APAD 121: Suosdei Choul Chnnam Thmey!
… Happy New Year.
Yes. We just celebrated the Cambodian New Year over the weekend, April 14-16 to be precise. It is a three-day celebration, according to the lunar calendar. It is also a celebration of the end of the harvest season. Hence, it is a colourful, festive and fun celebration.
This year, we welcomed New Year on the early hours of Saturday (2amish). Drumbeats and prayers from the wats (temples) ushered the New Year as well as the new Thevadas (see photo). In Buddhism, they are sort of angels, if you like, who’ve come to replace the old ones guarding the Earth.
To know more about the festive Khmer New Year, please click this link.
APAD 113: LED street cafe
I like taking photos especially when my husband and I take leisurely drives around and out of the capital. When the car is moving and an interesting subject appears I get excited and start shooting. Sometimes I get the picture, sometimes I don’t.
Here’s one of the interesting sights I was able to take a photo of. It is a local, street cafe called the Led Cafe.
How cool is that?
I really like the led lights decorations. I think it’s brilliant. Pun intended, lol.
The only thing I regretted is that we could not drive back and take a picture of the facade where the main sign, LED Cafe, is.
This cafe is located along Street 163, close to the traffic lights at Street 310, in Chamkarmon district’s Olympic Quarter.
I also would like to shout out to my blog follower (I have one, thank you!), Scott. I’m very happy to hear from him and for hunting down one of the signs that I featured here, the tomato bank.
The Chuck Norris Dimsun Restaurant he mentioned here was also featured in Signs, Signs. You can find the Chuck Norris sign here.
Sadly, I haven’t had the chance yet to dine in there. Thank you for your nice message, Scott, and hopefully you can find the Led Cafe next time you visit Phnom Penh 🙂
APAD 109: Summer coolers
In this scorching summer heat in Phnom Penh, there is no more convincing needed. A friend and I went in.
We weren’t disappointed – we had the most refreshing, satisfying fruit cooler ever.
In case you asked… Nope. As much as it sounded exotic (novel), we didn’t try the watermelon and chili. We both went for the passion fruit and mint. A perfect balance of sweetness and sourness. A bit pricey for $2.25 but, after several hours of shopping at a non-airconditioed market, it’s all worth the price!
APAD 106: Khmer alphabet
In my previous work as an environment advocate, I had the opportunity to visit schools in most Cambodian provinces. By doing so, I was able to practice my spoken Khmer which I studied for about a year. It wasn’t so easy but good thing we had an excellent teacher teaching Khmer for foreigners back then in the early 2000s at Institut Français Cambodge. And the more I visited local schools and talked to local people, the faster I became fluent in Khmer language.
In one of our visits, I saw these visuals pasted on a classroom wall.
The Khmer alphabet has 23 vowels. I kid you not.
These are the Khmer vowels, if I am not mistaken, and the sounds they correspond to and is illustrated by the schoolchildren. Visually, the Khmer script is almost similar to Thai and Laos.
Difficult to learn how to speak, you ask? Try reading and writing, lol.
APAD 102: Go In… or not?
I’m late! I’m late! Yet again. And I missed two consecutive weeks of Signs, if I am not mistaken.
No, I’m still here in Cambodia. No, I did not fall in a manhole (or sink hole, knock on wood). I’m just feeling a bit tired and cranky these days. The summer heat is just getting to me and all I want is creep back to my bed and turn the aircon machine on.
Anyhoot, here is my entry.
Go In Hotel. How straight-forward is that? Lol.
I found this hotel sign when my husband and I got lost looking for the plastic chairs shop along Kampuchea Krom area. I had a giggle at the sign. It’s uniquely Khmer, hahaha.
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