A vegan, vegetarian, coeliac and omnivore flew into Cambodia….
A vegan, a coeliac, a vegetarian and an omnivore flew into Cambodia….
— Harry Bartram, 2019
It sounds like the start of a terrible joke, but instead it’s the start of a great adventure. After paying far too much for remorques (tuk tuks) to the RUA campus. We settled into the guesthouse and started getting our bearings.
Side note: Seriously, have PassApp downloaded and ready to activate with your Cambodian sim card you can hopefully grab at the airport (as long as you are not arriving during the middle of the night). AND USE IT! Don’t be weak like me and have the app ready but take a tuk tuk from a hawker outside. Even when I knew the prices I was not stubborn or strong enough to argue him down to a reasonable price and paid over double the market rate. BTW from the centre of PP it is like 4-5 US dollars or 16000 riel and the airport should be similar.
Fruit to try:
Mangstienes
(https://www.entekrishi.com/products/mangostien/)
Snake Fruit (it’s a love it or hate it taste so worth trying)
(https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/snakefruit-salak-indonesia-bali)
Longans
(https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/fresh-longan-16990176462.html)
Rambutans
(https://www.amazon.com/Big-Rambutan-Nephelium-Lappaceum-Seeds/dp/B00FFTVK1Y)
The campus is as Colin said and I’m sure you’ve read, in a suburban area. Be under no illusions, expect almost nobody to speak much English outside of the university academic staff and students. This way you will be excited and pleasantly surprised when finding someone who can. In the centre of town there is more English spoken due to the tourism density.
After a day of introductions, planning and campus tours we were flagging but made an effort to go to a supermarket to get supplies. Unfortunately Apple maps is hopeless in Cambodia (possibly the world) and we ended up getting a 30 minute tuk tuk to a supermarket rather than a 5 minute one. It turned out to be a good time to chat and acquaint ourselves with each other. Be aware that the supermarket is good for safe food but is certainly not cheap and not necessarily high quality. There is plenty of cheap and amazing fruit and veg in street stalls that is safe as long as you wash and prepare it well and go to the stalls that locals frequent.
After, a couple of us went down the street to have dinner. We stumbled across a little local place who was able to tell us that the locals flock there for the beef soup and so what else were we to do but try it! It was heralded as delicious. It is just the RUA side of the volleyball court entry, on the left side of the road if you go straight out of the RUA gate.
On the Tuesday, we organised to go to Phnom Pehn Animal Welfare Society which is a 15 minute tuk tuk from RUA. Here we met and mainly watched them as they went about their day spaying, castrating, and consulting. We were able to hash out plans to get a cat that is resident at the guesthouse spayed and potentially rehome her kittens, and come with them on a pagoda mission the next week. Nearby (5min tuk tuk) to PPAWS was a useful vegetarian restaurant, Vitking House.
Suitably tired we quickly worked on our presentations for the next day in the early afternoon and then went into town to check out some sights and get tea. We quickly looked at the independence monument and royal palace before going and experiencing what the locals love to do in their spare time as they congregate at the Olympic stadium to exercise in all forms, dance, soccer and some strange variation of soccer volleyball.
Wednesday morning we were straight into it at 8.30am starting to try and get talks underway. Some technical difficulties were hurdled and we were away for a couple of hours until an unfortunate power outage that halted proceedings for 30 minutes or so. It is important to be ready for anything in Cambodia. The water in the house was also out most of Wednesday night.
The presentations were well received though it is ALOT of hard work getting audience participation. Also it is good to know that because whilst some students have very good English, others struggle so your talk will be 50% longer due to teachers translating for you. Wednesday was the first day we presented to the class. We didn’t know what to expect, but every slide had to be translated by the professors. The students seemed to get bogged down by a lot of the details. Back to the drawing board it was!
That evening we went and saw the National Museum of Cambodia Dance and Cultural Show. Holy cow, can they dance. It’s $15/pp for the cheapest seats, but the theatre is small and we had no problems with the view. The costumes are colourful and extravagant, the music upbeat, and the dancing very entertaining. Following this we dined at a local restaurant called “Friends”. They were very accommodating to our friends with dietary requirements, with many options available.
DVM4 Cambodia Selective 