SOUNDING BOARD is an outlet for opinions on good and crazy things going on at home (wherever I may be). All are welcome. You are not expected to bring anything except your common sense & sense of humor.
'If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get one million miles to the gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.'
-Robert X. Cringely (from geek wisdom)
SOUNDING BOARD
Friday, April 23, 2004
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Phnom Phen Day 1-3: Totally unexpected (ride my 2-wheeled taxi city boy)
It must have been all those getting used to Manila and other Asian cities that shook me a bit when I arrived here at Phnom Phen 2 days ago. I imagine it will take a while before I really get used to living here.
From the plane, I saw large tracks of brown land and a few small packets of greens with little settlements. When I arrived, I wasn't greeted with a heavy traffic from the airport to my hotel as what any Asian city would have. It was extremely humid, probably a few degrees warmer than Manila. Oh no.
I didn't have to change my dollars to riel. I was planning to change some, but because I was so tired from the sleepless night I had in Bangkok (had a meeting/briefing there, vaccination the day before going to Phnom Phen), I totally forgot to pass by those banks in the airport. No worries. Almost all establishments accept US dollars, from supermarkets to internet cafes, etc...
What really shook my senses was the fact that there aren't any taxi cabs, as in the usual taxis. What they have here are the so-called motordup (hope I got that right). It's a small motorcycle and you gotta hop in at the back... that's it. That's taxi for you city boy, I said to myself. It's gonna take a while before I get used to this. And I'm gonna have my hair cut really short so that I won't have to arrive at the office like some scared animal or something.
No "malls" either. What they have are supermarkets and some shops that may have been the predecessor of the so-called malls.
Don't ever try to go around looking for starbucks either.
Of course, those things are not what I came here for. I just needed to get it all out *deep breath*.
posted by Allan at 6:55 PM (GMT+8)
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