a southern yankee abroad

I’ve spent the last few days visiting the Cambodian cities of Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville. Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia. Here I visited the killing fields and genocide museum (which you can read about here). In the afternoon, I explored the city for a while on my own and ended up visiting the National Museum of Cambodia. It reminded me of the Met in NYC except much smaller and with only Khmer artifacts. There is a beautiful garden in the middle of the museum, where I spent some time reflecting. I also met an older British man here who was visiting Cambodia on “holiday” (what the Brits call vacation…I’m adopting this phrase!) and he ended up giving me some good life advice!

After meeting back up with my group at the hotel pool, we went to happy hour drinks at F.C.C. (Foreign Correspondent’s Club), which is apparently a well-known ex-pat bar. I really liked the neo-colonial vibe here. The bar featured riveting photography documenting the recent history of Cambodia.  Also, the sunset over the Ton Le Sap River was very nice! After cocktails, we went to dinner at Friends, a local restaurant that supports non-profit work in the city (thanks for the recommendation, DJ!) and then on to a rooftop bar with a great view of the city!

The next day, we traveled to Sihanoukville, which is known as a backpacker’s beach town. The vibe here was very chill.

We spent the first afternoon on Otres Beach, and then took a boat out the next day for snorkeling, swimming, and barbecue on Bamboo Island. While the snorkeling was not as clear as some times I’ve been in Florida and Mexico, it was still very cool to see so many large sea urchins in the crevices of the coral. My favorite part was the boat ride back to Sihanoukville from the island–the water was super choppy and everyone got soaked over and over again!

Alexa’s and my hotel room in Sihanoukville was very…interesting, complete with lizards and an earthworm in the bathroom (I definitely wore my shower shoes) and a door handle that fell off on our last night. Fortunately, the hotel sent a guy to replace the our knob in the middle of the night…quite the adventure.

Now, it is off to Vietnam with the first stop being the Mekong Delta. Cambodia has been both beautiful and heart-breaking. I would love to return to this country at some point in the future. It has definitely made an impression on me.