre and the carpets and pool were worn. But its location was good, the price OK, the AC and pool worked, so we stayed.
The hotel was located in the middle of a popular place for dining. We were surrounded by boutique hotels and small restaurants. I used Trip Advisor to select restaurants as well as my responsible traveling guidebook.The restaurants were often not Khmer, so we often left there to find more authentic food.
We arrived at the airport the evening before. The most noted thing about the airport is that Max and Saitha were automatically granted permanent visas and work permits to Cambodia due to their Cambodian birth. An official spoke to each of them and encouraged them to learn the language, to be proud of their country and to come often. I got to pay $32 for a one month visa and I am not allowed to work, so the official just grinned at me.
We got SIM cards at the airport and two more when Max and Martha arrived. So communication with each other and with people in Cambodia has been easy and inexpensive. No complaints there. Data works well in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. All the hotels and restaurants are in Booking.com, Agoda.com and Trip Advisor.com, so it is easy to book and to select restaurants.
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