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Royal Palace

Phnom Penh in photos

22 April 2015 by Nathalie Abejero 5 Comments

The first experiences in this charming little Kingdom of Wonder are a full assault on the senses, despite regular travel outside comfort zones. Our photo archive is bursting with what was once so unique and interesting — market scenes, street sights, exotic fruits. But after many years of working and living here, these scenes reduce to mundane.

Thanks to the gang at the Multicultural Kid Blogs, however, I can filter through our images with fresh eyes. In this series, bloggers around the world give a tour of their neighborhood and town. What does a local playground look like in Astana, Kazakhstan, or how about a school in Izhevsk, Russia? It’s great for kids to see such differences in our daily lives around the world and yet, how much of it is so similar.

Notwithstanding the cultural ramifications of a tragic history, Cambodia is a fascinating destination — for its friendly people and curious embrace of Westerners. Here below are our stomping grounds around this adopted city of Phnom Penh.

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Local school Our kids play here regularly as it’s nearby. It’s usually packed with Khmer and Vietnamese families and kids. Our favorite thing about it besides the people there is the elephant slide. Public schools across the country are built in a similar style — long buildings up to three storeys tall with large rooms that accommodate around 30 children. The grounds have two or three of these buildings, painted the same color yellow, with an open courtyard in the middle. Their school bell is an old ammunition shell. This particular facility is supported by Enfants d’Asie, which shelters orphans and children either on the grounds or on a daycare basis. Its ceilings are home to roosting bats, but despite that, the rooms are tidy and clean. This and other public schools tend to be open so the community can use the grounds for exercise and recreation when classes aren’t in session.

Enfants d’Asie ASPECAEnfants d’Asie ASPECA classroomElephant jungle gym

Public playground Over the past 10 years, a municipal beautification project has turned the wide boulevards and grounds in the country’s provincial capitals into colorful play spaces, complete with exercise stations and/or playground structures.

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Local Transport It’s the start of the rainy season here, and rumok-motos (below) are a sturdy mode of transport on the muddy secondary and tertiary roads. It takes passengers for ~500Riel (US$0.125) along its routes to and from the markets.

Tuk tuks are common in the cities. There’s little elevation in the area surrounding Phnom Penh, so it’s relatively easy for motorbikes to haul passengers around in these. They get converted to mobile vendors (pizza, coffee, etc) for locally unique attractions.

Motorbikes are also popular. People can pick up moto-taxis on street corners or by flagging one down on the street. It’s a cheap set of wheels for a family starting out, and only recently is the government beginning to crack down on overloading them with passengers or cargo. (I think the most people I’ve seen on one was 8 — 5 adults and 3 small children!).

Cambodia-transport

Markets They’re everywhere, and they have it all — produce, eggs, meats, seafood. Keep those eyes peeled for easy to spot animals from endangered species, mixed into the piles on offer.

Take a break for an iced coffee or small snack. This woman makes the tastiest iced coffee! — and for 2000riel (US$0.50)! At the end of the day, have it with a shot of Bailey’s. Ohhh heaven.

Collage EatingCollage Dry marketCollage wet market

Check out those brilliant rambutans she’s selling; they are in season now. My son can eat several kilograms of this fruit in one sitting, which is great because it’s an antioxidant powerhouse that rivals pomegranates and acai. Here they are opened up. It is juicy when ripe, can be both mildly sweet and sour, with a bit of acidic aftertaste. A small piece of bark always gets stuck to the meat, but it doesn’t affect the taste.

Collage rambutan

Elsewhere around the city, produce vendors cluster in shaded areas. Haggling is a sport, but it’s only the start of your purchase; selecting the sweetest out of a pile of fruit that look similarly tasty is not a simple task. Fruit that are weighing their trees or bushes down are picked all at once and stored in dark cool corners of the house, wrapped in newspaper. They’re put on the table out front for sale as they ripen.

Collage roadside

Street scenes We frequent the riverside, where our Khmer/Vietnamese friends own an English Pub. It is a tourist hub, and a draw for many young Khmers, for the bustle of activity. Need some Happy Pizza (weed topping)? Want to exercise? Have a drink? Chow on some local delicacies such as fried insects (tarantula is a favorite) or fertilized duck egg? This is the place to be. Head over to Phnom Penh at night for some night time scenes. Other iconic sights include coconut sellers and meal vendors.

tarantulaCollage Street Vendors

Weddings Reception halls are a recent concept, and because the Chinese shop houses are not laid out for parties, these makeshift tents spill out to the street for weddings. Seeing these get assembled brings on a good groan from foreigners; the regular and frequent pop up nature of these congestion points can be aggravating (not to mention the music turned up past the capacity of the 16 speakers these tents come with!). Apart from that, the rituals of the traditional three day Khmer wedding is a study in this region’s culture and legends.

Collage wedding

Rapid modernization Safety is a luxury for workers in an economy that’s eagerly modernizing. Check out this guy outside the fifth (fourth) floor window without contraptions to prevent injury from above or to avert falls.

This is the case for local builders. Phnom Penh now has several high-rises, the tallest of which is Vattanac Tower at 39 storeys — it is the one that looks like an Angry Bird in the skyline. They (thankfully) commission development firms abroad for these, and for the most part they do observe international safety standards.

Danger Pay?

Below are skyline views of the city. It is a small city, comparatively, but sprawling. I can’t quite capture the sheer number of construction around the city. Developers are eyeing the prime real estate of the riversides (this city sits on the confluence of two major rivers, the Mekong and the Tonle Sap). Skyline mergedLooking North

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Check out at all the other great destinations we have been and will be discovering, on thepiripirilexicon.com!

Show me your neighbourhood around the world

Check for updates on Twitter with @pirilexicon or #worldneighbourhood #worldneighborhood

 

 

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: @pirilexicon, #worldneighborhood, #worldneighbourhood, ASPACA, Enfants d'Asie, food, market, playground, Royal Palace, school

Escaping a Mekong cityscape for a slice of rural life

10 March 2015 by Nathalie Abejero 21 Comments

Welcome to the March 2015 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Day in the Life

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have given us a special glimpse into their everyday.

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Escaping the heady concrete jungle of Phnom Penh every once in a while is a necessity for sanity’s sake. Most people take off for the coast on a day or weekend trip, or relax for a few hours in any one of the resorts that now dot the outer sprawl of the city. Last weekend, we visited a friend across the river.

Our oldest has settled into a reasonable sleep cycle (yey!), but our younger one still wakes up at the crack of dawn (groan). Naturally that means we’re all up. Time to open up the house to get air flow and, it being a tropical climate, on weekends the kids will sometimes take their shower outside and that ends up in all-out water play.

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Most expatriates have motorbikes or cars, but we like to use tuk tuks within city limits. Ten years ago vehicles were rare and most streets in the capital were unpaved. But now the congestion makes tuk tuks rides less pleasant due to emissions (unregulated), road rage (most people never properly learned how to drive and there are essentially no road rules), and the right of way afforded by type of vehicle (the post-conflict influx of large amounts of aid ensured that progress leans to the well-connected. Today Cambodia boasts a very high number of luxury vehicles per capita, particularly Lexus, and they drive like they own the roads).

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The city built many outdoor play and recreation spaces, which the kids enjoy in the mornings before the heat sets in. Large recreational spaces are popular, and replicated in the provincial capitals which are all situated by rivers. Competitions are held every year for the most attractive riverside, with the winning municipality getting more funds for beautification.

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Coconuts are almost a daily dietary requirement in this tropical heat. It’s nutrient-dense, great for hydration and cheap. These guys pushing loads of coconuts around the city and charge anywhere from 1500-2500Riel (US$0.37-0.62) each.

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The end of the rains when temperatures drop is peak wedding season, disrupting life and traffic everywhere. Like elsewhere, they’re elaborate. Reception halls are a fairly recent concept, and because urban homes tend to be Chinese shop house style (long but narrow), these one- to three-day affairs are usually held in a makeshift “wedding hall” that spill out onto the streets just outside the bride’s home. It’s often a drag if these affairs pop up near the house – because of the noise (chanting starts at 5am!) and backed-up traffic.

14012010091 Khmer Street Wedding sm

I think the National Museum is the most beautiful building in the city, with architecture that is uniquely Khmer (and from which evolved the Thai style). Unfortunately as with any city, these elements from architectural tradition are lost in the race to modernize. A friend lives in a flat overlooking the museum, and for this view alone it’s always a treat to visit him.

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The next most beautiful structures in the country are those in the Royal Palace. In this picture is the Moonlight Pavilion (ព្រះទីន័ងច័ន្ទឆាយា or Preah Thineang Chan Chhaya). It faces the confluence of the Tonle Sap and Mekong River, and it serves as a stage for classical dance, or as a viewing platform when there are events outside the palace grounds or on the river. (Further down this post is a photo of that pavilion lit up at night.)

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Today we were invited to a friend’s house across the river (that’s Phnom Penh in the background). The river crossing takes us past lots of boats, some of which are the homes of the families who trawl for fish. These communities have been displaced repeatedly, as each tract of land they dock to gets developed.

20150222_110138 smWorking into the eveningColorful Cham boat

Our friend found a house for sale in another province; she bought it, then had it taken apart and rebuilt on her property using the same materials and design of the original home. Inside, her husband’s artwork is on display across the walls. The house is traditional in all aspects except the bar and furniture.

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My husband likes to walk around the neighborhoods taking photos, and this is the general reaction to him, below. What is this barang (foreigner) looking at?? Of course, what’s considered typical for them is new and interesting to us – just like the laptop is an everyday fixture for us while the village grandma is transfixed. The 3rd photo below is the traditional way of making textiles, using a loom. Depending on the quality and complexity of design, it can take up to a month for one person (almost always a woman) to make a piece of fabric ~2m x 1m. These will sell in the local markets for around US$25-60.

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Cambodia fortunately doesn’t suffer the natural disasters its neighbors face seasonally. There are no earthquakes, tornadoes, nearby volcanoes, tsunamis etc. But during the rains this largely flat country is prone to flooding. So houses are raised on stilts. The space below has multiple uses: farm animals can be fed here, then the area can be used for cooking, sharing meals or napping in the hammocks, and at night the farm animals come back for shelter.

Kratie - Cambodia house

The kids get sugar cane juice before boarding the vessel to head back across the river to Phnom Penh. From this side of the river is a close-up view of the floating villages, and the slow launch of our boat lets the curious watch a slice of life in this often-displaced community.

20150222_110929 sm20150222_110013 smFloating village on the Mekong

Back in Phnom Penh we’re dropped off on the riverside where we take the kids for a walk. Every evening vendors of all manner line the streets (selling fried insects, fruits, balloons, popcorn, kites, etc). Sundowners by the river with a coconut or a nice cocktail, taking in the bustling scenery, are popular. Exercise groups converge here when the sun goes down. Joining an aerobics “class”, moving to modern dance hits, costs ~2000Riel (US$0.50).

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Finally, it’s time for a drink. Cambodia is a popular destination for travelers hitting Southeast Asia, and this week it’s an old friend from college joining us for a drink while the kids run amok. Luckily in this part of the world, it’s the norm to lend helpful hands and watchful eyes on all little ones, regardless whose kids they are. Asia is a fantastic region for families for this cultural fondness for children. It’s hard to imagine things any other way, until we spend time in the US on holiday where the environment for parents with children in tow seems comparatively hostile!

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On the way home, we pass again the more common scenes at night.. the Royal Palace, the National Museum, old colonial mansions. Just outside these compounds, cyclo drivers tuck in for the night.

Royal Palace at nightRoyal Palace at nightNational Museum at night in Phnom PenhColonial Building at night in Phnom PenhCyclos rounded up for the night at National Museum in Phnom Penh

Home! Of course, even if we’ve already eaten, and even if they’re clearly spent after a long day, the kids never fail to plead hunger so they can stay up just a little bit longer..

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Carnival of Natural Parenting -- Hobo Mama and Code Name: MamaVisit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

  • A Day as Mama and Data Manager — Becca at The Earthling’s Handbook explains what she actually does as data manager of a social science research study, as well as Mama to a baby and a fourth-grader.
  • Pictures of a Day — A photo montage of a typical day in the life of Life Breath Present! You can see how she wakes up and spends her time in quiet, to Baby Boy sleeping at dinner, making natural products, and so much more!
  • Escaping a Mekong cityscape for a slice of rural life — It’s often necessary for Nathalie of Kampuchea Crossings to escape the heady concrete jungle that Phnom Penh is rapidly becoming, for the calmer environment of rural life.
  • Community-schooling — Dionna at Code Name: Mama and her family don’t *home*school, they *community* school!
  • A day in the Life in La Yacata — Read how Survivor and her family at Surviving Mexico Adventures and Disasters spend their Sundays off-grid in rural central Mexico.
  • Day in the Life of the Cole Family — Stoneageparent details the everyday life of her family through twelve photos taken over twelve hours
  • The Days Are Just Packed — Holly at Leaves of Lavender talks about the beauty and simplicity of daily life with a toddler.
  • A Day In The Life of a Heavily Pregnant Naturally Parenting Mama — At 37 weeks pregnant, Sam Vickery of Love Parenting shares her current reality as she naturally parents her four-year-old and awaits her sweet baby.
  • My Life in Pictures on a Random Day — Donna at Eco-Mothering captures a random winter day in Rhode Island through a series of snapshots. What seemed boring at first made her smile in the end.
  • How One Book Inspired Our Whole Day: A Day in the Life — How to plan the whole day with a toddler after reading one book together from Rachael at B is for Bookworm.
  • A day in the life of an unschooling, work-at-home family — Lauren at Hobo Mama shares a picture journey through a typical day with three little homeschooling boys.
  • Day in the Life of a Toddler — From mess making to cleaning up to trying new things, All Natural Katie shows the life of a toddler.
  • Things I have done today (and every other day for the past seven years) — Marija Smits shares what a ‘normal’ day looks like in her crazy world of kids, writing, creativity and household chores!
  • Just Another Wednesday — Lactating Girl at The Adventures of Lactating Girl shares a glimpse into a typical Wednesday in her family’s life.
  • Day in the Life — Dr Sarah at Good Enough Mum gives us glimpses of her life as a British GP and mum.
  • Our days, these days — Dietary restrictions and health issues take a lot of time for Jessica Claire at Crunchy-Chewy Mama, but she still follows her passions and tries to show up for her kids.
  • A (Typical) Day in Our Life — ANonyMous at Radical Ramblings describes a typical day with two kids, eight cats and two dogs.

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: cyclo, mekong, Mekong River, National Museum, Phnom Penh, Royal Palace

Sunset on the Mekong

18 September 2009 by Nathalie Abejero

sunset on the confluence of Mekong and Tonle Sap Rivers

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a sunset here. After the brief lull in the rains last month, September stormed in with brilliant downpours and the energy-sapping intermittent drizzling all day long. In some provinces these downpours made up for the drought. Unfortunately there was so much sudden deluge that up to 2m have been recorded in some villages around the country, and flash floods have taken about a dozen lives.

This photo above of the Phnom Penh skyline was taken from the peninsula before the rainy season started. That is the royal palace and royal viewing stage on the riverfront (for the November boat races during the Water Festival, or Bon Om Touk). [Read more…] about Sunset on the Mekong

Filed Under: Travels Tagged With: Cambodia, Mekong River, Phnom Penh, Royal Palace, sunset, Tonlé Sap River

Things to See at Night in Phnom Penh

13 October 2007 by Nathalie Abejero 4 Comments

Back home the great outdoors is cast in a peaceful sheen after a good snow. Here in Phnom Penh the night-time glow of a few streetlights or the occasional passing vehicle blurs the rough edges. From K Kelly’s portfolio:



Views of Sisowath Quay and the Tonle Sap River from the top of FCC, a bar-restaurant on the river. River-side seats at the top floor of this colonial-style establishment is a good place for happy hour. To the left of the 2nd photo, downriver, is the confluence of the Tonle with the Mekong.


This beautiful old building on Sothearos is currently undergoing restoration efforts to become a hotel-restaurant with direct access to the FCC.


Cyclos, perhaps around 300 left in Phnom Penh, round up for the night across the street from the National Museum. This is the best way to secure their only belonging and means of livelihood.


The National Museum off street 178 is a trove of artifacts unfortunately haphazard in collection, display and description. The courtyard is a peaceful haven for reading.



The Royal Palace on Sothearos Blvd. It was built in 1866 after the capital was moved to Phnom Penh from Oudong, and occupied by the Kings of Cambodia except during the Khmer Rouge period.


And this is Psar Thmei, currently getting a facelift. It was built in 1935 on a swamp lake area that was drained that still today gets wet season flooding.


The “phone booth” is where young people are often seen congregating, to connect with their group dates. With competing mobile companies limiting traffic to and from their exchanges, it’s sometimes just easier to find a phone with the same exchange as the mobile you need to reach.

Updated in April 2008 to include new developments:


The Independence Monument (Vimean Aikreach) on Sihanouk and Norodom Blvds was built in the centre of the city in 1958 after independence from France. There’s a pedestal inside with a ceremonial flame lit by royal or high-level officials for national celebrations. It got its facelift in 2007 with a fountain and light show.


The new fountains are now finished at the Vietnamese Memorial Park, on Sothearos Blvd. The lights and streams are synchronised to pop music. During the Khmer New Year (2008) these fountain areas turned into impromptu ‘club scenes’ complete with Khmer-style DJ-ing (popping CDs into the player).


A new monument to Buddhism was erected late in 2007 in front of Naga Casino and Hun Sen Park, on Sisowath Blvd.


And a tribute to Khmer’s musical heritage now stands in the median on Sisowath in front of Cambodiana and Himawari Hotels. What he has in his hands looks like a very old tror sraor (stringed vertical fiddle).

Filed Under: Travels Tagged With: Cambodia, cyclo, National Museum, Phnom Penh, Royal Palace, travel

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Those little feet pitter-pattering about rule our lives lately. But on the occasional free moment I get to tap out scatterbrained bursts of consciousness about raising toddlers in Cambodia, traveling with them and working abroad. These posts are my personal updates to friends and family. But since you’re here, have a look around. Thanks for stopping by…

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