Welcome to Cambodia!

This has definitely been the warmest welcome I've had to any country I've traveled to! :)  Well, it's a hottt and humid 35ºC + here - haha -but I've been so pleased by what a warm welcome I've received!

Any other time I've traveled, I've had to figure out what to do, where I'm going from the airport, how to get there, who to talk to and how to communicate with someone who can help me out! This time... it has been AWESOME!

As soon as I arrived in Phnom Penh and walked out of the airport, I had a taxi with my name on it (well, my name was on the sign!) that HOPE sent to pick me up, a cell phone put into my hand, which rung about 2 minutes later with a call from Ly (Saint Ly, so affectionately called, so I've been told!) - HOPE's Cambodia Director - to welcome me to the country, and was dropped right off at an already-booked friendly little hotel in a nice area in town right by the river, where I'm now staying in a 3rd floor room overlooking the bustling street below.

  (my home for 2 nights!)

 ... and then 20 min later a good Cambodian friend from UPEACE came and picked me up and took me out for dinner! A-MA-ZING! this is the easiest travel I've ever had, and to Cambodia of all places, go figure! :)

BBQ dinner with Vicheth, who was in my very first class at UPEACE two years ago. He's a Social Development Programme researcher and program manager at CDRI, Cambodia's Development Policy Research Institute  and doing lots of really interesting stuff so it was great to catch up!

Well, it turns out that Cambodia is quite the UPEACE reunion hub! I had an awesome first day in Cambodia with more UPEACE friends who took their day to tour me to see the sights and sounds of Phnom Penh!  

Vicheth, Sopheada and Vicheth's super chatty little girl Sonisa, in front of the Royal Palace

with Satomi too, in front of the Cambodia National Museum! 

  The Independence Monument - built in 1957(?) after independence from 90 years of French colonial rule

Tourist shots - typical, but so necessary. :)

It was great awesome to catch up -  Satomi's working with an NGO called International Hearts of Gold that focuses on physical & health education for primary schools in Cambodia, and Sopheada - worked with the Cambodian Centre for Peace Education, but is now packing up and moving to the US for a year on a research/professional development fellowship. Actually, before I even made it to Cambodia, I got to meet with Mo, another UPEACE friend in Bangkok working with Spirit in Education Movement, who met me at the airport and took me for lunch!

Mmm.. Pad Thai in Bangkok! :)

Great inspiring friends that can share the joys (and slight woes..) of working with NGOs! :)

A couple more photos from the day:

 Traditional Khmer lunch!

Soup, veggies, some kind of a shrimp paste... 

The immaculate river front area where I'm staying... 

I usually like getting away from tourist central when I travel, but today was a lot of fun! :)
 
I'm heading out to Pursat Province tomorrow to meet Ly and start my work with HOPE - won't be so posh and pampered in the villages, but I'll be in good hands. :) I'm not sure how much internet I'll have there but hopefully I'll be in touch again soon-ish!

Leah suen heuy! - Khmer for bye!

Rainbow (hmmm.. need to learn my name in Khmer tomorrow) :)