I couldn’t sleep well my first night in my new place. I have two windows in my bedroom, one behind my head and one to my left. I keep the windows open at night for air, but with the curtains closed because I’ve always been paranoid of peeping toms (now I guess I would call them ‘peeping Cambodians’). I’m on the third floor, but my building is really close to its neighbors. There is a large house behind my window and every night I hear, what I can only assume to be some type of bird I’ve never encountered before, calling out, what sounds to me like, ‘buck-a-me, buck-a-me’. You can only imagine what I originally thought it was saying! I woke up at 5am and got ready and left my house at sunrise to walk down to the Star Mart (like Speedway) to get some $1 coffee; well, I opted for the $0.80 coffee, seeing my current financial situation. It took me about 20 minutes each way. Along the way I noticed how early people are out and about here. It was 6am, and already the hustle and bustle of the city was in full swing. People out sweeping the sidewalks in front of their businesses, riding bikes and motorcars to work, and drivers sitting on the side of the rode offering me a ride in their tuk-tuks (two seats, facing each other, covered top on wheels attached to the back of a motorbike) or motorbike-taxis. Of course, I always decline, because I want to walk, but I’m getting tired of saying no thank you so these days I just ignore them, mostly. I got my coffee and walked home. By this time the sun was starting to burst out of the sky and my first sweat of the day began.
I met Sonja at school at 9am. We went to the bank, ANZ (Australian bank) to open my account and then on to the embassy to register so they know I’m here, in case of emergencies or whatnot. Afterwards, she showed me how to get to the post office. Wow! The post office is HUGE! It was build during the French period, as were many of the buildings. As you are driving around the city, there is a mixture of post-war rundown buildings and French-style rundown buildings as well. Here and there, you might see some modern buildings, but I haven’t seen many yet. We drove down the riverside. Two rivers run through Phnom Penh. The Mekong, which starts in Tibet and runs through China and Laos before getting to Cambodia, runs though Phnom Penh and then reverses its course and turns upward into the Tonle Sap River. I believe it’s the only river in the world to do so. I’m planning on taking a boat ride along the river into Vietnam this summer; I think it would be majestic.
Sonja surprised me by taking me to Lucky Salon to get our hair washed and dried. At first I didn’t understand what the big deal was, but I was soon to appreciate the $7 luxury. They washed my hair/massaged my head for about 10 minutes and then sat me in the styling chair and massaged my shoulders (much to my delight) and then dried my hair and styled it. As I was sitting there I noticed some of the rich Cambodian woman around me and thought about how every country has their elite class. What I have noticed so far in Cambodia though is that the rich and the poor live side-by-side, literally. The prime minister’s mansion is just a couple of blocks away food cart owners’ and their bare-foot, sometimes naked, children’s’ habitats. It’s like moving Wright View into Twin Towers (Fairborn reference) or the Projects into Hollywood Hills.
I ended the day at Cafe Sentiment with an iced coffee and free Wi-Fi. I went home around 430pm to eat and fell asleep, exhausted, around 630pm. One fact of life I keep learning over and over again: don’t judge people’s actions because it might be you one day. I thought it funny how my grandparents go to bed at 730pm and wake at 4 or5. Now, I sleep at 6pm and wake up at 430am. By the end of the day, all of my energy has been transferred directly to the Cambodia sun.
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