Welcome the New Year. A very quiet affair in Kilomet 9 and the rest of Cambodia. With commitment of handing over the Qurban donation completed, it was time to explore Phnom Penh. My Lonely Planet (Cambodian edition) guide book became handy. The Cambodian Edition is actually a reprint in Cambodia (a ciplak), and costing a fraction of its original cost :-)
Ustaz Dr Rahmat will leave for home today, regretfully, he said. Dr Rahmat obviously have fallen in love with the friendly Muslims of Cambodia. And I must stress strongly, NOTHING BEYOND THAT! Right, Dr Rahmat? But, I must show at least one shot of a Cambodian wedding :-) Hmmm
First, there are several market places to explore. The Cambodians called these markets as Psar Tuol Tom Pong, Psar Olympic, Psar Thmel. Something familiar here? Well, what can you find at these Psars? Whatever we can find in our Pasars too, well maybe a little bit more exotic.
Let's look at some of the delicacies. Yummy...err....i.e. if you can stomach them. How about deep-fried scorpions (I think) or some other exotic crawlies. Looking at the abundance, these poor crawlies must be real delicacies. Who knows, perhaps these are aphrodisiacs. Never mind, no thank you.
But the sweets have resemblance with Kelantanese sweet delicacies found at Psar Siti Khatijah in Kota Bharu. So, you notice my spelling error?? Hard to resist but resist I must. H & H factor (Halal & Hygiene).
Of course, being once a French colony, French loafs are sold everywhere. On the streets, in the open where the dusts that settles on them add certain flavors not found in the ori French loaf. You my friend, must have s great resisting stomach to eat them. On our way to Kg Cham, we bought some, sold in a covered container.
The ladies will of-course love to visit the Psars. I dare not show too many pictures, suffice just one display of the expensive branded handbags. Hmm....Well, I bought a North Face haversack for US$ 8 and 2 T-shirts for US$ 3.
Beggars there are, but not really a great annoyance. Trying to be sympathetic may spoil your shopping. If you want to, give once you have done all the shopping and wanting to leave the Psar. You don't want them accompanying you when you flashed out your US$. You will feel downright guilty buying all those non-essentials while a poor lady with a kid looked at you in self-pity!
Makan in Phnom Penh will not be a problem. There is even a Malaysian Restaurant. Owner, Mariyam speaks Malay, married to a gentleman from Klang. They operate a tour agency too, both in Phnom Penh and Klang.
After lunch, it was off to send Dr Rahmat to the airport. Lucky we did not have to rely on the trishaw, otherwise, Dr Rahmat may miss his plane. Somehow though, I have this funny feeling that Dr Rahmat may not really mind missing the plane.
There are other places to explore, but I have decided to leave that to the following day.
1 comment:
For the note, there are a lot of Cambodian and Cham Malays currently residing in Kelantan.
They are Muslims, behave like the Kelantanese and even managed to speak fluent Kelantanese ! Most hardly distinguishable since not few Kelantanese are IndoChinese descent.
Thus, no wonder the kuihs you showed up there look much like the Kelantanese Buah Tanjung and Jala Emas ! Either the Kelantanese learned from them or the other way around, I have no idea. But one thing for sure is, they are obviously connected somehow.
Interesting.
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