Over the Thanksgiving 2011 holiday, we traveled to Cambodia. We were expecting a bit of an adventure, but just about everything we did was easy to arrange and pleasant to experience. Taxis, the bus, hotels, restaurants, airports, bathrooms, sites and sights – our trip went surprisingly smoothly. Currency was a little tricky: absolutely every price (not just in tourist shops) was in US dollars, although anyone could pay in Cambodian riel if they had enough on hand. Usually, though, riel were used to give change smaller than a dollar, because U.S. coins were not in circulation.
Our first stop was the capital, Phnom Penh, which is a moderately bustling city with fewer shopping centers, chain stores, and international fast-food restaurants than any other capital city we’d visited.
This was taken from the balcony of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club. At night, the boardwalk is filled with people enjoying a walk, dancing, eating ice cream … The other side of the street is hopping with restaurants and bars. Throughout this area are shops selling local handicrafts or artworks, many of these stores directly benefit, for example, rural women.
This is mostly a collection of old objects, without great amounts of explanation. But the building and many of the artifacts were engaging to contemplate.
The picture above is a collection of lingams and yonis. Some of the lingams have men’s heads carved into them.
I have no pictures, but plenty of memories. Visitors will get more out of the visit by first reading about Cambodian history since World War II and especially 1970-1990. The experience of touring the museum overwhelmed me emotionally. It also brought home the fact that most of the adult Cambodians we encountered have undergone horrible traumas.
Cambodia has a constitutional monarchy – although without the cult of personality seen in Thailand. Tourists can wander around selected parts of the palace grounds.
Indonesian observations 