Andrew Turco - A year in Cambodia

I’m starting to think that the exact way that the gate and the other passengers appeared to me on the day that I flew from Hong Kong to Phnom Penh will always be burned in my memory. Even the saturated grayness outside the huge windows of the Hong Kong airport still seems vivid to me. So too does the feeling of this city appearing way bigger and more intimidating than I expected during my drive from the airport. But as clear as they are, all of those thoughts seem like they could have come from a very long time ago. I’m already looking back with amusement at that first night when I dared not venture beyond the safety of the guesthouse block. This isn’t to say that I’m still not very conscious of where I walk at night or to suggest that you will catch me fluently reading the latest Khmer novel anytime soon. I’m still proud when people understand my pointing and head nodding that is a part of any purchase I make, but the city is definitely becoming smaller to me. In a good way.

It’s been rainier than usual over the past couple of days, even considering I’ve only been here during the rainy season so far. But unlike the first few weeks, when it would be sunny for most of the day and then the clouds and storm would roll in for an hour or two, this week, it’s been mostly cloudy or rainy except for the hour or two when the sun pushes through. Anyway, in order to counter a little bit of the feeling of being cooped up this weekend, I went for a long walk this afternoon and both realized how comfortable I now feel walking through the city during the day and how much I am really starting to know my way around. Additionally, just at a time when I was starting to feel that the city didn’t look as interesting as when I first arrived, I discovered and rediscovered some great French-era villas and schools and numerous more Buddhist temples scattered in the not so distant areas of where I live, eat, and explore everyday. But most importantly, I finally fully walked up and down Norodon Boulevard and realized that different pockets of the city that I’ve been traveling to regularly aren’t really that far away when you take that route and that so many areas that I used to think were in different parts of the city are actually neighbors.

Finally, I rediscovered the bustling area a couple of blocks off the riverfront, where the tourist infrastructure disappears almost at one specific cross street, but where a very comfortable local downtown area lies. I stopped in a bookshop in the area to pick up some school supplies and ended up eying some Khmer children’s books that had cool illustrated covers with Khmer script. With the intention of separating the covers from the books to hang on the wall of my hopefully soon to be apartment, I proceeded to judge and buy books completely by their covers.