My Time in Cambodia: Silk Island and Phnom Penh Markets

This post covers what Alli and I did in Phnom Penh two weekends ago (I am a little behind from a busy week last week).

On Saturday, we went with 13 of the girls and 3 other teachers on a biking trip to Silk Island, a small rural island just a short ferry ride from Phnom Penh. There are a small number of people living on the island and many silk shops along the main road. We went for about 2 hours through the rural countryside where there were goats and cows on the side of the dirt road. It was cool seeing the little silk shops, and we even passed by a traditional Cambodian wedding. We stopped at the house of the uncle of Thiny, one of the girls in our class, to rest for a bit and let the girls change into their bathing suits. It was really nice for them to let us stay there, and I enjoyed singing songs, throwing a frisbee, and eating mangos from the tree with the kids. We then went to the beach area, which you might not be surprised to hear is quite different from the Florida beaches I am used to. Instead of laying on towels on the beach, people sit in little wooden huts (see pictures below) in the water, and there are people that come up to the huts and try to sell you food. Some of them are selling fruit and drinks, and others are selling full meals of roasted chicken, vegetables, and rice that they carry around on floating styrofoam and cook up for you in a crock pot (see picture below). It was quite a sight to see! We bought lunch from the floating kitchen service, and it was very tasty. The kids had a blast swimming in the Mekong River and playing around on the inner tubes, and it was fun watching them and talking to the other teachers about their experiences. One of the teachers said that we went a total of 20 kilometers on the bike ride, and we were all pretty wiped on the way back. After a short rest at our apartment, Alli and I went back into Phnom Penh for dinner to a traditional Khmer restaurant geared toward westerners called Khmer Surin, where we had a relaxing night enjoying the beautiful garden and live music. I ordered Beef Lok lak, a traditional Cambodian dish, and it was delicious. We had a really good time talking to two American girls at the table next to us who are volunteering with an NGO to teach foster kids how to style hair. It was great to share stories about what we'd done and working with the kids. We topped off the night with some tasty desert, fried ice cream, and arrived home very happy about the day.

On Sunday, we headed into Phnom Penh to the markets. There are so many different markets in Phnom Penh that it was pretty overwhelming for us to decide which few to go to, and we ended up picking three, the Olympic Market, the Central Market, and the Night Market, that seemed to specialize in different areas. We started at the Olympic Market, which is where many of the locals buy clothes in the latest fashion. There were dozens of rows of little "shops" (see pictures below) spanning the four floors of the market, carrying all different types of women's clothing, gowns, shirts, shorts, shoes, and men's clothing, dress shirts, pants, t-shirts, and more. Alli and I kept wondering how the locals knew how to find their regular shops, because none of them were labeled and all the rows seemed to look the same. It was another place that made us realize just how different every aspect of life is here. We took a short tuk tuk to the Central Market, which has a variety of items including all sorts of fruit, everyday household items, and souvenirs. Its biggest draw is its jewelry, which lines the center of the market under the covered pavilion (see pictures below). Alli and I bought some souvenirs, practicing our bartering skills, and a frying pan for our apartment. Our stove is an induction stove, so we needed a magnetic pan made of iron, and the shop keepers were pretty amused by the sight of us walking around with a magnet testing all of their pans. After about 6 different shops, we finally found a pan, and I think the shop keeper probably overcharged us a lot because we were so excited, but we were happy to pay the $24 dollars for a pan that would work with our stove. We walked from the Central Market to the Night Market along the riverside, enjoying the nice breeze and scenery. The night market had lot of cool clothing and good food, and we bought some more souvenirs and smoothies. We went to a restaurant on the riverside for dinner and enjoyed the people watching and nice riverside view. We went back to the night market after dinner to enjoy some live music and do a bit more shopping before we got a tuk tuk back home to Liger.

Overall, I thought the weekend allowed us to see more of how Cambodians live their everyday lives, and it was really fun spending more time with the kids on the trip to Silk Island.