Cambodia III

Half way through this week we started taking shifts for our surveys. Matt and I go out together and Gill and Ryan go out together and we alternate days. The group that doesn't go out into the field stays around Phnom Penh and enters the data from completed surveys. It is much easier on us, as 12 hour days were getting to be a bit much. Earlier this week, Matt and I had the unfortunate luck of losing a coin toss and we had to go out on the day we had to survey the farthest away. It was a long, hot ride and quite far to say the least. We were nearly back in Vietnam!

One thing we have definitely noticed from our work is that most of the time in our day is spent waiting. In a 12 hour day we spend about 3 hours total doing surveys and the rest is spent waiting for permission from the district officials, then the commune and then trying to find the chief of the village. Oh, and travel time which averages about 2 hours out of the 12.

This weekend we went to the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh and the National Museum. The Royal Palace was massive and very beautiful. There were lots of Pagodas, the most famous being the Silver Pagoda. Naturally, lots of monks were around in their bright orange robes roaming around the grounds. You often see them around the city making their rounds to collect food and other items from households. This morning two monks were standing outside of our hotel waiting, shielding themselves from the sun with their matching orange umbrellas. It is a really interesting way of life. The National Museum was also nice, with lots of Buddha sculptures and other artifacts from the numerous time periods. Matt and I both agree that more information on the artifacts would have made it a lot nicer, as most of them just had a location where they were found and which century they are from...but it was still a worthwhile visit. Oh! I almost forgot, while we were waiting for the Palace to open (we discovered it closed for lunch at 10am and would reopen at 2) I got a pedicure for $3! I will have to have at least one more before we leave! Matt had a half hour foot massage for $2 to pass the time too, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Last night we went out to a nice restaurant called 'Friends'. It was really expensive for what we got (by Southeast Asian standards, not North American) but the food was really good and all of the proceeds go to disadvantaged youth. After dinner we went to a night club called 'Pontoon' that is a huge boat converted into a bar. It was really cool, with all of these comfortable couches and tables with a huge dance floor. It was fun to go out, but also kind of disturbing as there are a lot of Western men with Cambodian prostitutes out and about at night...disappointing to say the least.

So today we spent the day just relaxing. We explored a bit in the morning but the heat became a bit unbearable in the afternoon, so we retreated to the comfort of our air conditioned room to relax a bit. In the morning we visited Wat Phnom, a temple not far from our hotel. There are a lot of open areas around it which serve as a local hang out with lots of vendors and even elephant rides around the grounds! When Gill and Ryan visited, a monkey outside of the Wat became fixated on Gill and wouldn't leave her alone...and not in a friendly way! He wanted to attack her! Luckily she was able to escape unscathed. When we today, we couldn't believe how many monkeys were just roaming around! Some of the babies were so cute...one climbed a light post and as I was trying to take a picture of it another adult grabbed my leg. It scared me so much that I screamed...I think I may have scared it more than it scared me. Haha.

Anyways, this week is full of more surveys and some translation and data entry. Matt and I get to go to Mekong Island tomorrow to do surveys in a village on it. We have to take a ferry to get across, which Matt is pretty excited for. We are finding that staying in one city is nice, as we get to unpack but it is also hard when you have constantly been on the move. We kind of feel like we have done a lot of the touristy things in and around Phnom Penh, and that there isn't much left for us to do (besides work). This weekend we are planning on going to Sihanoukville, the port city in west of Cambodia, about a 3.5 hour drive from Phnom Penh. We have heard some really nice things about it and are looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend away from the big bustling city.

Anyways, will write again soon.