Cambodian Curry In Coconut Fruit

After Angkor Wat, we went to Prasat Kravan and headed to Banteay Srei. On the way to Banteay Srei, we saw a small museum. Neg asked me if I wanted to take a look and I said yes. It was The Cambodian Landmine Museum. They display a lot of landmines that were removed from the ground, and there are also exhibitions of photos. In those photos, I saw people removing the landmines and also people who were suffered from those mines. When I was looking at one of those photos, I found a photo that children were standing right beside the warning sign of landmines. Neg told me those children don't know that the place is dangerous because they don't go to school...so, they can't read the sign. I wondered how many children were sacrificed because of such a reason..

Around lunch time, we got to Banteay Srei. I asked Neg if he was hungry because I was hungry :D So, soon we got some Cambodian foods as luch. It was my first time eating something in Cambodia out of the GH :) When I was looking at the menu, I had no idea what to eat. But at least, I didn't wanna eat something like chicken and egg that I can eat in Japan. So, I asked Neg to tell me what he recommends...of course something unique in Cambodia. He told me Cambodian curry is good, but there were two kinds of the same curry on the menu; chicken or beef. I had to choose one of them. I asked him which is better, and he said chicken. So I decided to order the chicken one :) When the dish was brought for me, I was happy because the curry was in a coconut fruit!!! I don't say the curry was amazingly delicious, but it was yummy enough to make me happy. The taste reminded me about curry in Thailand tho, lol. Maybe my meal looked interesting, while I was eating, my eyes met a tourist guy's who was sitting behind me. I spoke to him, "It looks unique". I was not so shy in Cambodia :P

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Angkor Wat

The first place I went on my second day in Cambodia was Angkor Wat. Seeing the temple was actually one of the main purposes of my trip :) When I got there with Neg, some people came close to me and tried to sell me water. I didn't buy it because I brought one. It may sound funny, but I thought I could be popular there. I noticed that a lot of Cambodians looked at me when I was walking and some of them came close and gave me compliments like "You look cute" or "You are pretty" in Japanese. But of course I knew it was not because I am pretty. I obviously look Japanese for them (I don't know how they noticed that I'm not Chinese or Korean), so they wanted me to buy something by catching my attention. I also noticed that some of drivers waiting for customers were looking at me wherever I went. I was wondering why, but soon I realized. It was because I was with Neg, lol. They were wondering if I was his gf, lol. It's not popular a Japanese girl like me going to Cambodia alone, and I was with a young Cambodian guy. So...no wonder. It was funny when I was leaving one of the ruins (I forgot where), my eyes met a middle aged guy's when I sat behind Neg and he told me to hold him by gesture!!! I laughed and said, "It's too hot" :P

I also experienced using a very powerful weapon there...it was S M I L E!! I'm not a person who smiles at strangers. But Cambodian atmosphere made me do that a lot. I could do that because I was foreigner there (too shy to do it in Japan! But I wanted to try!! lol). Whenever my eyes met others, I smiled at them. And they smiled back at me!! :)

Anyway, I enjoyed Angkor Wat. There are a lot of sculptures anywhere and corridors with walls having sculptures were filled with tourists. There were also many tour guides that were explaining their customers about the stories on the wall eagerly. Too bad that I didn't see any guide speaking in Japanese, lol. If I saw, I would have stopped and listened to him! But it was amazing seeing the arts, thinking of how they made such beautiful things and how long it took even without a tourguide :)

When I went back to Neg, it was a little bit later than the time he told me. I was late because I had to wait for 30 minutes or so to go upstairs of the temple. When Neg told me 2 hours when I was leaving him, I thought that would be too much, but actually it took more. I said sorry to him, and we left for the next ruin.

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Night Market

When I came back from sightseeing, the GH people said "お帰りなさい" and I said "ただいま". It was relaxing having such greetings. I felt as if there was my home, lol. Yuta also said お帰りなさい to me, and asked how Beng Mealea was. He told me he wanted to come with me so I asked him why he didn't. The reason was, his Angkor ticket could be used till the day so he had to go to places where the ticket was available. Anyway, I had my first meal in Cambodia there. I had rice, something made of green tomatoes, and a soup with strong peppers, lol. Yuta told me about night market and supermarket he went and I was interested in going to night market. When I said that, Neg told us that he would take us there after work :) Yay!! v(>∀<)v So, around 9 o'clock, we headed to the night market...of course 3 people on a motorcycle; me and Yuta without helmets!! :P We already got used to such things, lol.

Night market was not so crowded. I saw Cambodians trying to sell things to tourists hardly, lol. One of the enjoyable things going to a market like it is bargaining :P I got a few things for myself with lower price than they showed firstly, but didn't know if it was a fair price. Maybe not?? Lol. Prices are too different from that of Japanese. But beside shopping, what did was TAKING PICTURES. You know I love taking snapshots, right? I bet Neg and Yuta were disgusted seeing me trying to take pictures from good angles, lol. After an hour or so, we found that Neg looked tired. It was his pleasure taking us there, so Yuta suggested to get him a drink or something and I agreed. We moved to a bar in the market, and ordered drinks. I wanted to have something unique so I asked the waitress what she recommends and got the one :)

The conversation we had there was very fun. However, I felt sorry a little bit because I was mostly talking to Yuta :S He had a nice camera and showed me pictures he took during his trip. He went to Vietnam before coming to Cambodia, went to Phnom Penh and came to Siem Reap. He told me what he experienced during the trip and how Phnom Penh is different from Siem Reap. I asked him why he decided going to a 2 months trip by himself and he told me he wanted to book a flight in foreign country, lol. I felt he was cool and brave because his English skill is poorer than mine but he was doing such a great thing. I envied him and felt myself so little worrying about language and stuff. He told me people were nice to him when they noticed he can't speak English, but what he failed was wearing shoes that were made in France being in Vietnam. Every story of his was interesting but what the most impressive was the words he said.

"When I browse pictures without frames I took, they frighten me because it feels like I actually took the pictures being there".

It was about the exhibition pictures that he took pictures of. His theme of the trip is "war". He went to the atom bomb museum in Hiroshima before leaving Japan, but what he saw in Vietnamese war museum was much stronger. I totally agreed with it browsing his pictures. They made me want to visit there. Maybe I will...one day, not too far in the future...I felt like talking to him more, but stopped because I noticed it was late. It was 11:30 or so and some stores were already closed. On my way home, Neg asked if I would see the sunrise next morning but I told him next time. I was sure that I wouldn't get up early because I was tired too, lol.

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