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| Luggage and family in one tuktuk |
We arrived in Phnom Penh (PP), Cambodia, a
couple of weeks ago. We went straight to Divon's house and before He and
Channei could understand what had hit them, we declared ourselves squatters and
moved them out.
Well this isn’t entirely true, but not
far from it either. We arrived on Wednesday and they left for a few days to Singapore
on Sunday. - How many of you could survive with a family of 5 squatters stuck in
your house??
Channei came back a few days before
Divon and she made the mistake of making us feel so at home that we stayed even
longer than we'd initially planned.
So a bit about Phnom Penh and
Cambodia:
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| 2 monks walking outside the kings palace |
Cambodia had a terrible civil war
which lasted from the rise of the Khmer rouge in the early 70s up until the
late 90's. During this time about a quarter of the population lost their lives.
Some were murdered in the fights or in the deadly dungeons of the Khmer rouge, others died of disease due to the lack of medicine, because of the crazy ideals
the Khmer rouge had. The Khmer rouge dreamed of regaining the power the Khmer
empire once had and thought that Cambodia out to be self-sufficient. They also
thought that all people should return to farming so all those in the city were
murdered or kicked out. Anybody wealthy or educated was in great danger and all
importing of goods was stopped. This resulted in lack of medication, food and
energy => lots of dead people.
After the war, people returned to
PP and just started to move into the empty houses – finders keepers. So
today you have very bizarre divisions of houses in the capital.
Another thing
you notice, or may I say – the first thing you notice when arriving in Cambodia
is that there is no law on the road. Now you may say that this is true for many
countries – Greece, India, Italy, etc… But when I say no law, I mean NO LAW. Every vehicle on the road has an insignificant probability of going at any one
of the 360 degrees. There is of course a greater probability that the vehicle
will continue in its current direction, but as I said – it's not guaranteed. If
the car before you is too slow you can choose between waiting patiently, overtaking
in the opposite lane, going on to the pavement or doing a u-turn. All are
almost equally probable.
As we heard more and more about
Cambodia, I understood that the roads, were simply an example of the current
situation of the country. This is a great place to visit in order to feel good
about your own country, because this is really as bad as it gets.
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| The garbage collector and his daughter |
Here there is
really no faith in the Government and as you start hearing about the country,
you understand that any one who has any power uses it for his own good. The
country doesn't pay any of its workers a salary that can support them, so the
only reason to come to work in the public system is for the after work
opportunities your job provides. This is true from the prime minister, through
the judges, police and down to the garbage collectors (who have first choice of
the garbage that is thrown out).
There are endless examples of little
things that are unbelievable.
To name a few:
1. If you want to build on top of your house in Phnom Penh
(the Capital), all you need is that none of your neighbors complain. There are
no rules or guidelines as to what you need to do.
2. If you have a company in Cambodia and you want to have
a legal agreement with another company, chances are that in the agreement you
will both state that in case of dispute you will go to the Singapore courts.
3. There is no posting service in the country. Only private couriers.
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| I'm singing and dancing in the rain |
But after that long introduction,
Phnom Penh is a very nice Capital. Most of the buildings are no more that 3-5
stories high, this lets in the air and the light. The weather is humid and hot this time of year and there is usually an afternoon shower to break the heat.
The people are exceptionally
nice and go out of their way to help.
Prices are quite cheap, though unless you are in a branded shop all
prices will be topped up for a tourist. There is a lovely river front to walk
on. There are good restaurants, some parks, a king's palace, an interesting
Museum, many markets and some malls.
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| The Museum |
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| We tried the local 'do it yourself' soup. The ingredients are on the conveyor belt. |
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| Look carefully at the food stand in the mall |
The water front:
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| The river front |
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| Checkout the air tank |
We found many more activities for the girls:
Bowling, a 3D movie at the cinema,
bumper cars, wall climbing and aerobics on the water front.
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| Who's prepared to go up these stairs? |
We even visited Beit Chabad for first night of Sukot.
We found an amazing ice cream (blue
pumpkin) that even has some cool sorbet (coconut, peanuts and all the standard
fruit) flavors.
But best of all, was having a house.
It was great, after 2 months of staying at hotels to be in a house. And Divon and
Channei's house is a wonderful place to be! Their hospitality was admirable
(did I say that I could never survive my family as a host). They made us feel
so welcome, the location is smack in the middle and we had a whole floor to
ourselves. We could finally cook and my girls can cook! Every time Galia made a meal there
was fighting on who cooks what… We had vegies in the oven and pasta, tuna salad
and egg salad and most missed – a real Israeli salad with olive oil and lots of
lemon. This was really great!
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| The Ceremony |
On our last day in PP Channei invited us to join her family for a visit to their Pagoda. Channei explained that the Cambodian's religion is a mixture of Buddhism with the ancient spirits. So a lot of their festivals are left overs of the spirit world. This festival is to respect the dead. Channei's sister picked us up with a minivan at 7 am and the 12 of us set out: Channie's parents, her sister + 2 children, Channei and Divon and the 5 of us. After about 45 minutes drive (including 2 ferries) we arrived at the pagoda. There was a short ceremony, where a lot of presents (food, sweets, fruit and shawls) were given to the monks and the local congregation.
After that we continued to a nice spot for a picnic and rest.
- What a wonderful day!
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| The Pagoda |
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| On the Mekong |
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| Channei |
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| Cow wash |
PP is actually the center of Cambodia. The way to travel Cambodia is like a star, having PP in the center. So PP will be used as a base in the coming weeks as we travel Cambodia.
Tomorrow we leave for Siem Reap to visit the heart of the Khmer Empire - 'Angkor Wat'.
Our stay in PP allowed us to have a routine. The girls could study, Galia and I could do more yoga, a bit of cooking... yes, we are ready to settle down for a while, but we will have to wait a little longer.
Statues that at any other place on earth I'd spend minutes admiring are skipped
due to the lack of time. And the things that I do spend a few minutes admiring,
I could spend a day in any other circumstance (other = not coming here with my
kids). On the first day we went to 'only' 3 temples. We started at 8:00 and
finished at 18:00 and on the way found out that there is nothing worse than
eating at the world's biggest tourist trap. 
The 2nd day was a little shorter; we took 2 tandem bicycles (one
with a baby chair) and spent the day on them. This day we only went to 2
temples, but aside from 'Angkor Wat' they are the 2 most visited temples (Bayon
and pre-pun) in the area. We took a guide for this day and it was wonderful.
The tour was very informative and we learnt a lot and touring with the bicycle
was a lot of fun too!
This temple was built in the 12th century and
was never really abandoned. Even after the fall of the Khmer empire, monks
stayed here and kept on worshiping Buddha. Some of the sculptures still have
their original red coloring on them, there is even one wooden beam left from
that era. 
