3/3/12 Saturday- The First Day in Phnom Phen

I made to the hotel on Friday night after 24 hrs of traveling and  had 2 adventures right away on Saturday! Unfortunately, my luggage got left in Soule South Korea- I made the connecting plane in Soule with only 5 min to spare, but  luggage did not.  Luckily, Korean air was very efficient and my 2 bags arrived at the hotel on Sunday morning via motor cycle- It is such a happy feeling when your luggage catches up with you!!

 Adventure #2 was a bike ride @ 7:00 am Saturday with the "Easy Riders". I had my bike helmet in my carry- on (thanks to Steve's excellent advice!!)  so I thought it would be good to go for a bike ride to help get over jet lag.  I was totally unprepared for how wild and crazy the traffic is in the city and it definitely keeps you awake!  There are lots of motor bikes, cars, Tuk,Tuks, and people- mostly everyone goes on the right ,  BUT, not always- some bikes and motor cycle ride in the side lane against the traffic.  So you have very short time to decide how to avoid moving vehicles ahead and behind you. And then there is a person is crossing the street in the middle of all of this.  It is just Crazy in the city!!  For those of you who have been to India, or live in India, my CSC colleague from India, Harinder, says it is much like the traffic there.


But we made it through morning rush hour and headed out a road along the one of the rivers. There were so many interesting things along the route- Wedding and Funeral observances where the brightly colored set up comes right out and takes up 1/2 the road, Buddhist monks walking alongside the road in their orange robes, and most of the houses up on stilts.  Many of the little kids along the roadside waved and said "hello, hello" and we waved back at them. We stopped at a little place for breakfast and had Rice with an egg and strips of pork on top. Had to be careful not to eat the ice though, since we couldn't be sure about the water there. We biked for ~ 3 1/2 hrs and on the way back we decided to take a Tuk, Tuk to avoid the busy traffic in the city.  It was a fascinating way to spend the first morning in Cambodia!

#ibmcsc cambodia