Sunday, March 16, 2008

Cambodia - Phnom Penh


I have been very good about dressing modestly on this trip, but the only clean clothes I had on the day of our visit to the Royal Palace was a pair of long pants and a choice between a long sleeve top or a tank top. It was really hot and humid in Phnom Penh, so I chose the tank top, but draped a scarf over my shoulders for extra coverage. We proceeded to the Royal Palace. Next to the ticket office, along with the 'no smoking' sign and 'dress modestly' sign, was a picture of a woman with a scarf draped over her, with a big red X running across it. I guess I wasn't the only one that tried to get away with the tank top + scarf combination. I had to buy and wear the 'I am a culturally insensitive tourist' T-shirt sold for $1 next to the ticket office. Sort of like Hester in the Scarlet Letter:
Wat Phnom:
From 1975 to 1979, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime took over the country, killing over one million Cambodians. This is the Tuol Sleng Museum, the former site of Khmer Rouge's Security Prison 21 (S-21), the largest center of detention and torture. Actually, only Bill went - I wasn't sure if I could stomach the gruesome details:

We were reading through a tourist brochure when we came across an ad for a North Korean restaurant - we had to check it out. The waitresses that worked there were definitely North Koreans (I can tell from their accent). The restaurant had a thirty minute music show, starring none other than the very waitresses that just served us food! We called them Super Waitresses, because not only were they extremely attentive and polite servers, they could sing, dance, play a musical instrument (violin, key board, traditional Korean harp, electric guitar and...castanets) and speak multiple languages:
This is Malis, the nicest restaurant for Cambodian cuisine according to our hotel guy:

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

soo funny.

was the north korean restaurant government-owned (like a tourism outlet of the 'great heavenly place of socialist koreans' - or whatever bookchosun people call their 'great' country??)? they let 'namjosun' people in the restaurant??? did they know you were 'namjosun cheonyo'??

i'm just fascinated..

woniga

Anonymous said...

Wow...love the picture of the dancing waitresses -- just like those North Korean propaganda films!

So how was the food at the North Korean restaurant? Did you have the Pyongyang Naemyun?

Anonymous said...

Woni & Jikja - Most of the customers there were South Korean tour groups... Some of the older men got really drunk and tried to flirt with the waitresses, poor girls (all waitresses there were very pretty). I really wanted to talk to them and I think they were curious about me too, because the girl that brought my check sort of lingered around the table, but I totally froze under pressure and couldn't think of a single thing to say! I am shy...hehe. Yes, I had Pyongyang Naemyun and it was excellent.

- Jeeheon