My parents and brother were in Phnom Penh

My parents and my brother came to Phnom Penh last weekend for 3 nights. Since they deemed that 5 hour bus ride to Siem Reap would be too tiring, we went around the Phnom Penh area.
It was enjoyable and slow pace holiday. Basically about two or three places in a day.



This is what we had for our first breakfast together in Phnom Penh. I had fish congee and my family ordered toasts and scrambled eggs. The anise hotel restaurant is very nice and the food is good too!



The royal palace grounds in Phnom Penh. It cost 25USD for four people to enter. There is different prices for locals and tourists. The place is very nice and provided a lot of pictures opportunities. It opened specific hours though and we went in at 2pm with a very large crowd.


While waiting for the royal palace to open, my dad decided to try out the tuk tuk!! His passengers were my mum and brother. We had great fun taking this picture.


This is at the mosque's area in Phnom Penh. We were waiting for my dad to come out of the mosque. My parents wanted to see how the mosque in Cambodia looks like so we end up here on both Sunday and Monday.

The highlight of the trip!!! I am too scared to ride it on my own. Fortunately I manage to convince my brother to come along with me. It cost about 15USD for a ride and it was slow!!
The elephant name is Sambo and he is 49 years old. Poor Sambo being put to work despite his old age. Although with his appetite, he has to work extra hard.

More on my adventures in Cambodia! Next week - Siem Reap.

In the meantime I am counting the weeks I have left here as I wish to go back home and be with my family and friends in Kuala Lumpur. At the moment, I am making the most of my experience here. 4 weeks and counting!!!

5.5 Weeks and counting

It has been a great adventure coming to Phnom Penh, Cambodia and working for 3 months with
one of the UN agencies relating to the recent national election in Cambodia. I could not believe I have been here for more than a month already!! Time flew very fast.

Although things have been fun at times, i yearn to be back in Japan. Hmm.. I did not miss Malaysia but Japan? Maybe the fact that I stayed in Malaysia for 2 weeks before coming to Phnom Penh make me miss Japan more than Malaysia. It also helps that my parents are coming over to Phnom Penh at the end of august to have a vacation and visiting yours truly. Actually, rather than missing Japan, I am missing the sushi and tempura!! I vow that the first thing I would be doing once I arrive at Japan is to have sushi at Ueno before taking the shinkansen to Niigata.




On the phnom penh side - The pagoda above is the first polling station that I visited during the recent election in Cambodia. In Cambodia, schools, pagodas and tents are used as polling stations.
And this picture is one of the office staff participating in a fire training - basically learning to use the fire extinguisher. I tried it once and it was easier than i anticipated.

The third picture was taken at the Cambodian Disabled People's Organization's office in Phnom Penh on 12th August 2008. They were conducting a workshop on data collection and the participants were outside of the workshop's room having group discussion. Part of my job assignment is to liaise with CDPO on specific projects that they were implementing. I am very happy to be involve with a great organization!!