Phnom Penh’s new skyline

Stay Another Cambodia’s third edition booklet was released at Cambodiana Hotel today after its success in the previous years. The 75-page-publication, which aims to promote Cambodia’s tourism, is a cooperation work between Ministry of Tourism, Economic Today Magazine (ETM), and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (German Technical Cooperation) or GTZ.

The booklet’s cover photo, a young Khmer woman in Koh Dach (an island 15km north of Phnom Penh), was taken by travel photographer Nathan Horton.

In its welcome message, Minister of Tourism’s Dr. Thong Khon encourage travelers and visitors to:

• Dine at local restaurants hiring and training disadvantaged youth;
• Visit shops participating in fair trade and employing disabled artisans;
• Observe and/or participate in various cultural activities on offer;
• Be adventurous and visit a new ecotourism project; and/or
• Volunteer your time or donate money to NGOs doing valuable work for the people of Cambodia.

Travel report:
According to an official report on the ministry’s Internet site, the average length of stay for visitors in Cambodia is 6.65 days. In 2008, there were 2,125,465 tourists from across the continents arrived Cambodia.

The booklet, with comprehensive information of its initiative’s partners that play vital roles to support the community culture and environment, hopes to convince travelers to extend their trip in the Kingdom of Wonder, and go beyond Siem Reap’s Angkor Wat.

At the time of writing this blog-post, Stay Another Cambodia‘s web site is still under construction.

Large Boeung Kak Lake in Phnom Penh is being filled as part city development: Cambodia

Also related:
The Battle for Boeung Kak Lake by Far Eastern Economic Review’s Ron Gluckman

This year’s PhotoPhnomPenh event will take place at Fine Arts University of Cambodia on November 28 – December 6, 2009. For more detail.

For the second PhotoPhnomPenh event, 22 exhibitions of international artists will be presented in the main cultural spaces of the city.In the spirit of discovery, festivity, and Asian-European encounters, PhnomPenhPhoto 2009 is offering 4 evenings of outdoor screenings in the courtyard of the beautiful Fine Arts University of Cambodia, followed by the dazzling “Night of the Year” in partnership with Les Rencontres d’Arles in France. A workshop will address the problematics of the publication of photographs and of their use in the press.

This weekend, I went to Phnom Penh’s Russian market (Tuol Tum Poung for locals) this afternoon to buy some apparel. The market has so much to offer to both locals and tourists.

Khmer teenagers and middle ages love to shop in Russian market for a few reasons. It’s understood that a number of apparel products were made in Cambodia for export purpose, but a small number of the to-be-exported products can be found in this market. The brand-name is also the most sought-after and deciding factor at the time that the price is quite reasonable. The two reasons mentioned above are probably the primary ones. Additionally, this Cambodian Russian market is easily accessible to most Phnom Penh residents.

As market vendors are not solely dependent on foreign tourists, asking price for each gift item is quite acceptable, if not reasonable to some. The Russian market, a few blocks away from the Chinese Embassy (located Mao Tse-Tung boulevard), is much known as a souvenir market for tourists; it’s a must-to-shop center for most budget and business travelers to the Cambodian capital city. I find that many vendors and sellers are quite friendly (happy selling, I think).

After buying some stuff (not all yet), I was passing by a Westerner who were dealing with a seller of statues and hand-made idols. I glanced at them while I was walking my way. It was interesting to see how the man try to convince the woman seller the price he offered was good to her. The money was out of his pocket already as he said that’s all he’s got for the gift, a wooden-made Bayon statue. The lady couldn’t help as trading took place already; and she was joyously talked to the tourist in her broken Khmer-English that you-happy-and-me-happy.

On a trip to Phnom Penh from Bangkok, a traveler at ‘flashbacks, time after time’ puts some thoughts on the visit to The Place, the Russian Market, a North Korean restaurant, the Grand Palace, the Silver Pagoda, and the Killing Fields.

Also, there’s an interesting thing about a new North Korean restaurant in the Cambodian capital opened soon after Pyongyang, an oldest and only North Korean Restaurant, was closed recently.

Love Cambodia. We had lunch at a restaurant, a Korean restaurant, to be more specific a North Korean restaurant. Yep. There were actually a lot of those in Phnom Penh. Word on the street is, the waitresses in their hamboks, moved down to Cambodia to serve North Korean food… and they aren’t allowed to leave the restaurant. They live upstairs and can’t go outside. What a life. I asked one of the waitresses a couple questions in Korean. She basically felt sorry for me, because my family was from South Korea and that she missed Pyongyang a lot.