Global Reflections

This past weekend was a long one, thanks to Labor Day, and a very good one, thanks to the embassy’s Community Liaison Office (CLO). The CLO organized a trip to Battambang, and our family took full advantage of this lazy-person’s opportunity to see more of Cambodia without putting in any of the work to plan the trip. Battambang is Cambodia’s second largest city, but unlike the other major population centers, it retains the feel of traditional Cambodia—it doesn’t attract as many expats as Phnom Penh or as many tourists as Siem Reap. There are some temples worth seeing and a couple of tourist attractions that are unique to Battambang, and I hope to talk about these in a future post, but this post is all about the resort.

Battambang Resort just opened in January 2012, but it already has a reputation for excellence. As far as I can tell, the reputation is well deserved. The resort is owned by a married couple, who were readily available and engaged in making sure every need and want was satisfied. The staff was friendly—especially toward Alexa, as Cambodians in general love children—and did everything in their power to make our stay pleasant.

 The other major feature of the resort was the restaurant. We ate all of our meals there, rather than taking the 10- or 15-minute tuk tuk ride into town for meals. Breakfast was included in the price of the room, and we could choose from four pre-set menus: the Bakery Breakfast (pancakes, French toast, and various other breads), the American Breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage, and various breads), the Healthy Breakfast (fruit, yoghurt, cereal, and various breads), or the Asian Breakfast (I didn’t consider this one seriously enough to remember what was included), all of which came with coffee or tea, orange or apple juice, and butter and homemade dragonfruit jam as needed. Jeff and I ordered the American Breakfast for ourselves and the Healthy Breakfast for Alexa, and we all went away very satisfied. For lunch and dinner, there were sandwiches, salads, western meals, and Asian meals. During the course of the weekend, I tried one sandwich, one cheeseburger, one wrap, two Asian meals—sweet and sour pork and chicken with cashew nuts—and one dessert. All of it was very tasty and reasonably priced. The Asian meals were a little spicier than expected, but they still tasted good. The quality of the food undoubtedly was enhanced by the fact that a lot of it, including the rice, is grown in the resort’s garden and therefore was much fresher than the fare to which we Americans are accustomed. Even the potato chips were homemade!

 

Service at the restaurant was good. The staff was responsive to requests in those rare circumstances that our needs were not anticipated. There were a couple of meals where it took a while for the food to be prepared, but that was because the kitchen simply was overwhelmed by our large group all ordering at the same time. In most cases, an entire resort’s worth of guests probably do not order meals at once, and during the times that we were able to set our own schedules a bit more, and therefore spread out our meals, service was reasonably paced. The staff also was open to taking orders in advance and to preparing food for take-out, which proved convenient for our bus ride back to Phnom Penh.

 As a side note, there is a generator for the kitchen, and the seating area has lots of natural light (it’s covered but has no walls), so the restaurant remained open even with the power outage. The staff also had no problem with one family storing their babies’ bottles in the restaurant’s refrigerator during the outage or, for that matter, the rest of the time, in case of further power outages.

The resort grounds were beautiful, to put it simply. The pool was right beside the restaurant, with a lake on one side and the garden view rooms on the other. Fruit trees and flowers grew everywhere—I took a picture of a banana tree while sitting at lunch one day, and I have some gorgeous pictures of Alexa walking along the flower-bordered path to our bungalow. I did not ask for a tour of the gardens, though now I wish I had—I would love to have pictures of the rice field, the herb gardens, and the fruit trees.

The owners also happily arranged for rides to town, tuk tuk tours of the area, and tickets to the Phare Ponleu Selpak circus. There was a small gift shop where several of us purchased Kampot pepper, lemongrass, oil burners, or wooden canisters, Buddhas, or other carvings, all at reasonable prices.

 

 And, finally, speaking of prices: Battambang Resort may cost a little more than other hotels in Battambang, but it's well worth any slight increase in cost. By western standards, the prices are incredibly reasonable. Depending on the season and room type, prices range from $45 to $75 a night for a garden or lake room. (Apparently there also are or will be family rooms/suites available at a higher cost, but these did not seem to be in use during our stay.) Breakfast and wi-fi are included in the price. I don’t recall the exact prices of other meals, but most of them were $5 or less.

Bottom line—I highly recommend Battambang Resort. Whether you’re in the area for business or pleasure, whether you intend to spend your days sightseeing or lounging around the pool, Battambang Resort is a great place to make your home base.

Battambang series:

1: Battambang Resort

2: Phare Ponleu Selpak

3: A Morning in Battambang
4: Caves, Mountains, and Monkeys: An Afternoon in Battambang

 Unlike American holidays, many countries officially devote multiple days to celebrating a single holiday. Back in Egypt, these multi-day holidays were Islamic religious observances such as Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Here in Cambodia, some are Buddhist holidays (most notably, Pchum Ben), whereas others have less to do with religion and more to do with ancient cultural practices (Water Festival). Khmer New Year, a cultural celebration that includes religious elements, was observed this year from Friday, 13 April, through Monday, 16 April.

During Khmer New Year, many Cambodians who live in the cities return to the provinces to celebrate with their families. Many expats who live in Phnom Penh also leave, spending the holiday at the beaches of Kep or Sihanoukville, at the ancient temples around Siem Reap, or outside of Cambodia altogether. Those who stay in Phnom Penh over the holiday experience a rare treat: a nearly deserted city. Traffic is almost non-existent, tourist hot spots are significantly less crowded than usual, and (less ideally) many shops and restaurants are closed.

As an embassy employee, Jeff has the privilege of being off work for local holidays, so we had a four day weekend. Those who know us well will be unsurprised to learn that we chose to stay in Phnom Penh over the holiday weekend.

On Friday morning, we went to Monkey Business, where we met up with several friends and their little ones. Monkey Business is a great place to take kids of all ages. There are three separate play areas, one for infants under 1 year, one for children aged 1 to 4, and one for “big kids” over the age of 4. (The areas are designed for children of those ages, but the kids are allowed to play in any area, as long as they’re doing so safely and in a way that doesn’t prevent the younger kids from enjoying their areas … although, to be honest, the limitations always come from the parents, never from the staff.) The play areas have ball pits, slides, and various “obstacle courses” in which the kids can play. There’s a large seating area for the parents, with free wi-fi, and a café with decent prices and pretty good food for both kids and adults (they even have decent coffee). There’s even an area set up for pedicures and foot massages! We stayed at Monkey Business for maybe four hours on Monday morning, and left only because Alexa’s morning nap time had come and gone, and her afternoon nap time was approaching.

On Saturday, we waited until after Alexa’s morning nap, then made a trip up to Wat Phnom. We’d heard that there would be traditional games being played there pretty much all day, and we wanted to see what was going on. When we arrived, we noticed that the main entry area had been decorated with a lot of small flags. I recognized half of the flags as the national flag of Cambodia, but I did not recognize the others. A quick internet search once we got home revealed that those flags, as I suspected, were Buddhist. There didn’t seem to be much happening around the base of the hill, although there were more people there than usual. Some of these people were playing a game that looked an awful lot like hacky sack, and some crowded around a cage holding a monkey. We spent a few minutes letting Alexa see the monkey, but we left once an unwary woman started grabbing the monkey’s paw and laughing at its angry swipes at her—we didn’t want Alexa to develop a fear of monkeys once the woman received the scratches for which she was asking. Most people, however, were just standing or sitting around, chatting. We walked around the bottom of the hill for half an hour or so; we didn’t climb to the top because we didn’t expect the games to be played there, and it was possible that religious ceremonies (in which we did not want to participate) would be held there.

After our unsuccessful but pleasant attempt to find traditional games at Wat Phnom, we headed to Paragon Mall. We weren’t interested in the mall itself; that’s where Monkey Business is located, but other than that, the mall consists of a supermarket, a few restaurants, and a few small shops that hold no interest for us. One of the restaurants, however, is a great one: Swensen’s! This chain of ice cream parlors was started in the United States, though I hadn’t heard of it there. Jeff was very excited the first time we saw a Swensen’s here, and immediately decided that we had to go there. The visit this weekend was our second time at a Swensen’s here in Cambodia (the first one we visited was at Soriya shopping center), and it didn’t disappoint. All three of us were very happy to have ice cream sundaes for lunch, especially after traipsing around in the heat and humidity.

We spent the rest of the weekend lounging around the house. I read, Jeff beat whichever video game that is that features John Shepard (the second one—he hasn’t started the newest one yet), and Alexa played, looked at books, and watched “Uh-Oh” (her name for Curious George) and Veggie Tales. We had planned to attend church on Sunday, but our tuk tuk driver informed us that he was going to his province, so he couldn’t drive us, and … well … we don’t know how to get there on our own. We have driving directions, which we passed on to him with great success, but our maps don’t cover that far out from downtown, and we weren’t even sure how to locate the starting point for the directions. That’s something we need to fix before the next big holiday, though. We also had intended to go back to Monkey Business on Monday morning, but we decided on Sunday night to be lazy and not set an alarm clock. We considered taking advantage of the empty city to visit a relatively deserted National Museum, too, but laziness struck again. We will get around to the museum one of these days, though … even if not until we have some more friends visit us this fall!

On Monday, my hair dryer died. I was using it when I heard a crack. Then I smelled, and finally saw, smoke. As Jeff puts it, I had “released the magic smoke,” and there was no hope of recovery. Ok, not a big deal, I thought. I’ll just let my hair air dry (let the frizzies begin!) and then go buy a new hair dryer.

Only, it became a big deal. I asked my housekeeper where I could buy one, and she wasn’t sure, because like most Cambodians, she has perfectly straight, shiny, beautiful hair and doesn’t need a hair dryer. However, she had two suggestions: the third floor of Soriya Center, or Central Market. Now, I’ve been warned that electronics purchased anywhere in Cambodia, but particularly in the tiny unnamed stalls of markets, tend to last a week or two—if you’re lucky—before they unceremoniously release the magic smoke. So I opted for Soriya Center, a nearby mall that has many unnamed stalls but also a few “real” stores.

Upon my arrival, I went directly to the third floor. It had a bunch of stalls and a large Sony store with lots of big screen TVs. No luck there. I tried the fourth floor—there was a large store with some household goods, but when I asked for a hair dryer, the saleslady tried to sell me some gel. I tried the first and second floors. No luck there either. I exited Soriya completely discouraged. But there was still hope: my tuk-tuk driver knows where everything is. I explained what I wanted … then explained again … and a third time, adding hand motions. Ahh, he understands! Now, my driver has excellent English, so the fact that it took three tries to make him understand should have been a clue! He didn’t know, but maybe Bayon supermarket? I had to go there anyway, so sure, let’s try that, despite my significant doubts.

As I suspected, Bayon did not have hair dryers. I resigned myself to weeks of frizzy hair while I waited for a hair dryer to arrive from my friends at Amazon. But my driver does not accept defeat easily. No, he cruised past a whole row of electric stores on the way home, decided one looked promising, and sent me in. I peered through the glass door and saw nothing but expensive cameras. As I could see the entire store, I didn’t go in. I told my driver to admit defeat that I would order one from the States. He took me home—but he cruised slowly, and slowed down even more when electric shops were in view.

I spent the rest of the week with frizzy, air-dried hair. Definitely not my preference, but not that bad in the grand scheme of things.

Then came this afternoon.

A little background: When newcomers arrive, the embassy provides a welcome kit, consisting of various household goods—sheets, towels, pots, that kind of thing. Once the newcomer’s stuff arrives, the welcome kit is returned to the embassy. Well, our welcome kit had some particularly useful items that we don’t want to lose. A rice cooker. Three high-quality, truly universal power strips that we currently are using, even though our stuff is here.

Now, we knew we’d have to give these things back. We really should have bought our own long ago. Unfortunately, we did not buy our own. However, welcome kit items usually are purchased locally, so we assumed we’d be able to buy them quickly. In preparation for returning the welcome kit on Monday, Jeff emailed the people who stock the welcome kit and asked them from whence those oh-so-precious power strips came. They helpfully gave us the name and location of the shop that stocks these little miracles.

So today, I ventured forth, armed with a name, a location, a driver, one of the power strips so there could be no confusion, and every expectation of success. I planned to augment my success with the purchase of a rice cooker, which my housekeeper had promised was available everywhere, even in the Sony store at Soriya Center.

Ah, the hopefulness of naiveté.

My trusty tuk-tuk driver got me to the correct store, with a slight detour because it was on the opposite side of the divided road, so we went to the next intersection where we could turn around … only to see the “No U-Turn” sign and the two policemen on the other side making illegal U-turners illegally U-turn themselves right back around. So it took a little longer to detour, not that big of a deal, especially on an errand in which I’d virtually been guaranteed success.

We pulled up outside the store and I confidently ventured in. “Cumriep sua,” I greeted the salesmen, trying out my Khmer language skills (with little success, judging from their faces). One of them responded in excellent English, so I pulled out my power strip and told him that I needed more. “Exactly like that?” Yes. “We don’t have that. That was ordered from overseas.” But I was told that it came from you. Do you do business with the U. S. embassy? “Yes, but they didn’t order any power strips from us last time. That didn’t come from us.”

Central Market

We had an unexpected opportunity today to visit Central Market, one of the large mostly open-air shopping areas in Phnom Penh. Our sponsor was taking her daughter there to buy supplies for an upcoming birthday party, and she invited us to tag along. We gratefully accepted the offer and headed out for an afternoon—okay, a couple of hours—of playing tourist while maybe learning something useful about where to do some shopping.

Jewelry vendors under the dome

Central Market was not really what I expected. I think I had in mind something more like the Khan el Khalili in Cairo, which was very much geared toward tourists. There were areas of it where actual Egyptians shopped for useful or necessary items, but the areas nearest the major roads were filled with shops that catered to westerners, selling kitschy pyramids and perfume bottles and carved camels, as well as the ever-popular scarves and wooden inlay boxes. So for Central Market, I had visions of kitschy temple models and Buddhas and who knows what else, plus the obligatory scarves and t-shirts. I was way off, although there was a little of what I expected.

Fresh food

Central Market, known in Khmer as Psar Thmay (literally “New Market”), contains vendors that sell just about anything you can think of—the vast majority of it useful. I saw more clothing booths than I care to remember, selling children’s clothes, casual and dressy clothes for both men and women, and even underwear and bras (and yes, the obligatory scarves and t-shirts, too). There were shoe vendors, electronics vendors, lots of jewelry vendors. A whole row of stalls sold fresh flowers, and an entire section was dedicated to fresh foods, including fruits, spices, and fish still swimming around in small tanks. That isn’t to say that there weren’t stalls dedicated to less pragmatic goods: we also saw paintings, Buddha figures, purses, wall hangings, even one stall of wigs.

One of the main entrances

The market itself is housed in and around a bright yellow colonial-style building. The entire complex takes up a whole city block, from what I could tell. Stalls lined the sidewalks facing the streets, and more stalls were set up inside a warren of small paths that wove throughout the block. There seemed to be four main entrances to the building itself, one on each side of the block. A wide pathway, lined with stalls on both sides, led to each entrance. The center part of the building—a dome—was filled with jewelry vendors. Four arms branched out from the dome, extending toward the corners of the city block, and these sections contained all sorts of vendors, mostly clothing and electronics, at least in the two arms that we investigated.

Our purchases

We did not intend to make any purchases today; we went mostly to see the place and learn what was available, not to buy anything unless we happened upon something that we knew we needed. However, I re-learned a valuable lesson that apparently I forgot during my summer in the States: if you stop too long to look at something, you really are signaling an intention to buy. I stopped to look at some cute wall hangings that I thought may look nice in Alexa’s room or in the playroom once we get it set up. I paused too long, then compounded my error by calling Jeff over to look. The lady working the booth promptly unhooked the hangings from their peg and handed them to me—all twenty or more of them. It was catch them or let them all fall onto the pavement. I tried to tell her that we were just looking today, just getting ideas, but she either didn’t understand or, equally likely, chose not to understand. I made my third mistake by asking her how much they cost, so I would know when we came back. She started out at $5 each. I thanked her for the information and repeated that we were just looking today. Suddenly, for me, there was a “special price”—$4 each. And a bag containing another 20 or 25 wall hangings appeared out of thin air and was dumped on the table she’d just set up for that very purpose. As I continued to tell her that we were just looking today, the price dropped all the way to $2 each, and Jeff announced that we should go ahead and buy a couple. We bought five. As we left, Jeff said quietly to me, “That’s the most effective bargaining I never meant to do.” He was right. I do wonder, if we’d stuck with our original intentions just a little while longer, if the price would have dropped all the way to $1 each, or even to two for a dollar.

After our purchase, we walked around a little longer, but we didn’t want to stay very long. Alexa was sleepy when we left the house and fell asleep mere moments after we arrived at the market. It was a pleasant day, temperature-wise, but having a sleeping baby pressed to your body makes it get real hot real quick. Jeff bore the brunt of that discomfort, as I had brought the camera along and, most of the time, was either snapping pictures or holding it tightly in my hand to make sure the pickpockets had no chance at it. We made a quick trip across the street to try to get a SIM card for my mobile phone—no luck, as they have to make a photocopy of my passport and visa, and my diplomatic passport (which contains the visa) is with the Cambodian government right now so they can process my diplomatic ID. After that unsuccessful foray into the mobile phone shop, we called our sponsor to see how she was doing on her shopping. She had just purchased a pair of sunglasses that wouldn’t be ready for her for another 30 minutes (maybe one day I’ll understand what the delay was all about), so we decided to just take a tuk-tuk home.

All in all, it was a successful trip. I’m not at all nervous about going there again on my own, although I’d prefer to have an idea of what things should cost so I won’t be going into my deliberate negotiations blind. We didn’t intend to, but we did end up picking up some nice decorative items that also should help deaden the echoes in our house—tile floors with relatively small area rugs, plus extremely high ceilings, with nothing on the walls yet means that this place is an echo chamber right now. And we got out and saw some more of the city, rather than staying cooped up inside as is our habit on Jeff’s days off. We even arrived back home before the rain started. Yes, I’d call it successful on all fronts.