One Can of Sugar Cane Juice, Please.

I'm off of work for a week because of the Khmer New Year. I've used my extra time to get to know my new city.

I went to the Soraya Mall. It's about 6 or 7 floors of madness. You know those clothes you are wearing right now? Well, there is a high chance that if you bought them from Gap, A&F, or AE they were sewn together right here in Cambodia (your average worker makes about $60 - $100 a month). Some of those clothes make it to the markets and stores here, for about 10% of what you 'rich' Americans pay for them at home. Clothes, purses, shoes, watches, dvd's, electronics, fake i-pods...The list goes on and on. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited to do Christmas shopping this year!

From there I hitched a ride on the back of a motorbike to the riverside. Side note on the moto drivers: I found a way not to get ripped off---just give them what I think is fair for the ride and walk away before they can say anything. It takes some getting use to, but I think I got the distance:cost ratio figured out. Anyway, I walked around the area located along the Tonle Sap River. Lots of backpackers hang out there. I found a place called Rivside Bistro, on St.148, to relax with a view of the river. Had some iced-coffee, water and a glass of wine for $7.25. A little expensive, but we gotta splurge sometimes, right?

During my walk, I saw an elephant. Tourist were feeding it fruit. I'm sure they paid a pretty penny for that once-in-a-life-time-animal exploitation. Later, the owner of the elephant passed me on the street. Leading his pet down the road to find some more elephant loving tourists that have always dreamed of feeding an elephant fruit on the side of the road in Phnom Penh. I mean, haven't we all had that dream at least once in our lives?

Today I went to the Russian Market, but it was closed for the New Year, so I had my tuk-tuk driver take me to Wat Phnom. There were some celebrations going on there for the New Year. I watched for awhile while this guy played drums on two or three plastic containers, turned over, and people danced. It was fun and they were having a good time. I walked over to the river again, and found a place to grab some lunch/dinner. While I was eating, I absent-mindedly looked to my right at the building next door and I saw a mother chimpanzee (some kind of monkey-like animal, I think it was a chimpanzee) and her three babies walking along the second floor rooftop. Hmmm...

Oh. The best part of all was when I ate an early lunch at a place called Mando. I was looking at the menu. It had pictures of food, then the Khmei word and then the English translation. Picture: Can of Coke. English translation: Sugar cane juice. Geez, when you put it that way, give me 2 cans!!!