Week 9: A national election
My Work
On Sunday, Cambodia held its 7th election. The current prime minister is running virtually unopposed, which does not offer the excitement of following the polls late into the night like in the US. Cambodia does take voting seriously though, and voting turn out is much higher than the US. Many businesses shut down because people vote in their local villages and provinces, so the cities do see a mass exodus of people. Because of the travel, even the ODC office is closed the Monday after the election.
ODC focuses on providing reliable and accurate information, so the election was a very busy time for the office. Many were in and out of the office all week, and there were many meetings held inside the office as well. Of course, working on the election was not my area of research, but I tried to be as present and helpful in the office as I could.
My Travels
It feels crazy for me to even write this, but this was my last weekend in Cambodia. Because of the election on Sunday, many stores, restaurants, and other places of business closed for the weekend. Even alcohol is not to be sold or consumed the entire weekend. I decided to venture out to Siem Reap for the last weekend. Siem Reap, as I have described previously, is a lot more touristy, so I figured that more restaurants and places would be open than the city. I was very right. Other than a couple places outside of the downtown area and a few late-night bars on Pub Street, everything was up and running.
Courtney flew in to meet me on Friday night. I had arrived in the early afternoon and spent some time working and wandering around the city. There is no shortage of places to eat and people watch. Once Courtney got into town, we were able to enjoy the lights of Pub Street. This was the first time I had really experienced Pub Street with another “tourist” which makes for a lot of good fun and conversation about the town.
This is my third weekend in Siem Reap, which means that you would think after going to the temples (the main tourist attraction) there would be nothing left to do. However, we found this tour that went to Khulen Mountain for the day. Throughout my ten weeks in the rainy season, the countryside and mountains have gotten much greener. I was not able to witness how green until driving through the remote areas on our way to Khulen Mountain. The first stop was a small little overlook as our van climbed the mountain. I could have looked at that view for hours if they would have let me. The mountainous area held tons of green trees with rocks spouting out across the landscape. These were the rocks that went into building Angkor Wat and the 1000 other temples just to the south of us.
The next stop was visiting a little religious village/site. On top of a giant rock, someone carved a reclining Buddha into the stone 1000 years ago. On the ground, there was a lot of activity. Monks populated the whole area, blessing visitors as they came. People worshipped at the altars and music was playing throughout the village. Cambodia is mainly Buddhist now; however, the Hindu culture was very prominent a few centuries ago, and this place respects both cultures.
Our last stop was the Khulen Waterfall. One perk of the rainy season is that there is actually water falling at this time. It was incredibly beautiful, and the water was coolly refreshing. The place is a very local spot, and many kids were running and swimming around the base of the waterfall. It was a very lovely afternoon and a different side of Cambodia that I was thankful to have witnessed.
The rest of my time spent in Siem Reap was very calm as I was trying to soak in the town and the culture of Cambodia one last time before returning to Phnom Penh. Sometimes I question whether I will miss living in Phnom Penh, and I ultimately go back and forth on the issue. But Siem Reap I will miss. I just hope it is a see you later rather than goodbye.