Trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia pt.2

Assalamu’alaikum, hey there! Hope you doing well today. So, I wanna continue my story or experience in Phnom Penh in October 2019. If you have not read the first part yet, make sure you read that first so that you know the whole story XD.

As I told you, I visited Phnom Penh not for holiday, so the second day was working time haha. We got up so early, okay it’s not “got up” because I believe we do get up early every day for praying. I'm gonna change it become “prepared”. We prepared ourselves so early because we made an appointment with the first NGO in the morning around 9. We also did not know the route or the condition that might come up. So, it was better to be early than late. The meal we got for breakfast were only instant foods we brought from Indonesia because it is fast and halal ofc haha. It was cereal and noodles. Some of us ate had cereals and some of us has noodles as the breakfast. Morning view from our guest house was really nice, calming and peaceful. After we prepared and did some briefing in the lobby, we went out of the building.

Fig 1. Morning View from the Guest House

We decided to take a walk for a half of the journey then we continued to order the tuktuk for the rest of the journey. The road had already been crowded with the vehicles because it was rush hour I guess. There was a city bus passing by. We were interested to take a city bus but we do not understand the route and I think it is hard to understand the route of the city bus. We did not want to take a risk because we made an appointment haha. We also thought our destinations was not really near with the shelter so, we prefer to walk or order online transportation.

We walked around 30 mins until we decided to order the online transportation, it was tuktuk. Oh when we were in Phnom Penh, there were 2 people who in charge to bring the money (in riel and dollar). It was me and a friend of mine. I don’t know why I’m telling you this, but I guess it was kinda funny haha. The group of tuktuk has been made up correctly this time. It was much better than the first time we ordered the tuktuk hahah.

Okay, so we got the driver and we went to the first NGO. One more thing about the road in Phnom Penh, they were seemed in hurry and there was a guy who control the traffic there. Not a police man but an ordinary guy standing in the middle of the road. It was terrifying as the vehicles were so close like about to hit each other. But, the people there were so chill, they even did not use the horn as I told you in the first part. They were not angry as well. It was so unique. So, another impression come up. Cambodian people are so chill which is cool!

We finally arrived in the first NGO. We were too early for about 30 mins or something. At first,we did not notice the building because of it did not show the name clearly  so it is hard to notice that it is that NGO’s building. We were even separated, the first group of tuktuk and the second group of tuktuk. We called it junior group and senior group by the way based on the batch haha. I was in that group who separated too far, so our tuktuk did not notice the building and we passed it for about 500 m(?). It was kinda far. We also did not notice about that, that is why we stopped there until we realized that we had to walk again haha.

We met an indonesian there again. He was from Java, or something. I forgot anyway. We had small talk and leave. There were some fancy cars parked there like Tesla, Ferrari, etc. Then we spent those 15 minus to take pictures there til finally the time showed 09.00. We were there, in the first NGO for about 3 hours. So, at 1 pm we left. The people were so nice anyway, we discussed many things. They were so friendly too.

It was so hot there (ofc, it’s 1 pm). We decided to look for place for us to pray but there was no mosque near there. We finally found a mall near there (around 1 km). there must be praying room there. We decided to walk to that Mall. It was Aeon Mall actually. It was so tiring and hot, not gonna lie. We finally arrived at the mall. It was so fascinating when you are from outside with hot temperature then going inside to the building with cool temperature hhhaha. There were a lot of visitor at that time.

Fig 2. Near the Royal Palace

By looking at map, we found the praying room. We took a rest for a little bit in the praying room. The praying room was so clean, neat and seemed elegant. There were only us who pray at that time. We actually planned to have lunch there, but one of the employee at the mall said that most of the meals there were not halal. So, after praying we went out from the mall and ordered the online transportation to go the halal restaurant. It was actually Indonesian restaurant and it was near the destination we would like to visit. As always, the junior group got tuktuk so late while the senior tuktuk always had their tuktuk so fast.

Fig 3. The National Monument

Finally, our tuktuk had come. Here’s another funny thing. So the driver was not alone. He was with a girl that we assumed she was her wife or her girlfriend. But, they were so young, so maybe her girlfriend. They were so romantic. They listened song together through one earphone while the driver was driving. The driver seemed so pro at driving. We barely got hit by the big truck but luckily we were safe :”). After that, the journey felt so long, I and my friend feel asleep. In tuktuk. Those rocky roads woke us up and we had not been in the restaurant yet.

Okay, so finally we arrived in the restaurant. Our senior group had been waiting for us. We even did not believe whether we were still alive or no hahah. Long story short, we ordered the food and ate it. The taste was so nice and so Indonesian haha. We exchange some money there as well, riel to dollar. So we had more dollar. Oh the destination we visited was uff I forget the name. It was national monument or something. But the point is we were just strolling around to get there. We passed the beautiful huge park. There were  so many people there as well. They were playing football, dancing, etc. We surely took pictures there. A lot of pictures.

Fig 4. River view

Oh I got it! we planned to visit the royal palace but it was closed because we were late. So we just stroling around it as many people chilling there. It was also near the big river. We sat there and played some games. It was so fun. There were also some sellers sold unordinary things like spiders and other unordinary insects. We could see the sunset there actually. But we left it before the sun went down because we wanted to go to the next destination, night market.

The night market was kinda far from the Royal Palace. But, we decided to walk because we wanted to see the city night view in Phnom Penh. It was colorful, many lights light up this city. It was actually tiring, but with that view, the crowded, I did not feel so tired. Long story short, we arrived at the night market. Guess what?!1!!1 it was not the night market we would like to visit! Well, it was such a nice place too, so colorful and the music was too loud haha. But, it was a place for kids to play :’). It was more like amusement park. Then we realized that it was not the Night Market we planned to go. Our Cambodian friend also told us the same that we were at the wrong place hahaha. So we just bought some mineral waters there. There were ice creams but we did not know whether it is halal or no.

Fig 5. Night River View

Because we did not know what to do, we ordered tuktuk to go back to our guest house. This time, the driver was hard too find. I mean, we found them, but they could barely find us. After a few times trying, we finally get the driver who could find us.

Fig 6. Evening City View

We finally arrived at the guest house, we did some evaluations for today in a lobby and short briefing for tomorrow. Then we went to our bedrooms to take a rest and sleep. 

Continue reading Trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia pt.2

Trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia pt. 1

Assalamu’alaikum hello there! Hope you are okay and doing well ^^. Finally I can see you again after 4 years I left this blog empty. After I found that I need something different to do aside from academical stuffs, youtube and stuffs. So, I decided to write again on this blog. I wanna share my first experience going abroad in 2019. It was Cambodia. I have actually ever written an article which was published in International Humanity Newsletter held by SALAM UI. Here’s the link https://issuu.com/salamui/docs/ihn but I wanna make this more detail here.

I visited there in October 11^th 2019 after all the drama and the doubts came back and forth whether we would go or nah. The visitation was not for holiday anyway, it was for organization business and stuffs. You know, like visiting the relations, discussion and stuffs. The sponsorship proposal has been made. Until that time when we booked our ticket plane, we knew that we were gonna make it come true.

Ticket plane on October 11^th 2019 at 11.50 am was booked. Yes it was morning flight. Then we had to deal with the hotel or place that we would spend the nights there. Luckily, we got relation or pal, kinda, that help us to book convenient and nice guest house there. Everything seemed easy at that time.

The day came. We went to the airport, to the gate in, checked the passports and stuffs. And flew. Oh anyway there were 6 of us (4 girls and 2 boys). I was so excited and panicked at the same time. It was my first flight. I was actually so scared of flying by plane and always avoiding plane even though when I had to went to another island in my country as my country is archipelago. So I always went by ship, not plane. Okay so the plane finally took off and I just closed my eyes at that time XD. It was so horrifying tbh. Until I know that the plane has became steady (?) I mean when it flew steadily, I opened my eyes.

Fig 1. a view from the airplane

The flight took 2 hours or something, I do not remember it well. We finally landed in Phnom Penh. There was a bus which picked us and other passenger up from the plane to the airport. I still could not believe that I had landed in another country haha. Okay, so as we arrived in the airport, we filled a form about our details and went to take our suitcases. The immigration session was not so difficult anyway and did not take long time. We could answer the questions well and we probably seemed trustworthy haha.

Fig 2. Phnom Penh International Airport

When we were outside the airport, the first thing we afforded was the SIM cards and the data packages. Then we opened up our online transportation app where you can find your driver and take you to the places that you want. The app was so different with what we usually get used to in Indonesia. There were more choices on transportation mode like SUV which is a fancy car, remorque (it was like motorcycle with the face-to-face-seats cart that can contains up to 4 people), and tuktuk (the transportation we always used there. Tuktuk is really unique transportation, it is like bajaj (the transportation in my country). I’m gonna make the special single paragraph to describe it.

It can contains up to 3 passengers with the driver drives in the front. The machine is actually like the motorcycle. Each tuktuk has its own characteristic. The drivers seemed love to decorate tuktuk. Another advantage of tuktuk is it is much cheaper than the car and with its size, it was okay in any kind of road. The driver could drive well and seemed familiar with the road and where ever the destination we would go. Most of the drivers could speak English, but even though they could not, there was no problem in paying and getting exchange. Oh Cambodia uses 2 kind of currency, US Dollar and Riel. It was kinda difficult to get used to use 2 currencies as they have different conversion.

The first impression that came up in my mind about Cambodia is the sky was sooo clear, not gonna lie. I think the pollution is not that bad there. It was a bit hotter than Jakarta tho, but it was not a big deal. So, the tuktuk has arrived in a place we were waiting for it. We ordered 2 tuktuk and we have not had any idea about the position of the people at that time so we made a bad decision of dividing people or you can say group of tuktuk. We could barely move as we brought suitcases too at that time.

The way to our guesthouse was not that far, about 15 – 20 mins. The road condition in Cambodia was crowded but they did not use horn that much which was a good thing. We often saw many fancy cars there and the driver told us that it is common thing there. The drivers also sit in the left side of the car which it was not common thing for us. So we tried to adapt ourselves about the side where we walk on.

Finally, we were about to arrive the guesthouse. We decided to stop in a big mosque near our guest house to pray first. Not all of us, actually. It was me and 2 friends of mine. The first group had arrived in the guest house. There was also a problem with my suitcase where it could not slide properly because something cracked. Nice friend of mine finally exchanged the suitcase, so I brought his and he brought the cracked mine. The mosque was so beautiful. It was all white and it had nice park there. There was a yard where you could see children playing football too. There were no other people there. Until Guess what, we met Indonesians there to pray. We talked to them for a minute and continued our journey to the guest house haha. Here’s the picture of the

mosque by the way.

                                                               Fig 3. Al-Serkal Mosque

We finally arrived at the Boeung Meas guest house. The guest house was nice there was 4 or 5 floors I’m not sure. There were also a mini market there where we could get free hot water. So, we made our things, cleaned ourselves, laid down for a minute and checked out stuffs until 7 pm.

Fig 4. One of our rooms

We have already made an appointment with our relation/pal/friend there. She was with her sister who still studied in university near there. We had dinner together in a halal restaurant near out guest house with them and talked about Cambodia. It was kinda difficult to find halal foods actually. Luckily, our guest house was near the mosque, then there were some halal restaurants available there. Another unique thing (well, at least it was not common thing in my country) was they, Cambodians really loved salty ketchup. In their tables there were always salty ketchup instead of sweet ketchup. The day finally ended and we went back to our guest house to take a rest before the next tiring day. 

Fig 5. Bonus pic : Mineral water i got from our guest house

Continue reading Trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia pt. 1