Tuk Tuk My Friend?!

I'd say Cambodia is one of those countries we didn't know too much about and probably wouldn't have ever considered traveling to...until this trip. 

On Tuesday we left Vietnam and arrived in Phnom Penh after six hours on a non air conditioned bus, two quick visa applications and customs crossing later. 

Once off the bus, were immediately bombarded by people asking us if we wanted a tuk tuk. Smiling and shaking our heads 'no' has become a regular thing these days. Instead we found a coffee shop where Kiel ordered an iced coffee so we could use their wifi. We found directions to our hotel and were on our way.

Phnom Penh is dirty and gritty. It's a city with a rich cultural heritage, yet has an apparent desire to be modern and is continuously developing (we counted about 14 cranes/high rises being built just in one section of the city). Between Vietnam and Cambodia, we've somehow managed to master the crosswalk system, aka playing frogger thus far without getting run over. 

A few things that have surprised us:

We missed/forgot about the Cambodian Genocide from our high school/college history classes. We'll learn more about this atrocity tomorrow at the Choeung Elk Genocidal Center.

A lot of guards just hang outside of what we assume are embassies and ministries, carrying pretty large semi automatic rifles.

Form of money is the Cambodian Riel, but everything is in USD which seems to be the wider form of payment. With that, meals are more expensive compared to what we were paying in Vietnam. 

American music is played in every cafe/restaurant/store we've been in, in actually every country. 

Here no one bothers us to buy something or come into their store/spa/restaurant. Instead there's tuk tuk drivers waiting outside the hotel, every restaurant we come out of, and all along the street asking us if we want a ride. 

That gecko that scurried across the wall as I was going to the bathroom...

The Mekong River...unfortunately it's that polluted.

Pigeons everywhere! And little birds trapped in cages seem to be everywhere too...

We ate at a Mexican restaurant on our first night here and couldn't help but laugh at ourselves. The tacos were fantastic though and between the Spanish speaking Cambodian server (actually she just said "si" and "gracias" a lot) to the Pearl Jam music playing in the background, we forgot where we were for a moment.

Today we enjoyed some Cambodian coffee before lunch, and then spent the afternoon at the rooftop pool at our hotel. Although we are traveling on a budget, we have been fortunate enough to stay at hotels with pretty nice amenities and still within our price range.

Their sign was pretty funny... but I did not post a pic of my falafel burger or Kiel's snapper (both yummy though!)

Got a little sun before the storm clouds came through

Tonight we ate at Mok Mony and tried some traditional Cambodian dishes. We started with marinated beef rolled in betel leaves and each got a Khmer curry for our main dish. The curry was really tasty, although we didn't think it particularly stood out in any way.

On our walk home...but tomorrow we will finally take a tuk tuk, my friend!