tourists | askacambodian

Thoughts on Foreigners

Posted on June 30, 2015 by NUM IBBA Students

I have been living in Cambodia 19 years – all my life. My country is located in mainland South-east Asia, having a border with Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and the gulf of Thailand. 181,035 kilometers square for me is so small. However, the land is not large like it used to be, I still feel happy to live in my enchanted country. My country is well-known as a country with many beautiful natural and historical places. Those things attract so many foreigners from various continents. Most of them are from Vietnam, China, Korea, Laos, Thailand, U.S.A, Japan, U.K, France, and Australia.

Although I have been living in this country since I was born, I have never seen number of foreigners that come to Cambodia as many as these past few years. The first time that I met with foreigner was the time that I visited Kompong Som Province which is now named Sihanouk Ville. She was from France. At that time, she saw me and my sisters were learning how to swim, and she came over to us and offered to help teach us how to swim. At first, I didn’t feel comfortable with her since she was a foreigner, but later I started feeling more comfortable after seeing her friendly and kind behaviors.

I think foreigners are kind and friendly. They are willing to help in everything that they think they can. They don’t care much about being judged by the others. They like doing whatever they like. They are not only kind and friendly but also interested in learning everything around them like people, cultures, food and many other things when they are in foreign countries.

How They Dress?

I love the way they dress. To be honest, T-shirt, scarf, hat, bracelets, jeans/short skirt, sandals or high top look really good on them. From what I think, those things are really comfortable for them as a tourist who likes exploring. Differ from Cambodian people who like wearing elegant clothes with expensive jewelry.

What they Do?

I find that they like buying souvenirs. Those little things that are sold at the markets like Toul Tom Poung, Phsar Thmey and of course night market at Siem Reap, are so beautiful. Foreigners seem so interested in those tiny little things, even me as a Cambodian also like those kind of things. What is more, I notice that most of them now know a lot about the price in Cambodia. For example, most of tuk tuk drivers likes to gain more profits from foreigners since they think that foreigners don’t know much about the real price for riding a tuk tuk. Let say the price for the riding is only about 2$ for Cambodian but almost $4 to $5 dollar for foreigners. Luckily, most of foreigners now know about this, so I find it’s hard for those drivers to get the money like they used to get from foreigners.

Adventures

Foreigners love freedom. They are curious. They seem to like doing things that Cambodian people rarely do like hiking, diving, and cycling around Phnom Penh city or in Siem Reap. For those who enjoy watching the street scene love to ride a cyclo rather than tuk tuk. In fact, I notice that few of them allow a cyclo driver to sit, and they themselves drive the cyclo instead. It is one of the reason why I think foreigners like to experience new things. For Cambodian people, hiking and diving sounds dangerous but for foreigners, it sounds exciting. Foreigners love exploring natural places rather than man-made places. Unlike Cambodian people, they really like going to man-made places like super market and amusement park. About two weeks ago, I went to Siem Reap with my family. I saw many foreigners visited Angkor Wat temple. Most of them are around 20s to 30s. Most of foreigner who pay a visit in Siem Reap, try as much as they can to wake up before the dawn in order to see a beautiful sunrise behind Angkor Wat temple. Watching the sunrise is not the only thing that foreigners love to. I find that they are really in love watching the sunset also. Not only at Bakheng Mountain which is the famous place to enjoy the beautiful view of the sunset in the land of Angkor, but at Sihanouk Ville also. The big difference between them and Cambodian people is that foreigners love to spend every moment in their life doing things that they love to do. For them, exploring new places, tasting local food from various countries, hiking mountains, diving to see many colorful corals and the living things under the sea, cycling along the street, and watching the sunset are the worth experiences for them to do at least once in their lives.

What’s The Late Night Noise? Dry Rice Noodle Cart

Posted on June 24, 2015 by NUM IBBA Students

People are not allow to shout at night because it’s rude and disrespectful to people who are sleeping. So people call out to customers by hitting sticks together and the echo sound is used for selling their noodles. People start selling the noodles at around 9:00 pm to midnight or sometimes later. At night you can notice them because there are two people, one is making noodles at the cart while the other one is finding customers by using the sound of their sticks. People who work at night or eat a late dinner can buy the dry rice noodles that are sold on the street.

Dry Rice Noodles is made into a noodle soup that consists of energy. It’s known in Khmer as “Kouy Teav”. Noodles are made of rice that have been crushed into powder and then remade into noodles. They can be served at breakfast, lunch, dinner and desert. They are several ways the noodles can be prepared: dry noodles, noodles soup with pork, beef, chicken…etc.

Mostly people sell the dry rice noodles on a moving cart or a standing cart along the street. The soup’s ingredients are specific to the owner’s cart – noodle, bowls, chopsticks or spoon, and sauce such as soy sauce, sugar, salt, pepper, ketchup and others.

Customers can order small, medium or a large bowls. Small bowls cost about 3500 riel while large bowls about 6000 riel. The sellers usually shout out loud for customer’s attention to their business during morning or afternoon. People like to eat this noodle soup because it is really delicious. I would recommend to try it if you can.

Sihanouk Ville – Cambodian Students Vacation

Posted on June 16, 2015 by NUM IBBA Students

In every country in the world, it always has some beautiful sights to see. Those sights might be a statue, monument, square, temple, or cathedral. Every country is proud of them, and everyone is interested in talking about them. In my country, Cambodia has a most beautiful beach, which captures a great number of tourists all year. Sihanouk Ville is the best place where all the tourists may see some of the most interesting sights they will ever see as it is a port to some of the best beaches around.

Many magazines write articles about how great Sihanouk Ville is and the islands. Years ago CNN did a travel story on Cambodia’s 5 best beaches. This is a little of what was written “Koh Rong is easily one of the Gulf of Thailand’s most gorgeous islands… untouched white sand fringed with palm trees and dazzling turquoise waters. At the southernmost end of this beach are rocks where snorkelers can watch schools of colorful fish. The southernmost cove of Koh Rong…with nearly empty white sand beaches and placid aquamarine waters…is an ideal place for sunning, collecting shells and crabbing….” (CNN)

Well last year, my classmates and I, around 25 people, planned to go and visit Sihanouk Ville for two days. At that time, visiting Sihanouk Ville was a really new experience for us, and we hadn’t really heard much about the beaches or how beautiful and relaxing they are. It took over 5 hours by bus, driving from Phnom Penh to Sihanouk Ville. Along the way, we all felt annoyed about the paved and dirt road because it was under construction, and that caused a lot of shaking to our bodies, especially the head. But finally we arrived the hotel and had a late lunch. Everyone looked very tired, but they had time to check in and relax in the hotel for a few hours.

After that, some of us decided to take a tuk tuk to go to Otres Beach and you know what? We had a problem with negotiating the price (just like a tourist, right), so we ended up walking 20 minutes from our hotel to the beach… long enough to make us exhausted. Everyone was spending the first evening at dinner, viewing the sunset, and most of us enjoyed it with drinking beer and eating some barbecue seafood, chicken, beef and pork too.

The next morning, we got up with a beautiful sunrise and arranged a boat to visit Koh Rong. It took about 2 hours to get to the island. While riding the boat, everyone was so amazed by the views on the water. During the trip we also had some people play guitar while we sang together. After lunch on Koh Rong, people played some volleyball, others went fishing, and some others rented canoes to race. We spent the entire day doing fun activities and playing in the water. It was relaxing and wonderful.

With all of the amazing memories made there, it is no wonder many tourists choose Sihanouk Ville as the place to spend their holiday and explore the great beaches and have an adventure. More tourists should consider going, it would be a wise decision to visit there!