1. Cambodia, unlike the other southeast Asian countries, has a heavy Indian influence. The dance, music, clothing, and writing could easily be mistaken for Indian.
2. No, that's not Arabic or Sandskrit, thats the Cambodian written language. Unlike English which is written horizontally, Khmer involves lots of vertical adjustments (similar to dotting I's and crossing T's in cursive). The language also has 35 consonants and 40 vowels!
3. Khmer New Year lands (at least this year) on April 14th at 7am. Everyone returns home to the villages they grew up in and celebrates for three straight days with their family. My team took advantage of the days off to visit Angkor Wot.
4. Angkor Wot is a huge temple/palace consisting of miles of different sites. They were constructed around 1000 years ago (half a millennium before Columbus "discovered" America). We had the opportunity to see where Tomb Raider was filmed.
5. Cambodia's currency is the riel. Roughly 4000 riel = 1 dollar. But get this, all of the prices are listed in US dollars and dollars are the primary form of currency. But instead of using American coins, the Cambodians use riels as change. So if I spend 1.25 and pay with a 5 dollar bill. I will receive 3 1$ bills and 3000 riel as change.
6. Exotic Fruits: Dragon Fruit, Durian, Lychees, Green Mango (sour), Soursop, rambutan, palmyra fruit, star apple, rose apple. But I pretty much live off of mini bananas and red mangoes. Between Cambodia and the Philippines, I have eaten about 30 mangoes (20 cents each here).
6. Food generally tastes like other forms of Asian/Indian food. Lots of fried rice/noodles with a mild sauce on it. Not bad but nothing to blog home about. I've made a point to be the one on the team that tries to eat ethnic food whenever I can and I have yet to get sick (knock on wood). I almost had the below for lunch, but figured it may not be the best idea at the beginning of a 5 hour bus ride. If I can get some financial encouragement from the readers, maybe I will make a video of me eating a roach, locust, beatle and or taurantula.
8. April is the hottest month of the year in Cambodia and temperatures reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 F). Its also super humid. If I sit still in the shade, I immediately sweat and within 10 minutes, I look like I just got out of the shower. I am getting used to it though and its not so bad.
9. 95% of Cambodians practice Therevada Buddhism. Monks with bald heads and orange robes can be seen all over doing everyday activities. They don't work but people believe that if they donate money, it will bring them good luck. Due to the large Indian influence, there are a some random Hindu things mixed into Cambodia's version of Buddhism (Nirvana, Vishnu, Shiva).
10. Landmines, Monarchy, Disinterest in American Pop Culture
60,000 people have died and thousands more maimed as a result of landmines left by both Cambodian leaders and by Vietnamese for defensi
ve purposes.
Following the Khmer Rouge (Pol Pot genocide), Cambodia welcomed back its monarchy. The King and Queen relinquished the kingship to their son.
Surprisingly, Cambodians care very little about American Pop Culture. They dance and listen to local Cambodian music, watch local Khmer media and the hardcore basketball players at the local courts had never heard of Kobe Bryant. Hope you all learned something new. I will make a habit of doing one of these for each country we visit. Don't forget to leave some monetary encouragement if you want me to watch me eat tarantulas. I promise I will spend the money on food supplements (I am hoping to buy box of cereal from the store :)
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