Ah, Valentine's Day. Love was in the air and flowers were selling well. Anyways...after seeing it lit up at night, I had to try Tube Coffee on the riverside for my morning coffee and work spot. Both coffees I got, an Americano and their signature tube coffee, were fantastic. The second level offered a nice overlook of the riverside park across the street.
With enough caffeine in my system and work completed, I decided to check out the central market for lunch. The outside consisted of a sizable dome.
The inside of the main dome area housed plenty of jewelry vendors. Along the extremities, I found a wet market with some of the largest crabs I've seen in my life. The place stunk of rotting fish.
I ended up finding a food vendor and settled for grilled prawns with a bed of rice. The prawns were fine but hard to peel. A special sauce was given with the rice. It tasted sweet, sour and spicy. I wish I knew the name.
I also ending up finding a toy vendor that sold the Cambodian hackysack called sey. I hope to play when I return to the States.
The other major site I visited today was Wat Phnom. At this Buddhist temple, I believe I read correctly that this is the artificial hill that helped establish the city of Phnom Penh. "Phnom" is Khmer for "hill."
The surrounding park was as a pleasant touch.
I worked out in the afternoon at the only Crossfit place here Phnom Penh. I was able to impress the locals with my WOD score and max power snatch of 80 kg. It was a fun time with many friendly people.
For dinner, I inadvertently had a Vietnamese night out. First, I found a noodle shop on the corner near my hostel where I ordered the Pho. It was flavorful enough with decent noodles, but I should be able to find something better in Vietnam.
My second meal of the night was a banh mi sandwich. I noticed this place on my way back to the hostel from Wat Phrom. The place was filled with locals, so I thought this would be a promising place. It turned out to be delicious, so good I ended up eating two banh mi's. The baguette was crispy, the pork nicely fried, and the papaya salad on the side added a sweet and sour complement. I'm sure I'll eat here again before I leave.
Other notes:
Traffic here in Phnom Penh is straight nutty. The crosswalks don't seem to matter too much. You end up having to play a game of frogger and hope no one is inattentive or evil. At intersections, cars, motorbikes, vans, and tuk tuks all converge and everyone tries navigating through and around each other. Also, like other places in SEA, the sidewalks essentially don't exist. They are mainly used for parking cars and motorbikes, and you end up walking in the street.