6/30/10 (bangkok)
Annie Lin
Bangkok - Phnom Penh, Cambodia
It was another early morning flight for us at 7:45am to Phnom Penh or otherwise known as PP. Chef McDang’s driver came at 5am to take us to the airport. We were amazed at the scale of the Bangkok airport. It was one of the biggest we had seen in Asia. It was a very short flight to PP. We were barely at our flight altitude for five minutes before the captain announced that we had to get ready for our descend. The flight attendants quickly served us breakfast and drinks before they came to take it away. All in all it was a smooth flight.
Over the last few weeks we had been in touch with a friend’s uncle, Giang, who was from Cambodia. He had given us good tips on places to visit and invited us to stay at his villa, even though he wasn’t there, but we hadn’t sorted out the details. He gave us the name of one of his assistants who would provide us with directions to the house. When we landed we gave the assistant a call but we couldn’t reach him. We waited a bit at the airport and finally got a hold of someone. The taxi driver pulled up to a huge mansion where we were greeted by a security guard and guard dog. The assistant we spoke with wasn’t at home so there was some confusion about who we were but they still invited us in. We were shown to our room and told to make ourselves at home. I have to admit it was all a bit strange. We were in this huge house with a cook, housekeeper, and a few other guys but the owner of the house was in Vietnam. Everyone was very friendly but only one of them spoke English.
After a quick nap we decided to grab some lunch. The English-speaking staff helped us get a tuk-tuk and directed the driver to take us to the river where we would find plenty of restaurants. He wrote down the address of the house so we could give it to someone when we were ready to return. Like I said...super helpful.
We arrived to what seemed like the center of PP where all the hotels and restaurants were located. Jon knew the name of Paul’s restaurant and that it was located somewhere along the river. We strolled along the river and luckily found the place, which was called Cafe Metro. It was the swankiest restaurant in town and when we walked in it was as if we were transformed back to San Francisco. It looked like any place you would walk into on Chestnut Street. The restaurant is very modernly decorated and the staff were nicely dressed in their uniform. We asked the staff if Paul was around and that we were friends of his. The girl gave us a skeptical look and I don’t really blame her. We were looking a bit scruffy and should’ve gotten cleaned up. She told one of the managers who immediately came over to greet us. He said Paul mentioned there may be two Americans coming in asking for him. Good of Paul to alert the staff since we might not otherwise have been passed the test. Paul joined us while we were eating and we updated him on what we had been up to since we last saw him in Bangkok.
After lunch Paul showed us his place, which was right above the restaurant. He bought the building when he opened Metro and lives on the third floor. He invited us to stay with him as well since a visiting chef who was staying with him had just left. It was very generous of him and probably more convenient for us since it was centrally located. We would have our own room on the second floor. We decided to stay the night at Giang’s since he had been so nice to offer us a place to stay and didn’t want to leave abruptly.
We walked around the neighborhood which had a bustling food market and tons of tuk-tuks waiting for passengers. He also showed us the location of his second restaurant, which hopefully will open in a few months. Along the way he suggested we get a foot massage, which only costed $6/hour/person. What a bargain! It was Jon’s first foot massage and he loved it. We stopped in at a store to browse the DVDs. Up to this point we resisted buying knock-off DVDs on principle and thought they would be bad quality. But then we saw all these shows that we wanted to watch and before we knew it we walked out of the store with $40 worth of DVDs. And we had a bag full of them. I blame Paul for his bad influence.
We agreed to meet Paul for dinner and his tuk-tuk driver, On Prum, took us back to the villa to get changed. We quickly showered and got ready since On Prum was waiting for us downstairs. I wondered what Giang’s staff thought of us since we hadn’t spent much time at the house. We met Paul for drinks at Metro. We were having such a good time that we ended ordering a much of appetizers for dinner. We had a great meal and conversation. A good way for us to start our Cambodian adventure.
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