Food - Drink - Lodging

Habitat put us up at the gorgeous Hotel Cambodiana. When doing my research, four comments stuck with me: (1) a beautiful facade, (2) a tired interior and infrastructure, (3) mediocre food, and (4) a slow lift. Most of these are true. While the facade is stunning, the bath tubs and counters need replacement and the water pressure is weak. The hot water is only warm (not really a problem since it doesnt really get cold here). The lift is incredibly slow but I used the stairs, which were a pretty hot and stuffy alternative but way quicker. The breakfasts were odd, but good. I enjoyed the sublime French pastries and omelets to order, but other things were a bit average.

Veggie options were awfully limited everywhere, not just at the hotel and there was a fair bit of mystery meat out there that landed me in the build site's doctor's office on one occasion.

The opening dinner was a buffet on the Mekong Deck. Brekis and day 3 dinner was in the adjacent dining room (also buffets). Morning and afternoon tea on site was often fruit. I learned to love rombutans (or eyeball fruit, apparently a close relative of the lychee). Lunch was always interesting but looked suspiciously like it was leftovers from the hotels buffetbof the night before. On day 1 they ran out of vego options, but subsequent days, the vego meals were labelled.

The end of Day 1 was at the Khmer Surin restaurant. Full points to any restaurant coping with 300 plus people. The local H4H guy explained that the Surin province was currently part of Thailand but had previously been part of Cambodia and the Surin people are influenced by the culture of both countries. The food of the place was obviously both Thai and Khmer. Mish and I sat with the esteemed leadership duo of Paul and Andy. Too tired for beer, we had coca-cola (ubiquitous and cheap) and a buffet dinner. Like all mass produced food options, it wasn't stellar, but then we were too tired to notice. We got directions from one of the local H4H guys to the Lucky Supermarket ("lucky" is the moniker for the biggest supermarket chain, the local fast food burger chain, as well as for our homeowner - many business names include the word). We bought diet coke, water, snacks and other supplies, for when lunch was too mysterious (or in Michelle's case, where lunch went missing).

Day 2 was a Vietnamese restaurant, Ngon. Again, full points for serving so many people. The food didn't stop coming, but they were reticent about bringing drinks, thereby reducing their earnings by many kiwis looking for cold beer. When beer was brought, it wasn't terribly cold and the restaurant itself was very hot and stuffy. Vego options were limited, again. Poor Mish has learned to embrace the fried rice.

We sat at a table hat included Jeff and Rema from Missouri, Anita from Hong Kong, and three other Americans (Stan, George, and Jan). Jeff and Rema are looking to be team leaders on a build to Bangladesh next year.

Day 3 was back at the hotel and a quiet affair. I had lasagna from the buffet and the refreshing, if light, Angkor beer. We sat with two of our team members, Karen and Lloyd. They are former dairy farmers and incredibly hard workers. Also, they are lovely people.

Day 4 dinner, I had managed to inadvertently eat pork at lunch and gave dinner a miss. It was a bit unwhelming by all reports. I ate rice crackers in the hotel room and slept lots.

Day 5 dinner for the closing ceremonies was on site. Again, lots of food and most of it was very good. I was a little unadventourous, but did try the fish amok, a traditional Khmer dish. It was a bit zingy but yummy. The best part of it was sharing it with our homeowner families.

Drinks were supposed to be on the Mekong Deck for Habitat vollies that night, but rain moved it indoors. The live band played Celine Dion at loud volumes. Rather than risking breaking out in hives (my usual reaction to Celine's music), we opted for a quiet beer and debrief.

Tonight was the first night away from the group. Mish and I hit happy hour at the FCC (foreign correspondents' club), a big expat hangout. Great cocktails (happy hour prices $6.50 for a pitcher of long island ice tea), great vego pizza, yummy NZ ice cream. Terrific setting overlooking the riverfront of PP, with breezes blowing off the water. We met up with Barbara and Ditmar from our team and had a lovely chat. On to Siem Reap tomorrow.