Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Everyone knows I love cooking, rather I love food and cooking is an aspect of food. I am now certified (I even have a certificate) to cook Khmer food. It was a three-hour course, with three courses. I learned how to make banana flower salad, fish amok, and sticky rice.

I was unfamiliar with banana flowers, which are similar to giant artichokes; the petals die and eventually give way to bananas. Replace the lettuce with thinly sliced petals soaked in limewater. Add a handful of fresh herbs, sweet chili, and carrot.

The dressing, it turns out, is the same as the dipping sauce used for spring roles. Mash garlic, chili peppers, and shallots, add to boiling water. A splash of fish sauce, a spoonful of sugar, and voila: the sauce is done. Toss all the other ingredients and pour the dressing over. I think my version might be chilled with a bit more hot peppers.

Amok, it turns out, is basically curry. Mash turmeric, ginger, chili, garlic, and shallots. Add it all to boiling coconut milk; add sugar, condensed milk, and water. Add whatever else you want, let it cook down a bit and you’re finished. Serve with white rice.

We managed to both burn, and undercook our sticky rice at the same time. Cook the rice first (note, sticky rice not regular jasmine); add coconut milk, condensed milk, sugar, and powdered vanilla (I’ve never seen this before). Cook everything down until the liquids boil off and allow it to cool. It comes out as a really nice desert, very sweet.

My other activities in Siem Reap include a massage by the blind, a walkabout the city, and, of course, a visit to the markets.

I love massages, anyone who says they don’t has either never had a good one, or is lying. Massages in Asia are cheap, very very cheap. And even better, they can potentially help a good cause. I received my massage from a blind person. I don’t know how he was blinded, but I do know that my five dollars help him support himself and the rest of the blind community in Siem Reap. For five dollars I received a full hour body massage. After lugging around two backpacks and a camera bag, a massage feels great.

Massages by the blind seem to have infiltrated a great deal of the worlds backpacking destinations. I’ve had one in Nicaragua as well. I don’t know if this is an international organization, or if they’ve sprung up independently. As an added bonus, they come without the risk of a happy ending.

And now, a special note on the children of Cambodia. Any visit to a tourist attraction (at least in underdeveloped countries) comes with a plethora of people trying to sell you everything, including the kitchen sink. In most places the would be entrepreneurs range in age from about five to fifty. The children in Cambodia are particularly aggressive. Most people you can either wave off or ignore, occasionally it takes two statements of disinterest. The children will pester you with “why no”, “feed me”, “give me money”, and the like. They’ll even follow you to your bike, tuk tuk, or taxi – begging the whole way.

As annoying as this is, it gets worse. As soon as the sun sets in Siem Reap, the children turn from aggressive touters to muggers and harassers. In my own personal experience, one young child repeatedly reached under my shorts and attempted to hit my privates. After doing this several times, I finally trapped his hand between my legs. I hoped that would stop him. When I let him go, instead of learning the error of his ways he began violently kicking and punching me. Fortunately, he was too young to cause any sort of problem and I just ignored him, but this could have been a serious problem.

Others have not been so lucky. In one case, a young woman was attacked by so many children she couldn’t hold them back. After they stole all the money out of her pockets they disappeared into the night. Another young woman had a child (holding a baby) continually grasp at her pants and pockets. She managed to escape without losing any money.

The markets, I must admit, have been unremarkable in Cambodia. They sell the usual assortment of clothing, carved statues, shot glasses, key chains, and the like. I’ve enjoyed them, but have yet to find anything of particular note.

I took the night bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. It could have been worse; buses in Asia are a crapshoot at best. The seat didn’t quite recline, but at least it was decently cool, dark, and quiet… until about 4:00 in the morning. For some inexplicable reason our driver decided to blare music throughout the entire bus. Not traditional Cambodian music, not western music, but a strange hybrid of the two. The worst elements of western pop, an occasional electric guitar, and what I can only describe as Khmer chanting filled my ears for the rest of the trip. I didn’t get much sleep.

The two main attractions of Phnom Penh, for me, are the killing fields and Toul Sleng museum. They’ll be discussed in a separate write up.