The end of war

I don't follow the news as much as I should, so I missed this one. One of the longest-running, bitterly-fought wars in recent memory has apparently come to an end. In a move that will affect virtually every man, woman and child in the world, mortal enemies have made peace.



I bought this at a local supermarket. I'm not sure how this could have happened. I can't imagine Coke and Pepsi both using the same canning plant. You know you're living off the radar, though, when you see things like this.

There isn't a McDonald's in Cambodia. My students have never even heard of it. There are copycat fastfood places like Lucky Burger and BBWorld but the only American fast food chain here is KFC, although there are rumors Burger King is coming.

There isn't a Starbucks here. In fact, it was big news when a Gloria Jean's opened here a few months ago. There are coffee shops aplenty -- I'm sitting in one now! -- but Gloria Jean's is the first American company to set up shop here. In Bangkok, by way of example, there is a Starbuck's approximately every eight feet.

My abiding impression of Bangkok, though, is how many 7-11's there are. You have to see it to believe it. Far more than in any US city. There is an intersection in Silom, the financial district -- where the protests were centered a few months ago -- where there is a 7-11 on all four corners.

There are no copyright laws in Cambodia so shops can freely sell bootleg CDs. Kids walk the streets selling books to tourists that have been photocopied. These are actually impressive operations. Even the color maps and photos inside the books are faithfully reproduced. A Lonely Planet travel guide that would cost you $25 in a bookstore can be bought on the street for three or four dollars.

As I mentioned, KFC is popular here, so popular that it's spawned its own copycats. Someone had the clever idea of opening a Louisiana Fried Chicken here. KFC's lawyers would have the place shut down in about five minutes if they tried to open in the US!

One of the benefits of living in a relatively out-of-the-way country is being relatively beyond the reach of corporate America. In a previous post I wrote about the famous YakDonald's in Kagbeni, Nepal.


You know you're in a remote location when the McDonald's legal machine leaves you alone! While in Nepal you will see North Face gear literally everywhere. Except it's not North Face. There is an official North Face store in Kathmandu, which sells the genuine articles at genuine prices, but the vast majority of it is knockoffs. You can walk down the streets in Kathmandu or Pokhara and see people sitting at sewing machines embroidering the logo onto cheap fleeces, gloves, hats, etc.

On the Annapurna Circuit I spent a night in the North Face lodge in Jagat, which has no affiliation with North Face aside from the faithfully reproduced logo. Which begs the question, why is North Face the knock-off brand of choice? My theory is it's partly name recognition but mostly the simplicity of the logo.


The sans serif font is simple and easy to copy. The geometric design is simple and easy to copy.

I am a dork

The Saturday before Halloween was a big night out in Phnom Penh. Bars and clubs that cater to an expat clientele had parties but few people went out in costume. The girls at my favorite restaurant, Metro, all wore wigs. So did the guys...


Here I am with Ponlok. Normally he is breaking the hearts of tourist girls because he's a fit, good-looking guy who is also happily married with two adorable kids. He didn't break any hearts this night. Except mine, when I saw this photo on facebook!

Afterwards I joined the Metro crew at St Tropez, one of the the more upscale nightclubs in town. One girl showed up in costume. Sort of. She was wearing traditional áo dài, the traditional silk clothes Vietnamese women wear, and a nón lá, the traditional Vietnamese bamboo hat. I don't think a Vietnamese girl wearing Vietnamese clothing qualifies as a costume but, hey, give her points for at least making an effort.

One of my Cambodian friends, Sokim, was modeling the Vietnamese girl's hat for a photo. Kunika and Hengsuch decided they wanted to get in on the action.


You may remember Sokim from a previous post, in which I said she's the most gorgeous girl I have ever seen with my own eyes. Photos don't do her justice. Sure, you can see her perfect bone structure, but you can't get a sense of her poise and elegance.

She's not looking so elegant here. But at least she comes off better than I do. I was sending a text message to a friend making arrangements to meet at another club. Two gorgeous women are pretending to bite the boobs of my dreamgirl and there I am in the background with my nose buried in my celphone.

I am a dork.

ho ho ho

I'm sitting in the airport in Phnom Penh as I type this, waiting for my flight to start boarding. I fly to Seoul, where I will have a 12-hour layover. I've had entire vacations that didn't last that long. Ugh. Part of me thinks it would be fun to take a taxi into the city and explore for a few hours. But more likely I'll find a corner to curl up with a book and watch the minutes crawl by.

I arrive at BWI late Monday night. I'll be in the Balmer area for the holidays. I fly out of Dulles on January 5. I'm looking forward to seeing family and friends, although it will be a bit of a challenge since I will have neither car nor celphone. If you want to see me contact me through email, facebook or call me at my parents' house.

Your eyes do not deceive you

This is an actual photo of nine, count 'em, nine Cambodians on a motorbike. Gotta love the Cambodian child safety seat -- a bucket! I didn't take this photo. The most I have seen is six. I guess I need to look harder.

It was pointed out to me that we can't see what's on the other side, so there could be a whole batch o'baby buckets. I think it's more fun to imagine them holding grandpa like a rolled-up carpet.

Sad day in Cambodia

I'll write more about the Water Festival in another post but I did want to write a short post to let everyone know that I'm OK. I went to the beach for four days so I wasn't even in the city when this happened:

Sad story

The latest tally is 375 dead, trampled or suffocated to death. What a way to go. There was little rescuers could do, so onlookers were forced to watch as people died right in front of their eyes. I expect a somber mood at school tomorrow. To those of you who wrote to check on me, thanks for your concern.

Oktoberfrat

Last weekend I went to an Oktoberfest celebration at the Cambodiana, one of the more luxurious riverfront hotels here. It sounded like fun, a departure from the normal nightlife scene and an opportunity to consume some animal parts. As much as I love the food here I do miss sinking my teeth into a big ol' hunk of cow or pig. I knew there would be German sausages aplenty.

I think every German and Austrian expat was there, as well as most of the older foreign crowd. Translation: Lots of sloppy, old men with bewildered looking young Khmer girls in tow. There are plenty of expat bars here, but you're always aware that you're in a foreign country and different rules apply. I think because there was such a large group of foreigners together in a European-themed setting it meant whatever inhibitions people might normally have were left at the door. It was like 25-year reunion frat party.

The buffet spread was indeed impressive. I figured I would go for a while, mingle, drink my two free beers, eat until I exploded and escape before people started dancing on the tables. No such luck. People were dancing on the tables at 8:30!



I apologize for the poor photo quality. I didn't think to take my camera so I had to use my phone.

One thing I do miss from home is a choice when it comes to beer. There's plenty of beer here but it's mostly standard pale lagers, comparable to Budweiser or Miller Lite. I couldn't bear to watch all the fat, drunken foreigners stumbling into each other, or listen to the ear-splitting music, but at least I could enjoy some good German beer, right?

Here is the beer list, in its entirety:

1) Tiger

Tiger was one of the sponsors. The $18 ticket entitled me to two free drafts. I drink Tiger all the time. It's a perfectly decent beer. Shouldn't there be some real beer at a German Oktoberfest party, though? No hefeweizen, no pils, no doppelbock... sigh.

There was a (cough) German band. Luckily they had a captive audience hellbent on getting trashed and making fools of themselves. The band was bad in a way I've never seen a band be bad before. I think there were a few German songs in there, but it was mostly the same crappy songs you'd hear at a wedding, but set to a "German beat". For those of you with a musical background, this means every song was played to thumping quarter notes on the bass drum. It was historically awful. I knew it was time to go when they broke out the Chicken Dance at 8 pm.

Cambodian cuisine

One question people from home ask me is what do I do for food. Do I cook? Do I eat local food or western food? And so on. I have a small kitchen in my apartment with a single gas burner, but I only use it to heat water for noodles or coffee. Food here is so cheap and so good that it doesn't make sense for me to cook. Back home it's far cheaper to eat at home than go out. Here it's the opposite!

Even at the tourist restaurants on the riverfront it's possible to have a meal and a cocktail for $5 or so. Get away from the tourist areas and go to one of the little sidewalk restaurants and you can eat well for less than a dollar.

People think I'm exaggerating to make a point but I can get an honest-to-goodness meal for less than a dollar here. There's a sidewalk cafe around the corner from my school that I frequent. The owner cooks up a few big pots of soup. You lift the lids, look at what's inside and (if you don't speak Khmer) point at what you want.

This is my favorite soup there. It's a sweet-and-sour sort of affair, with pineapple, tomato, melon, fish and an okra-like vegetable. I get it often but because I use the point-and-smile method of ordering I have no idea what it's called! (Hopefully this will change soon. I start taking Khmer language lessons this week.)


As you can see I get a bowl of soup, rice, a little bag of chili sauce, a cup of jasmine tea and even a plastic spoon for 4,000 riel. That's about 95 cents at the usual conversion rate. It's possible to eat for half that.