Week One, Goings on in Phnom Penh

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  Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Sunday, July 6, 2008

This past week lived up to my expectations.  Lots of work followed most importantly by lots of playtime.  The group has been working pretty hard on determining the hard numbers regarding our projects viability and exactly how much we need to fundraise in order to get the project off the ground.  I meanwhile have been assigned the task of maintaining communication open between our New York and Cambodian based teams.  It has proved somewhat of a challenge as email is the only way that we really have been in contact and responses have only been forthcoming from a few of the New York members.  But at the end of day there is always some time to unwind from the hard work and stress of the day, with a stop at the Raffles or a workout/swim and after dinner drinks somewhere in the city.

On Wednesday we lost another member of our Cambodia team as Lucie headed back home to Paris.  This meant that Tuesday night was all Lucie's doing.  At her request (and seconded by me) we went to dinner at a very local restaurant not too far from our hotels.  All eyes were on us as we were the only foreigners in the entire place.  Sheltered by a corrugated aluminum and tarp roof we sat down at a low plastic table with small plastic chairs in the middle of the restaurant.  One tried to ignore the piles of trash pushed under the tables just around our feet.  Of course none of the servers spoke English and had a look of confusion as if they weren't sure if they were going to serve us.  Strangely, they did have an English menu, which gives me the impression that they must get more foreign customers for lunch rather than dinner.  After ordering our dishes we were approached by some people walking around the restaurant carrying trays of delicacies dim sum style.  We were offered snake on a stick, fried grasshoppers, and a few other interesting (but unidentifiable) treats.  I did not recognize any of the famous Cambodian fried tarantula.  The food was delicious and no one got sick afterwards.  I might have to stop by again and maybe even try the snake.

After Jean-Michel suggested that we go to a trivia night at a place called Gym Bar, we found ourselves at a western oriented sports bar complete with multiple big screen TVs and a pool table.  We quickly found out that we were not cut out for the trivia as the questions were heavily oriented to Anglo-Europeans.  Not being up to speed on our rugby facts we headed to the patio to enjoy our drinks and eventually headed home in an underwhelming conclusion to the evening.

Wednesday saw my return to Gym Bar.  After dinner with the guys (now that all the girls except Hilary have left the team I feel like this might be a common recurrence) Alex and I continued on without Emad to catch up with some of Jean-Michel's acquaintances at Gym Bar.  We met Omeed and Issie who were there to see the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.  We watched a few matches played some pool and drank a round or two.   A friendly rivalry sprung up between Omeed and I as the rivalry between our two Bay-area alma matters recreated itself on the pool table.  Alex and I won.

Talking with Issie I realized that I had an unexpected friend in Phnom Penh.  She mentioned that someone named Benny from Stanford was working at the US embassy.  Of course I immediately knew that this was Benny, as in the friend and Pickering Fellow, who graduated a year before me.  After having lost contact with him for a year since he left to a masters program at Princeton, he just happened to be interning this summer in the Phnom Penh embassy.  So on Thursday after a swim at Raffles I managed to contact him and schedule a dinner.  It was nice catching up with a fellow Stanford Alum.  I've been graduated for only about 2-3 weeks and I'm already craving Stanford company!  Unfortunately, Benny reinforced what I already knew to be true, I've just left the best place on earth...sigh.  After dinner we went to catch up with some of his friends who included Omeed and Issie from the night before.  We went to a trivia night again, but this time it was at a bar called the Lazy Gecko and the trivia was American friendly.  It was real fun.  Our group was the largest by far with about 10 people and we still only came in third place...clearly we need an older person on our team to help out with those dated questions.  I met many people that night, Lauren, Amy, McKenzie, and some others, including a girl named Gloria who was traveling through after having been in the DRC for some time.  We bonded over our love for Central Africa and gorilla tracking.

It was a good thing that I didn't stay out too late Thursday night, because I had to be up at 6:30am to accompany Jean-Michel for a conference on inclusive education.  It was boring, but I think Jean-Michel got the contacts we wanted from it.  I did some work during the afternoon and then caught up with the rest of the guys in the evening.  (Hilary was gone to Kep for a few days off with her husband, explaining her absence in most of these events.)  We went to a July 4th party at Issie's apartment.  This being rainy season, it was raining the entire event.  But us crazy Americans stuck it out for two hours eating hot dogs hamburgers and homemade guacamole.  The freedom punch helped us forget the rain.  I spent most of the time talking with Amy and another Stanford alum.  Jess, who overhead a Stanford mention quickly jumped into the conversation.  She graduated '06 and after working two years a Google decided to come to Cambodia and work for year with a small local organization out in the provinces.  She was in Phnom Penh just for the weekend to meet with a friend of hers.  Now with two other Stanfordiens in Phnom Penh, I'm assured of good company.  I was also enjoying some French conversation with two Frenchman, ensuring that the friendship between our two nations was to continue in Lafayette's tradition.  My French wasn't as rusted as I thought

It was a good thing I met Jess, because she was the best dancer of the entire group.  After the freedom punch ran out and just as the rain subsided we all decided to head over to a bar named Elsewhere.  They have a once-a-month expat party on every first Friday.  I was warned to expect a frat-like atmosphere.  That is exactly what it was with bad music bumping on the dance floor and a pool with fully clothed swimmers.  I was enjoying myself on the dance floor with the accompaniment of Amy and Jess.  I think I was on the dance floor for about two hours until I nearly collapsed.  Just as I was ready to head back, Alex convinced Benny and I to stay.  Three tequila shots later and I was back on the dance floor for a second albeit short round.  In the end we ended up staying past 3:30am.  I crashed on my bed the moment I arrived to my hotel room.

This brings me to Saturday.  Unsurprisingly, I woke up at 1pm.  After I got myself together and planned my first real day of sightseeing I finally walked out of the hotel at 2:30pm.  I headed straight for the Royal Palace - the only interesting architecture in all of Phnom Penh.  I took about three hours snapping pictures and walking around the well laid out palace grounds stopping to enter the two main buildings open to the public, the Throne Hall and the Silver Pagoda.  They were both very impressive buildings.  The Throne Hall had many impressive intricate frescos on the ceiling depicting Hindu religious scenes, while the Silver Pagdoa, while more simple had a its own beauty in the solid silver tiles that covered the floor and a well decorated Bossabok done up in gold that housed the Emerald Buddah for which the Silver Pagoda was built.  More impressive than the Emerald Buddah was the 91kilo solid gold statue of Buddah adorned with over 2,000 diamonds that completely overshadowed the Emerald Buddah.  No pictures were allowed in the buildings, so I can't show these things to you, but I hope you get the idea.

After my walk around the complex, I headed out for a walk on the waterfront alongside the Mekong River that flows along the east side of the city.  The area is very crowded and choked with cafes, restaurants, and bars catering to foreign tourists.  Walking up along Sisowath Quay I got to Wat Phnom, Phnom Penh's namesake and the city's oldest and most characteristic landmark.  I took a climb up to take a few pictures.  The temple is not that impressive and rather bland.  But shrouded in trees ontop a hill it provides some nice seclusion from the busy and dirty city below.

Finally, I joined up with the whole team (including Hilary and her husband as they just returned) for dinner at a place called Friends.  The restaurant was created by Friends International as a way to help train street children service skills.  The restaurant is completely run by former street kids who then train other street kids the same skills.  It was a delicious tapas style meal.  After dinner all of us went to a swanky new hotel in Phnom Penh that looks like it belongs in the most trendy New York or Los Angeles neighborhood.  It actually reminded me very much of The Standard in Los Angeles because we went straight to the roof where there was a bar and Jacuzzi.  Le Quay won as the most expensive drink in all of Phnom Penh.

Again the guys headed out for another night of dancing.  This time we headed to Memphis, but quickly changed locales for the Foreign Correspondant's Club (FCC) where there was a hot latin music party with a live band.  We ran into all the same girls as the night before and I picked up where I left off dancing with Lauren and Jess.  It was a great night.  This night ended much earlier than the night before as we headed home around 1:30am.  But once again, Alex always eager to keep the night alive, made sure we closed the bar down.  We were the last people in the bar slowly downing some beers.

And now its Sunday.  I'll be going to a July 4th party at the US embassy.  Every American in Phnom Penh is expected to be there.  It should be fun.  Then its back to work.  Whew, this was a long one!

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The Mekong River	The National Museum	The Palace Grounds	The Silver Pagoda
Tuk Tuking Around	Wat Phnom

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