Here we are again, after a great month in another fantastic country it’s time for another post about the differences in cultures, habits and traditions that make travelling so much fun.
Cambodians, as well as Thai and Lao people, loove karaoke, it seems like every family owns at least two sets of equipment and they like to blast it on full volume for everybody’s enjoyment. We even saw a guy riding on his own with a microphone in his hand and a massive speaker at the back of his motorbike.
Ever tried sweet garlic bread? It’s as horrible as it sounds. In Cambodia they add sugar to pretty much every food and although it works nicely in many dishes such as curries I prefer my omelette savoury.
There are certain images that we kept seeing throughout the country. One of them is statues of a giant golden chicken-like bird whose significance, although we’ve been asking, still eludes us. If anyone knows please let me know.
Another one is posters of Cambodian People’s Party. Cambodia is officially a kingdom but someone told us the king doesn’t really have any political power, he only signs bills proposed by the government and when he doesn’t agree with the bill, he conveniently plans a holiday so someone else has to sign it instead.
Last but not least, lizards. I’ve never seen so many of them before, they like to huddle around lights where it’s warm and they occasionally pay you a visit in your room as well. But that’s ok, lizards are friends – they eat the mosquitos.
Let’s move on to clothing. Local ladies have got it right – pyjamas all day, baby. They’re comfy, lightweight, colourful and did I mention comfy?
The trendy attire wouldn’t be complete without a nice pair of flip flops and you don’t want those toes to get cold in this chilly climate so socks as well of course. They’re no ordinary socks though, no no no, these have been ingeniously designed especially for this type of footwear with a little divider for the flip flop strap. The whole outfit, albeit practical, makes them look a bit like lobsters getting ready for bed.
Locals have their own take on swimwear, too – bikini is not a thing in Cambodia (or the rest of Southeast Asia for that matter from what we’ve seen so far), people go swimming fully clothed so we followed suit and tell you what, it’s quite refreshing.
What’s also very refreshing, weirdly, is red wine which is served chilled. Sometimes it even comes with ice on the side in case the temperature is not quite to your liking yet.
Or you could order the omnipresent Angkor Beer. They’re currently running a promotion, if you see one of the letters that spell A-n-g-k-o-r on the bottle cap you get a prize, most commonly another free beer when you get the letter R. Shame we only found out about it on our penultimate day 😀
Lasagne for breakfast 