Quick Note

I'm in Cambodia now, paying a buck an hour for internet. I'm a little over halfway done my trip. A few quick thoughts:

Cambodia is a lot like Vietnam and Thailand, not surprisingly, but it has its own flavor and quirks. I can't seem to get a proper Vietnamese coffee here, though, with the condensed sweetened milk. I'm pissed about that.

Cambodians hate their own currency. They prefer American dollars, crisp ones. They give change in riels (the local currency). It's 4000 riels to the dollar, and riels are a closed currency. Thus, any leftovers I have will have to go in the ol' scrapbook, because they're WORTHLESS and not accepted outside Cambodia.

My bill at the hostel in Phnom Penh came to $14.10. I tried to give the chick a dime, and she laughed and marvelled at it, then asked me for riels instead. Apparently it's a no-coin country. Even the riels seem to only come in bill form. I've seen as low as 100, a couple cents.

The vendors here are all about making you promise that if you DO get a manicure, or you DO buy a bracelet, that you'll go to them, not anyone else. One chick made me pinky-swear today. I bet she'll recognize me the next time I'm on the beach and call me out.

It's pretty cheap here. I've been averaging under $5 a meal, except at my second location at a pricey floating ecolodge that I mentioned in a previous preparatory post. Even there, though, I got free breakfast, and my lunch and dinner totals were under $20 a day. I was shocked.

I haven't bought anything yet. I was only in Phnom Penh overnight, and I was worrying the whole next morning about how I would get to the lodge; then at the lodge, there was nothing to buy and noplace to go. I'll buy some things here in Sihanoukville, though.

I took a three and a half hour bus trip today, for $6.25. There was no official rest stop, so I had to ask the driver if I could use a toilet when he dropped someone off, after I'd been holding it for two hours. The toilet was a bush.

I'm kind of afraid to carry around my camera here, being a chick alone, so I won't have as many pictures as on my other trips. I did meet two nice families at the ecolodge, though, who took some pictures of me, probably the only pictures of me I'll get on this trip.

Tomorrow I'll go on an excursion to Reap National Park for jungle trekking and beachy stuff. I think it'll be the only day trip I do, since I'm leaving Saturday and I want to have time to get a massage, enjoy the beach nearby (I just peaked at it today), and do a little shopping and relaxing.

More blogging to come on Sundayish. Happy New Year.