From Independence To Antiquity: A Phnom Penh Stroll
Continuing my Phnom Penh stroll, I headed to my 'next destination' as mentioned in the previous story - eastward from the Independence Monument, turning left at that hard-to-pronounce street (Preah Ang Yukanthor St.), going to the National Museum.
Numbered Streets!
Well, almost all road names here are long and hard to pronounce, so that, they have number equivalents. I walked east on 268 Blvd., then turned left to 19th St., instead of sayin I walked east on Prea Suramarit Blvd., then turned left to Preah Ang Yukanthor St.
That makes Phnom Penh unique - where there is a concious effort to "numerate" or "numberize" their street names in what they call their "central grid" (central district) - without dropping, erasing or forgetting the 'original names' that are already existing.
So don't be confused if you see street names with numbers enclosed in parentheses at the end. A good example would be: 182 Preah Norodom Blvd. (41), Phnom Penh.
That means Preah Norodom Blvd. is also called Blvd 41 - alyas ba Alias! Aliw!
I have seen street names that now do not anymore bear names but just numbers. I am not sure though, if they still have non-numerical names but not written on street signage, as the other way around is true. Sample: Norodom Blvd. is rarely called 41.
Kasi nakasanayan na, and easier to pronounce. But officially, on record, and in their street signage, that's Blvd 41. Now, trivia: ano'ng meron doon sa sample kong 182?
Larga! Hanapin i-google ang 182 Preah Norodom Blvd. (41), Sangkat Tonle Bassac, Khan Chamkarmon, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Telephone Number +855 23 222 303.
Hahaha, di ko sila kilala ha! But surely, sila'y ating kakampi pag nandoon tayo.
Now, if you are atrevida like me, you will notice that those "street number as names" do have some kind of convention: Odd numbers are for North-South (or South-Noth) direction - vertical on a map; while Even Numbers are for those that run horizontally.
O, hanep di ba? Parang flight numbers lang ang peg!
Street Food!
One of the reasons I opted to walk on this street was I knew there are eateries.
Not abundant. There are not that many such eateries on this street, but I knew there was, and just along the way, while walking to the Royal Palace or National Museum.
Wag muna mag-"eew". There's a French-style Restaurant up ahead (upper left corner of that photo), but I wanted to see (and dive-in if I liked them) those local delicacies!
Yung nasa gilid ng kalsada ha? Yung naka-patong sa pulang monobloc stools, hindi yung blue, ano ka ba! Ahehehehe, pansin mo ba me kasamang black socks si Nike?
Now what is that they are drying under the sun? Meat as in karne! Tapa kumbaga sa atin. I know I have tried them long ago, "sat" (spelled sach)? Pork, beef and chicken.
Yata ha? I'm not very sure. I only know that years ago, I have tried something grilled, parang liempo na manipis, inihaw - although I was not really sure if it was sun-dried.
Parang tapa nga, and it was served na parang tapsilog! Ewan, basta masarap yan!
Oyst did you know? In our country of not very long ago, "tapa" (whether meat or fish), specifically meant "dried" (either sun-dried or smoke-dried). It did not include "cured"!
Ano ang "cured"? Marinated, binabad, inenjectionan, ganun. Hindi ibinilad. Kaya ang "tapa" natin, di na by original definition. Sabagay, yung fried rice nga sa Chowking, sa Jollibee at kung saan-saan pa, eh hindi naman pala fried, di ba? Definitions change!
Basta, iyang ibinilad nila na parang tapa, masarap yan.
However, parang hindi pa ako gutom. Even if it was 11:13AM.
So, let's proceed hehe!
Fine Dining Restaurants!
About 50 meters on, from that row of eateries, I saw this at left side of the street:
Just by looking at it, I already expected, that would be some French-style restaurant, with a generally "western" (European) ambulance. Ay, ambiance pala! Totyalin baga!
And being so, no need to enter, just to look at their menu, right? Nasa kalsada eh, o!
You would have guessed, I took time trying my tongue on those terminologies hehe!
Aw nga pala, kung pa-sosyalan at pa-bonggahan lang ng cuisine at accoutrement, ay ay mademoiselle, maraming high-end restaurant sa'atin ang itataob ng Phnom Penh!
Remember: Cambodia was a French colony for about 90 years. Kahit papaano, they have fused a-little-bit-of-this and a-little-bit-of-that na French talaga, into their culture.
Eh tayo 300 years ke Padre Damaso!
Enough! Baka mapunta doon ang usapan hahaha!
A Meal and Menu Dichotomy!
Let's go back to that menu, particularly the lines and black dots.
Those lines separate the "meal courses". Always the upper part are "your choices of" Appetizers or Starters - isa lang sa walong yan, hindi silang lahat. Huwag kang ano!
Middle part are "your choices of" Main Course. At the bottom are Dessert choices.
Ano yung itim na bilog? Presyo in USD! Look closely or zoom the picture: appetizers cost 6 dollars, main course 9, and desserts 4 US Dollars EACH. It is a 19 USD meal!
So, magdadalawa ka ng main course? Oks lang naman, just add 9USD. Ayaw mo ng dessert? Oks din, so 15USD lang ang meal mo. O dessert lang gusto mo? Aba eh di 4USD lang bill mo - waiter might roll his eyeballs or baka erapan ka pa. Keber di ba?
And most importanly, basahin mo uli, wala pa ang 'pan-tulak' dyan! Separate bill yan since there usually are lots of choices with varying prices i.e., red wine, coke, danum!
Teka teka wait.., lets stop muna this biglaang lecture!
How did/do I know those things? Sa kaka-pasyal kung saansaan! I hope you haven't forgotten.., I am still your Pinoy Traveler, Son Of A Beach and dakilang Sociel Climber!
You need those "societal basics" para di halatang isa kang dukha 'pre oy!
Syempre, I learned those dining-out nitty-gritties from Conchitina decades ago! And now, itinuturo ko na mismo sa mga social climbing executives and politicians. Ayiiii!
Okay. After reading that menu, appreciating the building and garden, somewhere in my head was saying: "However, parang hindi pa nga ako gutom, kahit 11:15AM na."
But another part of my brain quickly said "asuu, style mo, di ba sa Manila, Cebu etc., 11AM ka nagla-lunch? Aminin na, it must have been the $$$ kaya hindi ka pa gutom!
Aren't you curious why they use USD? I'll tell you in succeeding stories. Masaya yan!
Yet another part of my utak was saying "ba't kasi ang mga Pinoy resto malalayo dito"!
Pinoy Restaurants in Phnom Penh?
Are there such restaurants? Well, we may not hear about them often kasi malayo sa atin, but even in the 1990s me nakainan ako. Plus friends also txtd me this and that.
Kung susumahin, those that I know (lang) would be: hindi bababa ng sampu. It only happened that I was a bit far from almost all of them. Andoon sila sa downtown eh.
There are two, that are just a block beyond the museum (daw), but let's see later!
The nicest street for a walk!
11:22AM na, di pa daw gutom, and this is already the Royal Palace's wall. Sige go!
Not really the wall as in dingding. Maybe it's more appropriate to call this "the fence".
Yes oo "the fence", ang opposite ng "attack" or "offence". Indi ba la Toto James?!
It's just the fence (pader) all around the Royal Palace - about 500 meters each side.
Hey if you noticed that cute little guard house, there are many of that all around the fence's external sidewalk. And all of them are not connected to the fence structure.
As I passed by, I kept imagining.., if you were a royal guard of yesteryears, stationed at any of those little houses, if the enemy attacked, how'd you get help from inside?
It has no passageway, no physical link to the inside. What if 1 battalion ang kalaban na sumusugod sa kalsadang iyan? Paano ka? Bahala na si Lord? Goodbye earth ka!
That street by the way, is already between the Royal Palace and the Royal University of Fine Arts / National Museum complex (at left), after I turned right from Street 19.
This is one of the best places to walk under trees and less vehicles.
Where's the museum entrance? Ah, about 300+ meters pa, straight ahead then turn left; while the Royal Palace entrance is mga 600 meters pa, straight, then turn right.
But my first target was the museum. If I'm not mistaken, that building at left, is even already part of it. Pero alangan mag-over-da-bakod tayo. It's a leisurely walk anyway.
And I did just that. A slow happy walk. Nakarating din naman!
So, I arrived at the National Museum of Cambodia, and let's talk about that next!
Numbered Streets!
Well, almost all road names here are long and hard to pronounce, so that, they have number equivalents. I walked east on 268 Blvd., then turned left to 19th St., instead of sayin I walked east on Prea Suramarit Blvd., then turned left to Preah Ang Yukanthor St.
That makes Phnom Penh unique - where there is a concious effort to "numerate" or "numberize" their street names in what they call their "central grid" (central district) - without dropping, erasing or forgetting the 'original names' that are already existing.
So don't be confused if you see street names with numbers enclosed in parentheses at the end. A good example would be: 182 Preah Norodom Blvd. (41), Phnom Penh.
That means Preah Norodom Blvd. is also called Blvd 41 - alyas ba Alias! Aliw!
I have seen street names that now do not anymore bear names but just numbers. I am not sure though, if they still have non-numerical names but not written on street signage, as the other way around is true. Sample: Norodom Blvd. is rarely called 41.
Kasi nakasanayan na, and easier to pronounce. But officially, on record, and in their street signage, that's Blvd 41. Now, trivia: ano'ng meron doon sa sample kong 182?
Larga! Hanapin i-google ang 182 Preah Norodom Blvd. (41), Sangkat Tonle Bassac, Khan Chamkarmon, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Telephone Number +855 23 222 303.
Hahaha, di ko sila kilala ha! But surely, sila'y ating kakampi pag nandoon tayo.
Now, if you are atrevida like me, you will notice that those "street number as names" do have some kind of convention: Odd numbers are for North-South (or South-Noth) direction - vertical on a map; while Even Numbers are for those that run horizontally.
O, hanep di ba? Parang flight numbers lang ang peg!
Street Food!
One of the reasons I opted to walk on this street was I knew there are eateries.
Wag muna mag-"eew". There's a French-style Restaurant up ahead (upper left corner of that photo), but I wanted to see (and dive-in if I liked them) those local delicacies!
Yung nasa gilid ng kalsada ha? Yung naka-patong sa pulang monobloc stools, hindi yung blue, ano ka ba! Ahehehehe, pansin mo ba me kasamang black socks si Nike?
Now what is that they are drying under the sun? Meat as in karne! Tapa kumbaga sa atin. I know I have tried them long ago, "sat" (spelled sach)? Pork, beef and chicken.
Yata ha? I'm not very sure. I only know that years ago, I have tried something grilled, parang liempo na manipis, inihaw - although I was not really sure if it was sun-dried.
Parang tapa nga, and it was served na parang tapsilog! Ewan, basta masarap yan!
Oyst did you know? In our country of not very long ago, "tapa" (whether meat or fish), specifically meant "dried" (either sun-dried or smoke-dried). It did not include "cured"!
Ano ang "cured"? Marinated, binabad, inenjectionan, ganun. Hindi ibinilad. Kaya ang "tapa" natin, di na by original definition. Sabagay, yung fried rice nga sa Chowking, sa Jollibee at kung saan-saan pa, eh hindi naman pala fried, di ba? Definitions change!
Basta, iyang ibinilad nila na parang tapa, masarap yan.
However, parang hindi pa ako gutom. Even if it was 11:13AM.
So, let's proceed hehe!
Fine Dining Restaurants!
About 50 meters on, from that row of eateries, I saw this at left side of the street:
And being so, no need to enter, just to look at their menu, right? Nasa kalsada eh, o!
Aw nga pala, kung pa-sosyalan at pa-bonggahan lang ng cuisine at accoutrement, ay ay mademoiselle, maraming high-end restaurant sa'atin ang itataob ng Phnom Penh!
Remember: Cambodia was a French colony for about 90 years. Kahit papaano, they have fused a-little-bit-of-this and a-little-bit-of-that na French talaga, into their culture.
Eh tayo 300 years ke Padre Damaso!
Enough! Baka mapunta doon ang usapan hahaha!
A Meal and Menu Dichotomy!
Let's go back to that menu, particularly the lines and black dots.
Those lines separate the "meal courses". Always the upper part are "your choices of" Appetizers or Starters - isa lang sa walong yan, hindi silang lahat. Huwag kang ano!
Middle part are "your choices of" Main Course. At the bottom are Dessert choices.
Ano yung itim na bilog? Presyo in USD! Look closely or zoom the picture: appetizers cost 6 dollars, main course 9, and desserts 4 US Dollars EACH. It is a 19 USD meal!
So, magdadalawa ka ng main course? Oks lang naman, just add 9USD. Ayaw mo ng dessert? Oks din, so 15USD lang ang meal mo. O dessert lang gusto mo? Aba eh di 4USD lang bill mo - waiter might roll his eyeballs or baka erapan ka pa. Keber di ba?
And most importanly, basahin mo uli, wala pa ang 'pan-tulak' dyan! Separate bill yan since there usually are lots of choices with varying prices i.e., red wine, coke, danum!
Teka teka wait.., lets stop muna this biglaang lecture!
How did/do I know those things? Sa kaka-pasyal kung saansaan! I hope you haven't forgotten.., I am still your Pinoy Traveler, Son Of A Beach and dakilang Sociel Climber!
You need those "societal basics" para di halatang isa kang dukha 'pre oy!
Syempre, I learned those dining-out nitty-gritties from Conchitina decades ago! And now, itinuturo ko na mismo sa mga social climbing executives and politicians. Ayiiii!
Okay. After reading that menu, appreciating the building and garden, somewhere in my head was saying: "However, parang hindi pa nga ako gutom, kahit 11:15AM na."
But another part of my brain quickly said "asuu, style mo, di ba sa Manila, Cebu etc., 11AM ka nagla-lunch? Aminin na, it must have been the $$$ kaya hindi ka pa gutom!
Aren't you curious why they use USD? I'll tell you in succeeding stories. Masaya yan!
Yet another part of my utak was saying "ba't kasi ang mga Pinoy resto malalayo dito"!
Pinoy Restaurants in Phnom Penh?
Are there such restaurants? Well, we may not hear about them often kasi malayo sa atin, but even in the 1990s me nakainan ako. Plus friends also txtd me this and that.
Kung susumahin, those that I know (lang) would be: hindi bababa ng sampu. It only happened that I was a bit far from almost all of them. Andoon sila sa downtown eh.
There are two, that are just a block beyond the museum (daw), but let's see later!
The nicest street for a walk!
11:22AM na, di pa daw gutom, and this is already the Royal Palace's wall. Sige go!
Yes oo "the fence", ang opposite ng "attack" or "offence". Indi ba la Toto James?!
It's just the fence (pader) all around the Royal Palace - about 500 meters each side.
As I passed by, I kept imagining.., if you were a royal guard of yesteryears, stationed at any of those little houses, if the enemy attacked, how'd you get help from inside?
It has no passageway, no physical link to the inside. What if 1 battalion ang kalaban na sumusugod sa kalsadang iyan? Paano ka? Bahala na si Lord? Goodbye earth ka!
That street by the way, is already between the Royal Palace and the Royal University of Fine Arts / National Museum complex (at left), after I turned right from Street 19.
This is one of the best places to walk under trees and less vehicles.
Where's the museum entrance? Ah, about 300+ meters pa, straight ahead then turn left; while the Royal Palace entrance is mga 600 meters pa, straight, then turn right.
But my first target was the museum. If I'm not mistaken, that building at left, is even already part of it. Pero alangan mag-over-da-bakod tayo. It's a leisurely walk anyway.
And I did just that. A slow happy walk. Nakarating din naman!
So, I arrived at the National Museum of Cambodia, and let's talk about that next!
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