What I wrote in Phnom Penh

0720hrs, Comme a la Maison, Phnom Penh, 26 June 2013

It's my 11th and second last day in the capital of Cambodia. A city that was abandoned for 3 years in the 1970s during the Khmer Rouge regime.

I am sitting in a French cafe, with a palmier and a cafe creme, reading a book titled Khmer Mythology. Tomorrow, I plan to experience S21 (You know, come to think of it, you have had a disproportionate influence in my life..)

It has been a long 11 days. Concur with parents that this has been a great exposure for me. 3 parts politics, 1 part culture. Was I expecting a pristine devotion to culture?...

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0702hrs, Brown Cafe, Street 51, Phnom Penh, 27 June 2013

Been a bit girl interrupted with the reflections.

So, what shall I remember when I recall Phnom Penh? Bunches of wires at street corners and running across streets. Motorcycles, herds of them, some holding whole families of five- 3 scrawny children sandwiched between nonchalant parent- the gleeful face of children between their parent's legs as they speed past the Independence Monument. All the fantastic food at fantastic prices: Khmer, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, and French, of course. Creamy Khmer curry. Crossing the big road. The butter-yellow dome of the Central Market. Trekking down a dark and muddy road with Sarah in search of udon, to no avail.

And then UNESCO. It has been an eye-opener. On the frivolous side, it has been a week of adding gorgeous destinations to my bucketlist for travel-- really, some of them are just magnificent-- like, I teared up when they got inscribed. I expect to cry buckets in 2015 (here's me, being an optimist). On a serious note, it was a good dive into the deep end of how things work in this programme. What really happens and what the road to inscription looks like. Our timeline is (italicised) tight. And I'm not sure we'll make it. But yeap-- all we can do is our jobs.

I'm back here at Brown because they do lattes-- and to be honest, their pain aux raisin is better by a mile. And I can see outside and people-watch. The 24-hr store where I bought cola mentos to survive the meetings, and tuktuk drivers snoozing in their vehicles. Phnom Penh waking up.

Would I come again? Maybe. Definitely to Siam Reap once in my life, obviously for Angkor.

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