First, thanks for all the birthday wishes! It really did not feel like my birthday, maybe because the weather is still quite warm or maybe because I was not at Kip’s, but it was nice to hear from so many people!
No, this isn't really an audition to write for Lonely Planet... unless they are interested. In which case please, Lonely Planet editor or Human Resources person, read on.
I just returned from a three-day language training in Kampong Cham provincial town (each province has a provincial capitol city with the same name, which is usually the most bangin’ city in the province). Kampong Cham is the richest province and the difference was visible almost immediately (Siem Reap is the poorest province in Cambodia). Near the end of the five hour bus ride I began to notice the landscape changing. There were a lot more trees and a lot less rice paddies. Many of the houses were big concrete multiple-story houses, instead of the traditional wooden house on stilts that is the most common form of housing in my province. The city itself had paved roads. Siem Reap just paved one of their main roads hastily since someone important was coming into town and they realized they needed to get their crap together… Kampong Cham also has a beautiful bridge across the Tonle Sap that runs through town. It was built by the Japanese, as most nice looking things in Cambodia are if they aren’t built by the Belgians, and we took a walk across it after training and climbed up an old tower of some sort to get a really nice view of the whole area. The colonial influence is also much heavier in Kampong Cham; you can see a lot of French colonial style buildings.
I was pretty sad to not be able to have Thanksgiving dinner. There was a place doing a traditional Thanksgiving in Siem Reap but we had to be in Kampong Cham Thursday night, and so I couldn’t participate. However, I did have a delicious tofu burger at one of the three western restaurants in town. While I gave up being a vegetarian for my time here, in order to be more culturally assimilated and because vegetarian options are sometimes extremely limited or non-existent, I still appreciate being able to find a good vegetarian meal and the tofu burgers at Mekong Crossing Restaurant in Kampong Cham definitely qualified (no, I’m not getting paid for that little plug). Plus, it was nice to see some other volunteers. We are still not allowed to leave the province for another month, unless on Peace Corps approved travel like for training, so I rarely get to see other volunteers. It has been really weird after spending every waking moment with people for two months and growing to really know and like them, and then being strewn about the country not being able to see them. Soon, though, lockdown will be over and I cannot wait to see some more of the country!
I would definitely want to return to Kampong Cham province. It was just really beautiful and clean and developed. The volunteers there definitely face a different set of issues in some cases than I do, for example students being on the cell phones constantly and riding their motos around instead of being in class. I don’t think any of my students have motos (technically you have to be 18 to drive one but that law, like so many others, seems to be ignored) or flashy cell phones, which probably has to do with the disparity of wealth between the two provinces. It is far less westernized than Siem Reap, but we still saw a fair number of backpackers, most of whom seemed to be French. I am actually somewhat envious of the provincial town. Even though Siem Reap leaves little to be desired in the way of western options for eating, drinking, and replacing things that break or wear out, it is always a little bit of culture shock to go back to the village. The westernized part of the city is so wealthy and busy, and even right across the bridge on the Khmer side of town it is much quieter, the buildings are smaller, and the roads are dusty and unpaved. It has really gotten to the point where by the end of a weekend in Siem Reap I am ready to go back and just lay in my bed or hammock and read! I swear I will have no normal social skills to speak of by the time I am done here…
Side note: I coughed up the cash to get an internet phone and figured out how to hook it up to my laptop as a modem, so I can get online in the village! Look for me on skype.
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