First Few Days in Phnom Penh!

The flight was a long one from Maui to Oahu, then from Oahu to Kansai where I had a 5 hour layover. Then from Kansai to Bangkok where I had another 5 hour layover because my flight got pushed back a couple of hours later. The flight from Bangkok to Phnom Penh was nice and I sat next to a Khmer man and his daughter who live both in Switzerland and Phnom Penh. Nancy and Yasemin met me at the airport and we traveled by tuk tuk back to the house where I unpacked and unwound.

A nice 2 or 3 hour nap later, we went out to dinner at Romday (?), a restaurant/NGO that trains waiters in a nice villa that serves delicious Khmer cuisine. I had Tonle Sap fish Amok, the national dish here, which was yummy! Then we went out for a night on the town to some bars where sleezy old foreigners were taking advantage of poor Cambodian prostitutes. We didn't like the vibe there and went to a different fancy bar and then to a nighclub called Heart of Darkness. It was a hip scene with bumpin' music and good times. After a bit ó drama outside the club, we went home to sleep.

The next day, we just slept in and hung out. Nancy took me to the market and we bought some food and I purchased a new wallet because I don't want to carry around the fancy Coach wallet that Aunty Tina gave me for graduation because nobody accepts credit cards here anyways. It baffles me how they use both dollars and Khmer real for all transactions here even at the grocery stores and stuff. The price comes up in both dollars and real and they give you change in a combination of the two currencies, which can get confusing sometimes >.< Yasemin, Nancy, and I went for a promenade around the park to see the Independence Monument and saw children flying kites and playing ball on the grassy sward. We also went to two Buddhist Temples, or Wats and poked around. Dinner was at a nice little restaurant that had two cute puppies, but during the course of our meal there was a power outage and the whole city went black. We ended up finishing our food by candle light and enjoyed some fresh fruits afterwards. The DVD store across the street was where we purchased the new Harry Potter movie for $2 and we watched it when we got back to the house that evening.

Today was the first official day of work and I took my computer to the repair store where they said it would take two to three days to fix. I came back on a tuk tuk and haggled with the driver for a good five minutes after I got home. From then, I went on a site visit with Sookly and Pagna #1, two of the Cambodians who are working on the project with us. The site was neat at the university and we hung around there taking pictures and failing to get on the roof to take some measurements, but it was okay. It rained a little and when it stopped we came back to the office to have some lunch while Nancy and I ran a couple of errands getting her phone minutes and some new soymilk because the stuff we bought yesterday was pretty gross. In the afternoon I did some CADding until Chidimma from Yale came knocking on our door around 6:30. It was great to see a friend from Yale and I really missed her for the time we've been apart. It's just so strange not to have all our friends so close to us anymore. Chidimma was traveling with two of her Yalie friends from China, Alex and Eric and they were in Phnom Penh just for tonight. They stayed for dinner and we caught up with a nice visit afterwards. Dinner tonight was fantastic as we had the cook come tonight and for $4 per person she cooked up a storm of fabulous dishes including some of the best Amok I've had so far! Now it should be off to bedtime because Yasemin and I are going to try to go to a soup place for breakfast tomorrow morning which means waking up at 6:45!