phnom penh by a different lens

this is the first time that i'm coming up with another post after my supposed to be final and concluding post, my travel notes on phnom penh which is posted here. this is a rather special case since i was only able to get hold of my brother's photos after almost 3 months of waiting and i even had to personally go back home to finally have them.

i'd like to think that i had already come up with enough words in my several verbose posts that narrated our 2-day experience in phnom penh, and this time around, i'd let my brother's photos just do the talking.

the amiable face of bou meng surely did tug our hearts! according to the khmer lady assisting him, he has no longer a family, having lost his wife and children during the pol pot regime.

this was nan who became our tuktuk driver for the day. this was one of the instances when communicating to him proved to be difficult but it was a challenge. it took us a while to agree on the time that we wanted him to pick us up in toul sleng and i was pointing at my watch while he was showing his phone. haha

in this split second that the camera was able to capture! we were then out of sync after this. the photo below shows yet again that khmers indeed know how to strut their stuff.

when buying, i only had to show my riels so that i could easily get across what i wanted. only this time, this mother and daughter tandem didn't want my 1000 riel for rambutans. 1 kilo of rambutans was priced at 4000 riels or 1 USD and i only wanted a quarter of a kilo but they only shook their heads in reply. it was a long negotiation but it was fun waving my riels until both parties came up with a fair deal. i ended up buying half a kilo and without knowing it, i was done eating my rambutans that night.

we were somewhat elated when we saw this stall in sorya mall's food court, a stall named nayong filipino and it was the only name that we were able to recognize and read. there are about 6000 filipinos working in cambodia and it may not come as a complete surprise seeing this stall randomly at a food court in phnom penh.

when we were hanging out in mekong river's restaurant, this kid approached our table carrying these roses that seemed to have almost withered already. we were not sure if he/she was trying to sell the roses or what exactly he/she really wanted. the child was however stuck in our table for quite some time for he/she was deeply amused with eva's iphone and itouch. nonetheless, we weren't able to concur if the child was a girl or a boy after the child left. though, i think that the child is a sweet and innocent girl.

because i had already outgrown drinking heavy alcohol, this ultra light beer became my instant friend.

one can have a relaxing cruise along the tonle sap river on a fine day.

these foregone school buildings in tuol sleng do not make up an appropriate backdrop but this is the only photo that i was with my brother. ever since he had  acquired this gigantic lens, i no longer desire to use his camera and i left him alone in taking pictures till his heart's content. i'm just as happy with my handy small camera. thank you.

this finally wraps up my phnom penh experience with eva and my brother. pardon me if i still come up with a few more words than what i intended but i  just had to account the little stories hidden in these photos. anyway, siem reap will soon to follow. :)

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