A few thoughts on Cambodia so far:
- They drive on the right side of the road – or at least they’re supposed to. It’s a little something familiar, after two months in Africa.
- Speaking of driving, there are mopeds, motorbikes, and tuk-tuks (carriages pulled by a moped) everywhere, but there also is a fair amount of cars.
- Cambodia combines two of my images of Asia: crowded, busy cities, with lush green vegetation between. It’s nice to see so much green again. Apparently this is the tail end of their rainy season, whereas in Africa we were there at the end of their dry season, so there was lots of brown.
- The currency, Riel, is 4,000 = $1. So USD is the more widely used currency, with Riel used as fractions of a dollar; there are no coins.
- The people have been very friendly. They are a very kind, quiet people. Many speak broken English, and are happy to practice their English with you.
Also, I had the best bus ride of the Race (and perhaps my life) on the way from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. There were few passengers, so each of us had a pair of seats to ourselves. There was plenty of leg room, so my knees were not digging into the back of the seat in front of me; also, I could lean back without feeling bad for the guy sitting behind me. It was clean, and the seats were comfortable. There was air conditioning – enough that I had to dig out my jacket. They gave us free bottled water and a chocolate croissant. And there was wifi on the bus – pretty decent wifi at that.
