I landed in Phnom Penh late at night, just hours before the war between Thailand and Cambodia began.
I didn't really expect it to kick off like this. After all, the kingdoms of Thailand and Cambodia have been rattling sabers at each other for literal centuries, and this isn't the first time, even since I've been here, that there has been tension at the border. However, this time, things feel different. I may do a writeup about the "Emerald Triangle Dispute" soon.
Anyway, I'm in Cambodia now, and Thailand has just closed their embassy and recalled the ambassador to Bangkok. This is unfortunate, because I came here with the sole purpose of applying for a new Thai visa. The Thai government recently switched to a digitized e-visa system, so I'm hoping that my visa will still come through regardless. I've reached out to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to see if the staff at the Royal Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh are still processing visas, but so far, no response, and my application is stuck on "pending".
If I don't hear back in a few days, I may have to fly to Saigon and start the process over. It's just terrible timing!
Still, life goes on, and the conflict at the border is very, very far away. Things here in Phnom Penh are as peaceful and pleasant as ever, and while I'm here, I might as well make the most of it!
I'm staying at a beautiful hotel near the Royal Palace in a neighborhood I've come to know very well over the past few years. Even though I've gotten pretty bored of Phnom Penh, there's something comforting about the city. I've been here so many times and stayed so long that it's become a sort of second home to me.
When I first moved to Bangkok over a decade ago, one of my favorite restaurants when I wanted to treat myself was Paradise Dynasty, a Singaporean chain known for their legendary colorful xiaolongbao, or soup dumplings, each offering a different flavor experience. I even took my family here on their first visit to Thailand.
I was very sad when the branch in Bangkok closed, so imagine my delight when I learned that they have a branch in Phnom Penh!
The famous 8-flavor xiaolongbao set consists of a rainbow of soup dumplings and a card meant to guide the eater across the dynasties and geography of China. There's a recommended order of how to eat these xiaolongbao, or "soup dumplings" (delicate dumplings stuffed with a ball of meat and filled with soup which you are meant to drink before eating the dumpling).
First, you should eat the original xiaolongbao, followed by the foie gra dumpling. Next, eat the black truffle, cheese, and crab roe dumplings. Finish with garlic, Szechuan pepper, and kimchi, in that order.
The flavors are meant to intensify over the course, with each dumpling being stronger and bolder than the last. It's a really cool culinary experience.
My guide, Jackson, met me in my hotel's lobby on the evening of my second day in Phnom Penh.
The group for my food tour was probably the most fun group of people I've ever been on a tour with! I was joined by two American ladies from Ohio who were actually staying at the same hotel as me, along with a family of five (mom, dad, daughter, dad's brother, and dad's brother's wife) from Northern Ireland who were all hilarious and made the tour one of my absolute favorite travel experiences.
Our first stop was a lort cha restaurant just down the road from my hotel.
These short, thick noodles are dense and chewy and have a really nice texture. In this dish, they were stir-fried with green onions, kale, bean sprouts, and stewed beef, and were topped with a runny fried egg.
The two American ladies were also language teachers, although they taught Spanish, not English like me.
The Irish dad was an artist who creates backgrounds for theme park rides. He has worked on designing backgrounds at Disney and Six Flags parks all around the world. I was really excited to talk about how Six Flags originated in my own hometown!
After our lort cha, we divided into two tuk-tuks to head to our next stop.
The next dish that we tried was called num krok. This was a ball of two half-cup spheres scooped together made from glutinous coconut rice cakes and chives. The resulting little dumpling is warm, fragrant, and lightly sweet, and flavored with a few pieces of scallion in the middle to balance the sweetness with savory notes.
The balls were served with a small cup of warm, sweet, and salty coconut milk to dip them into in order to enhance the flavors even further.
The dish was followed by a serving of banh chao, or turmeric pancakes, which were stuffed with minced pork and served with a huge plate of fragrant herbs to wrap inside each bite of pancake.
Banh Chao, or Cambodian Turmeric Pancakes in Phnom Penh
Next, our guide stopped at a small street stall and ordered a bag full of insects, something that I've normally tried to avoid in my food! I know... insects are a common snack in many parts of the world, including Thailand. I've just always had trouble getting myself to eat them. I've had silkworms before, and that was about as adventurous as I had wanted to get.
Next, we had a num pang, or a Cambodian banh mi. A crispy baguette, a remnant of the French colonial era and one of the only good things that France ever brought to the country, was stuffed full of juicy pork belly and slices of cucumber and was served with pickled radish and carrot to add on top. It also came with a very spicy sauce which I added to my sandwich (though I have to admit that the sauce was even spicy for me, and I consider myself to have developed a pretty good tolerance).
We hopped back into our tuk-tuks and headed on to our next destination, a small roadside Cambodian barbecue shop, where chicken, pork, and duck were slowly roasted over a charcoal grill.
Jackson bought an order of chicken, pork, and rice, all served with a spicy dipping sauce, for us to sample.
We sat down at a small local pub, and Jackson served our plate of insects, which included silkworms, grasshoppers, crickets, and fried frog legs. I had one cricket and left the rest for the others. It helped that we got to wash down the snack with a cold beer while waiting for our real meal to arrive!
Back when I was teaching at the school, I remember asking my students one time what they thought about eating insects, and it was pretty much split 50/50 with half of the class saying it was perfectly normal and the other half being totally grossed out at the thought.
This was a very traditional Cambodian street food restaurant. At shops like this, it's common for locals to place an order of grilled meat and sticky rice to take home for dinner.
My favorite was the grilled duck. I've always liked duck! It's really not a common meat in the US where I grew up, but I tend to order duck as often as I can here in Southeast Asia. Of course, the rest was delicious as well. I really enjoyed the grilled chicken and pork too.
We drove on towards the Russian Market, or the Tuol Tompoung. The market got its name back in Cambodia's past when the Khmer Rouge was overthrown and Vietnam invaded and occupied Cambodia.
Communist Vietnam was horrified with the actions of the Khmer Rouge (which is really saying something) and subsequently invaded and deposed the Khmer Rouge government of Cambodia, leading to an eventual United Nations occupation and intervention and eventually a restoration of the Khmer monarchy.
During the Cold War, Cambodia became a major vacation spot for wealthy Russians. This market became popular in the 1980s when most of Cambodia's foreign tourists were visitors from the Soviet states who frequented it because of its cheap knockoffs and high-quality fake products.
Next, we stopped at a traditional Cambodian pub. This is the type of place where people will hang out after work, drinking beer and eating local snacks like salted peanuts, grilled chicken, and frog legs.
And that's exactly what we had, served with bowls of white rice and stir-fried morning glory.
The next dish was stir-fried beef with basil and red tree ants. It's a traditional dish in Cambodia, and one that I've had before.
Ants give a weird, tangy, almost lemony flavor to the meat. It isn't something I'd necessarily choose to eat, but it's something that I'm totally fine eating when the chance comes up. It may sound odd, but while I really hesitate to eat silkworms, grasshoppers, and crickets, I don't mind eating ants.
Then, it was time for dessert. I forget the name of the snack that we ordered from a lady with a tiny little shop set up on top of a plastic stool on the side of the street, but it was delicious.
The dish consisted of a pandan-flavored pancake or crepe filled with sugarcane and fresh slices of coconut.
We finished the evening with drinks at a nice outdoor bar. I tried the cocktail that the guide recommended, which was made with vodka, mango juice, and chili juice. It was very spicy but was offset by the sweetness of the mango.
I had an amazing time and really loved getting to meet some fun new people. Originally, we had planned to meet up in a few days in Bangkok, as we were all supposed to be in town by the 27th, but unfortunately due to my visa issue, I'm still going to be in Cambodia for the time being.
I took a long walk the next morning through the old colonial neighborhoods of Phnom Penh. One of my favorite buildings in this area is the Cambodian Post Building, or the "Place de la Poste", which was built in 1895.
The building has been in continuous use as the country's postal headquarters since 1895, except for the brief period when the Khmer Rouge banned money and forcefully vacated Phnom Penh, moving all of the inhabitants to the countryside to work.
I enjoy Phnom Penh, but there's not so much to do here. After visiting it so many times on visa runs over the years, I've seen and done everything there is to do multiple times. I'm honestly getting pretty bored of the city, but I think that this year I'll finally be able to get everything sorted so that I can get a one-year visa and not have to worry about these visa runs again. That's especially important as the political situation here seems to be getting more and more tense.
While I wait on news regarding my visa, I'll be spending the next several days hanging out in the capital, drinking delicious Khmer iced coffee, reading, and relaxing.
