Posts Tagged ‘phnom penh’
The noodle maker
La Mien noodles are the signature dish at Phnom Penh’s Noodle House. The chef makes them from scratch every time someone orders this dish.
Even though it’s great fun to watch how these noodles are made, the dish itself tastes a little bland. It clearly needs some more spices or sauce.
What I recommend instead are the vegetarian Dim Sum at $ 2.50 and the Red Peanut Curry at $ 3.50 at Noodle House. Both of these are excellent.
Exploring Phnom Penh’s architecture by cyclo
There’s some interesting architecture in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh. Anything from Chinese temples and French colonial buildings to the post-independence works of Vann Molyvann.
Khmer Architecture Tours offers guided tours through the city, that explore and explain some of the most fascinating architectural sights of the city.
I took part in one of these tours today. And even though I’ve been to Phnom Penh numerous times, it was actually the first time I’ve taken a cyclo. I have to say the ride was very pleasant (though probably more for me than for the cyclo driver).
The good thing about the Phnom Penh architecture tours is that you get to see some monuments that are easily overlooked: an old Christian church, for instance, that Cambodian squatters have subdivided into dozens of private dwellings. 
They have built walls and ceilings inside and created living quarters for entire families. Only rarely do you see a pillar or an arch up above, proving that this really once was the interior of a church. Outside, the church is also hardly recognizable any more because additional houses have been pasted on to its outer walls.
The poorer people of the city desparately need living space, so they’ve built add-ons and lean-to’s just about anywhere they could find space. They’ve converted balconies and galleries to extra rooms, forever changing the facades of many buildings. And they’ve built additional rooms and houses in former courtyards and gardens.
That’s understandable from the point of view of those who desperately need a place to live. Yet on the other hand, it’s also disfigured many an architectural monument in Phnom Penh. And some of them may soon be lost forever.
If you’d like to see more of what New Khmer Architecture can look like, you may want to check out this album of architecture photos I took in Phnom Penh in recent years.
Drinking and driving in Phnom Penh
I’m confused. I always thought you weren’t supposed to drink and drive.
But then what’s the message these traffic cops in Phnom Penh are sending out? Their guard house clearly displays an advertisement for beer.
It’s sponsored by Asahi breweries. The company is based in Japan and just trying to get a foot in the door in other Asian countries.
Aaccording to the company website, Asahi’s corporate philosophy is:
The Asahi Breweries Group aims to satisfy its customers with the highest levels of quality and integrity, while contributing to the promotion of healthy living and the enrichment of society worldwide.
Ah, so that’s what all this is about: not drinking and driving, but “…the promotion of healthy living“.
In that case: cheers, officer!
Oktoberfest in Phnom Penh – it’s Munich on the Mekong
I’ve never been to Munich’s Oktoberfest.
Somehow the combination of binge drinking, oom-pah music and big-busted waitresses in dirndl-dresses always failed to intrigue me.
So I was unprepared for what I experienced last night, when I attended the Oktoberfest in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh – of all places.
Imagine an authentic Bavarian band playing German beer-drinking music and Alpine yodelling songs to a crowd largely made up of Asians.
The locals seemed to enjoy it, but most of them didn’t have a clue what the singer was trying to tell them when he repeatedly shouted “oans, zwoa, gsuffa!” (rough translation: drink, drink, drink!).
One thing I loved was how Asia’s Tiger brewery decked local waitresses out in very loose interpretations of Bavarian dirndl dresses.
I don’t know if the fish-net stockings are what a Bavarian matron would wear to church on Sundays…
The food was surprisingly authentic, though. The organisers must have had a tough time trying to find Sauerkraut, Weisswurst (a special kind of Bavarian sausage that is boiled, not grilled) and Apfelstrudel (an Alpine interpretation of apple pie) in Cambodia.
Overall, Phnom Penh’s Oktoberfest was bizarre, but fun. Munich on the Mekong.
And for those in Phnom Penh who can’t get enough of German Gemütlichkeit, there’s good news: the Cambodian capital is home to not one, but two Oktoberfests. One’s at the Cambodiana Hotel, the other at the Sunway.
Christmas in Cambodia
Christmas isn’t exactly a traditional holiday in Cambodia.
95 % of the people here are Buddhists. Only a very small minority are Christians.
But just like the people in many other Asian countries, Cambodians love Christmas lights and decorations, giving gifts and throwing Christmas parties.
Especially young Cambodians seem to enjoy the magic of Christmas (and in Cambodia, almost everyone is young – the median age is 21).
For this new generation, Christmas embodies Western culture and lifestyle.
Decorating frenzy
So in keeping with the holiday spirit, my hotel in Phnom Penh started putting up Christmas decorations at the beginning of this month.
On the first day of their decorating spree, the hotel decorators just installed a Christmas tree in the lobby that lit up at night.
On the second day, they added some wreaths, some stars and more lights.
By the third day, the decorating team had turned the whole lobby into a winter wonderland of lights. I think they must have all taken classes at the Liberace School for Refined Home Decorating.
This week, the hotel team also draped tinsel garlands and red ribbons around the abstract stone sculptures in the lobby – which to my mind only improved the artwork.
And since last night, there’s also a sign in the lobby wishing us all a Happy Hanukah.
I wonder if tonight or tomorrow, we’ll also see a poster wishing Happy Kwanzaa.
I’m sure the handful of Africans and people of African descent in Phnom Penh would appreciate the hotel’s thoughtfulness…
Phnom Penh’s public washroom
One of the most public spaces in Phnom Penh is a large lawn in front of the National Museum.
It’s bordered on its four sides by the museum, the enclosing wall of the royal palace and two rows of shops, offices and restaurants.
And even though this piece of green is smack in the heart of the city, it’s also Phnom Penh’s public washroom.
There are two water hoses on the lawn and any time of day, you’ll find locals making good use of that water.
They’ll step on the lawn, strip down to their underwear and bring out the soap and shampoo.
And after they’ve washed themselves in plain public view, they might even bring out the laundry and take care of that too.
The nice thing is that no one seems to care.
It’s just a part of daily life in Phnom Penh, where not everyone has a sink, a shower or a bathtub at his disposal.
Sunday sunset
The sun sets over Phnom Penh’s National Museum on Sunday, December 7, 2008
How Cambodia fights pedophilia
A high-profile pedophilia trial has just ended in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. Russian businessman Alexander Trofimov was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl.
Trofimov had already been convicted of sexually abusing another underage girl in Cambodia and is currently serving a six-year sentence in this country.
Two things are strange about this trial
For one, Trofimov is in the custody of the Cambodian judiciary. Nevertheless, he was not present in court for the first two days of his trial. And under Cambodian law, this means that he will be allowed a retrial if he requests one.
Why, I wonder, wasn’t this man forced into the courtroom to stand trial?
The other thing that’s bizarre is how Trofimov’s defense argued that he is innocent. According to his lawyers, Trofimov was incapable of sexually abusing the girl because he had been impotent for the past eight years.
As evidence, his lawyer presented a certificate from the Phnom Penh municipal health department. According to the Cambodia Daily newspaper, Phnom Penh Health Director Veng Thai confirmed that he had conducted an erectile dysfunction test on Trofimov in November:
We had two female doctors touch his penis for 30 minutes. … If the penis is normal, it would usually go up. If it is impotent, it would not go up.
This is how the Phnom Penh municipal health department tests patients for erectile dysfunction?
The fact that the Sihanoukville court considered this certificate unreliable and did not allow it as evidence has at least partly restored my confidence in the Cambodian legal system.
Snakes on a bus
When I left Phnom Penh this morning on a bus to Cambodia’s southern beaches, I was looking forward to a quiet, relaxing ride through the Cambodian countryside.
I’d neglected to take the on-board entertainment on such buses into consideration.
For reasons that are beyond me, the bus company chose to treat its guests to “Snakes on a Plane“.
I had failed to catch the beginning of the movie, so I didn’t figure out which one it was until we were quite a bit into the story.
As the story developed, I just thought: how tacky.
Just like those “Airplane” and “Airport” movies of the early 1970′s where you already saw the drama unfolding as the individual characters checked in for their doomed flight.
But this film was clearly not from the 70′s. It seemed pretty new.
After a while, it suddenly dawned on me that this must be the movie that didn’t earn its reputation at the box office, but as an internet phenomenon: “Snakes on a Plane“
What can I say? The movie sucked. It was probably the worst film I’ve seen in years.
The problem was that the bus company had me and everyone else on this bus as a captive audience. There was no way to escape this flick.
I tried looking out the window, but somehow my eyes kept returning to the TV-screen in the front of the bus.
It was like a roadside accident: horrible to see, but you just can’t help looking.
Anyway, I was glad when the DVD player on our bus broke about two thirds into the movie. No way do I want to see the rest of it!
The funny thing was that when I checked into my new hotel here at the beach, there was an interesting piece of art on the wall of my room.
How appropriate.
And sweet dreams tonight.
