1. Beer. There are three types of Cambodian beer, all lagers. Tiger is pronounced “tiger”, and is without taste. Anchor is pronounced “ann-chore”. Ankor, which comes in large bottles, is pronounced “anchor”. So if you want an Ankor—and you do (it’s our beer, our country)—ask for an Anchor.
2. Amok. The national dish seems to be some combination of river fish and mild curry, and is called fish amok. I have now had it in five different places, where I have been served (1) a fish pate served in a banana leaf, (2) a fish stew, with small chunks, (3) large steamed fish pieces in a brown sauce, (4) a grainy fish paste served on a bed of caramelized carrots in a lovely tin foil fan, and (5) a think stew with large chunks and full fresh “spinach” leaves (it’s not spinach, but the leaves are that size and colour), topped with yoghurt, served in a coconut. It is always served with rice. So the national dish is some kind of fish served with rice.
3. Economy. The economy runs on American dollars; everyone has them. The local currency, riel (4100r=1 USD), serves as change. Within days, your pocket is bulging with riel, and you find yourself buying newspapers, in hopes of handing over a fistful of bills.
4. Newspapers. The Cambodia Daily sells for 1200 riel, or 30 cents. Except there aren’t any cents, and the paper boy doesn’t have change for a dollar bill. The news combines local stories with international news, in English and Khmer, and has many job ads.
5. Tuktuks. They wait in clusters outside your hotel. You don’t want one, so you wave them off, and take three steps, when two more will ask if you want a ride. You wave them off and take two more steps, and are asked again, and wave them off. And so on down to the corner to buy your newspaper, whereupon a tuktuk pulls up, smiles and asks “tuktuk?”, as if he genuinely believes you haven’t been asked twenty times a minute, since your journey began. You hire him to drive you back to the hotel, just so you don’t have to feel guilty about not giving them work.
6. More on tuktuks. Tuktuks can be hired for $20 a day; they will be very pleased with this as it is more than they would otherwise make, and will take you wherever you want. They will wait for you, whatever you are doing. It turns out they may also offer to do manual labour. Apparently people haggle with tuktuk drivers; I find this hard to believe, the prices are so low…a buck to go here, two to go there. It’s clear I am overpaying, but it’s still less than bus fare. Word has got around about our group. When we ask a tuktuk driver how much to go somewhere, he just smiles and says “whatever you want to pay”.
7. Toiletries. When travelling, one is sometimes caught with insufficent toiletries. No problem; buy a doughnut. The local market is giving out free tubes of Pepsodent toothpaste with almost every purchase.
8. DVDs. The market sells a season of a tv show for five or six bucks, movies for two bucks. Movies that came out last week. Movies that will be coming out next June. Anthologies offer 28 Sandra Bullock movies, on a single disk. I don’t think she has made that many movies.
9. Clothing. When traveling, one is sometimes caught with insufficient amounts of clothing. No problem; buy paint. Canisters of white paint come with a t-shirt wrapped in a plastic bag, floating on the top. The paint has to drip off for a few hours before you can open the bag, and you have to remember to take off your paint gloves when you do. The t-shirt may preserve a slight smell of emulsifier.
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