Week Off--Phnom Penh

The crew had the past week off--vacation for them, and for me, it was supposed to be an easier week in which I caught up with my research data, read, and relaxed. It was a relaxing week, but little research got done, and it was not quite as quiet as I expected. I did a lot of cleaning--dishes, laundry, even some of the kitchen (after I spilled oil all over everything). I realized that even cleaning could take on a sort of meditative element (no, this doesn't mean I will clean more, it just means that cleaning intentionally makes it almost meditation, though I did take frequent breaks!). After the day Marie Claire and I spent cleaning though, Bill came down and told us he would take us to dinner in town (Phnom Penh)--we went to a beautiful hotel with a delicious buffet, and even got a bit of Filipino music before we left!

I had the chance to experience a bit of the Phnom Penh market scene this week. On Monday, the PIP manager in Cambodia, Somnang, dropped me off at the market with 40,000 riel or $10US and an order to buy some fruit and vegetables so we could eat in our week without the cook. I moved between vendors with magenta dragon fruit, pink and black rambutans, plum-colored mangosteens, some healthy and some wilting heads of lettuce, plump carrots, and a myriad of other things. How much? I would ask, pointing at the desired item. Each vendor would reply with the price in Khmer, but we understood each other no problem. I got 1kg of lettuce for 2500 riel, or about $0.50, a kilo of dragon fruit for about 3000 riel ($0.75), and other prices that would shock a Westerner--prices as good as our Khmer cook gets, which made me proud of my shopping skills. Even my tuk-tuk (moto with a cart attached) back to the ship was only 5000 riel, which was a lot for the trip, but not for a foreigner. This morning, I had a different kind of market experience--I went with the cook to buy fruit and vegetables for the week (we will be moving for two days, so there will be no ability to get to a market). The market truly is a sensory overload--a cacophony of sights, sounds, smells. Again, the vivid colors of the fruits and vegetables stood out. Rain poured from the sky, courtesy of a storm over the South China Sea, in between tarps for the vendors, into buckets, keeping merchandise remarkably dry, but legs and ankles mud-streaked. There were fruits and vegetables, brooms, meat. Some sold pig ears, intestine, frogs. Some crabs were still crawling out of the bucket, some of the fish still flopping--nothing like fresh! I tried to take it all in, all the produce, the way in which the cook talked the vendor down on the price of bananas, which vendor had the best-looking tomatoes, all the while making space for other customers and dodging the motos trying to get through. It was exhilarating, and really, a lot of fun.

Other than stay on the ship and do a bit of research and a lot of cleaning, I also got a walking tour of Phnom Penh, courtesy of Lieng, the night guard (we left at 6am), Sanh, the cook, and Jack, the electrician. We walked by the Independence Monument commemorating Cambodia's independence from France in 1953, a year before other Indochinese nations like Laos and Vietnam became independent. We crossed the bridge to Diamond Island where during the Water Festival last year, 300+ died in a massive but unnecessary panic (I won a mug on the island throwing darts at balloons, following Sanh's sage advice to just not think about it). We fed pigeons in front of the Royal Palace and I learned that Cambodia was once Hindu, and an old woman created the city's temple on a hill. It was great exercise, great learning, great company.

In the morning, the ship will move up 140km to the entrance to the Tonle Sap Lake, where it will spend the next six months. On Tuesday, I leave the ship and on Wednesday, I leave the country. It will break my heart to leave--I have once again fallen in love with the Khmer people and the kingdom of Cambodia, and I have made many wonderful friends among the crew. It is truly a blessing to have been able to be here for seven weeks. Thanks to all for your prayers and love, and I will catch you all stateside!