Kampuchea (Cambodia)

I have fallen in love with Cambodia, and it really only took one day. Now that I have been here for a little bit I really appreciate the generosity and warmth that Cambodians have, people are so nice here. And the food is amazing.

I have a favorite roadside snack, it is called Gnome W'ow. These little delicious treats are about $0.50 per one, about the size of a tennis ball and three usually suffice for lunch. They are about the consistency of a dumpling or won-ton, and have sauteed onions, pork, garlic, spices and hard-boiled egg in the middle. All surrounded by a slightly sweet rice dough. And they come steaming hot out of the cooker, so you know that the risk of getting any sicker is really minimal.

Last night we watched some American television and also some Cambodian propaganda films from the early sixties that had been smuggled out of town by the nationalists before the Khmer Rouge took over. Phenom Phen looked like Paris (not surprising given the French experiment in colonialism). The capital was a huge brilliant city that was clean, functioning and apparently called the pearl of the east for its cultural wonders. Now 50 years later Phenom Phen is still attractive, and functions, but just on different, scale and set of terms. If you ever wanted to study long complicated histories of tortured nations, this would be the place.


So tomorrow I am off to Malaysia, and then after a day to Indonesia, where I will hang out for a few days on the main island of Sulawesi before heading to the island of Hoga which apparently looks like this. Yeah, it will be rough, I already went and bought new flip flops and a hammock, which will be crucial to getting the data analysis, newsletter and reports all completed before the end of the first week of April.