December 20, 2004
Cambodia Trip 1
I am sorry for not uploading a blog entry for a long time and for not replying emails that I got during the trip. I went to Cambodia with Yukiko, who is a friend of mine at Sophia University, and now working at a law firm in Washington DC as a research analyst.
We had a great time in Cambodia, were fascinated by the Angkor temples, saw and heard Cambodian lifestyles, learned many tragic stories under the Pol-Pot regime, did a lot of shopping and relaxed. Here I want to try to write down some episodes from our trip.
Yukiko and I do not see each other often since she is living in the US while I in Taiwan. Inevitably, we had to meet at the Siem Reap Airport in Cambodia. When I was waiting for a transfer at the Phnom Penh Airport, I thought up with an idea of exchanging money. I had some US dollars, Japanese Yen, and New Taiwanese dollars, so I exchanged JPY 20,000 (about US$180) into Cambodian Riel. I ended up getting 720,000 riels, all in 10,000 riel bills. I was simply shocked with the thick bunch of bills, but right after leaving the banking counter, I noticed that everything is selling in dollars at local stores. You can of course use Cambodian Riel, but they calculate 4,000 Riel=US$1 for convenience although the exact rate is something like 3,890 Riel=US$1. So you lose some cents every time you pay in Riel. They use US dollars for large transactions and use riels for small change. If you have a chance to go to Cambodia, JUST BRING US DOLLARS and DO NOT EXCHANGE THEM INTO RIELS!
We stayed in Siem Reap at a hotel called "Secrets of Elephants" (yes! I already liked it before actually going there because of its name!). The owner of the hotel is a French person. Because of the historical and colonial connection, many French people visit there, live there, and do business there. Some taxi drivers complained to Yukiko that some French companies do not allow local taxi drivers and other service personnel to be involved in their business. It seems our hotel was fine in those terms.
The hotel was very pretty as you can see from the picture. The people working there were very nice and friendly. The only complaint we had was that there were too many mosquitos in the room. I would love to stay there again but will definitely prepare a mosquito net or an electronic repellent in advance.