A Cultural Experience at Sihanoukville

In Cambodia, they celebrate three New Years -- International New Year (Jan 1), Chinese New Year (on Valentine's Day this year) and Khmer New Year (around April 14 this year). Just before all my colleagues disperse to the provinces to visit their friends and families, we decided to visit Sihanoukville, a rather popular beach area in southern Cambodia, for fun. Here are some great pictures =)

On the way:

My lady colleagues taking a break from the four-hour drive... We stopped in Kampong Speu province and had "wildlife cuisine."

Preparing for the beach:

Cambodia road-trips = FOOD! One cannot do without food when traveling with Cambodians. Our journey was therefore partly occupied by buying food, cooking food and eating food. We stopped by a local market before heading to Sokha beach, one of the beaches owned by the fanciest hotel in the area. These fish product sellers from the market sells anything from grilled fish to fish sauce, fish paste, fish cakes, stir-fried fish, etc. Interesting local tastes.

Durian is a love-it-or-hate-it type of fruit and is a local delicacy. My colleagues would argue whether the durians from Kampong Cham province or Kampot province taste better and bash about durians imported from Thailand ("Buy local product!").

I was used to eating fruits plain. Say, for grapes, I would simply throw them into my mouth. But now I know about the local way for eating fruits; you must dip fruits (mangoes, grapes, apples and other exotic tropical fruits) into a mixture of salt and spices (the red stuff above). Sometimes, stronger sauces such as fish paste and shrimp paste may be used. When asked why they add some many additives into fruits, my colleagues would say that they need to "neutralize the sour taste." I would not approve this practice from the health perspective but that's the local way.

Going to Bamboo Island:

We set off to Bamboo Island, about an hour off the coast of Sihanoukville, at 8am. The boat was quite flimsy and most of life jackets were worn, but as my local colleagues would say, "the more the merrier."

Beautiful scenes from the boat trip:






Other memorable moments:

My colleagues heard about this "shark fin soup" place and thought it would be interested in try this prized Chinese delicacy. But... this "shark fin soup" turns out to be a version of the local "suki-soup" (same as the Chinese hotpot). They gave us a pot of soup and dumped in a few small pieces of shark fin and a few chunks of shark meat -- that's it! Though a bit disappointing, the seafood there is really tasty and fresh. We all ate like pigs.

Sunset in Sihanoukville:

We went to this beach to take pictures of sunset. From afar, we saw a few children running and dancing happily along the water. What were they doing?

They turned out to be scavengers. Waste collecting and scavenging is classified by the government as one of the "worst forms of child labour" and must be eliminated as soon as possible. But the problem is difficult to tackle as many of these children work in the informal economy and are hired only on a casual basis.

These four children said that every weekend, they would walk about 4-5km from their villages to pick rubbish. They earn about US$1 (4,000 riels) for their effort. Their income may supplement some family expenses. But being so far away from home and having no money for transportation place these children at risk. Even these children themselves recall sometimes being chased by strangers -- which some of my colleagues speculate as hand-hunters looking to sell children into the services sector (including working in entertainment, child prostitution, etc.). The look of these few children touched my heart even in the midst of this relaxing trip. There is still so much to do in this country and these poor faces remind us that many children like them are still working in hazardous and demeaning jobs and should be helped to get proper education...


This picture concludes our trip. It was really a cultural experience to travel with my Cambodian colleagues. Most of the time, I stood/sat silently to observe their actions. At times, I would give my Chinese opinion about the "best ways" to do certain things; they would return with unconvinced faces and strange looks. While many Cambodians have Chinese blood, in some ways, they are very Chinese (more Chinese than me). In other ways, they are very un-Chinese. This interesting mixture of cultures is part of why Cambodia is so fascinating to me.