I LOVE what I'm doing and I enjoy many aspects of Phnom Penh. However, after having grown up next to a state forest, I have a long standing love affair with trees and greenery and Phnom Penh is sadly lacking in that area. On Thursday, two of the other leadership residents and I visited the wildlife preserve Phnom Tamao. It was lovely to drive out of the city and into the rice paddies and greenery.
Kristen, Nellie and I joined the Betel Nut tour with a couple from Germany and a woman from Australia who is living in Delhi, India. Our guide, Visnya is a native of Phnom Penh and spoke impeccable English. She was very knowledgeable about the animals and a lot of fun too. Visnya is 24 and getting married next year. She mentioned that she's getting to be rather old for getting married and she wants to have a child immediately. At nearly 28, I was feeling like 24 is very young!
I really loved seeing all the animals at the preserve. All of them have been rescued and they are attempting breeding programs with some of the animals. I especially loved seeing the tigers up close and petting the gibbon. She was nursing her baby and would grab our hands and put them on her head so we could scratch the top of her head. She would put her head down and almost looked like she would start purring! The monkeys were everywhere and followed up around but we were warned not to look the monkeys in the eye because that was considered an act of aggression and could make them attack. We wore sunglasses the whole time to make sure that the monkeys
couldn't see our eyes and get the wrong idea!
We had a marvelous Khmer lunch of rice, stir fried vegetables, curry and noodles and enjoyed talking to all of our new tour friends. I got the contact information of the German couple and I'll visit them when I go to Germany next summer.
On the way home, I took several photos of Phnom Penh and my neighborhood. Here are a few of my favorites. Enjoy!
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| This deer followed us everywhere. His antlers were covered in fur and he was very friendly! |
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| Giant squirrel eating sugarcane. |
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| Our guide with the deer |
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| Beautiful peacock |
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| Cute baby monkey |
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| A red deer |
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| The gibbon who loved her head scratched. |
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| Gibbon baby |
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| This gibbon was unhappy with us and showed his (very red) derriere to demonstrate his distaste! |
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| Our group: Henri, Hanna, Nellie, Kristen, Amber and me |
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| Otters |
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| This one-legged gibbon was brought to the preserve and no one knows why he only has one leg. |
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| Gorgeous creature! |
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| Life is hard. Time for a nap! |
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| I LOVE elephants |
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| This one constantly looked like he was smiling! |
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| These are small snail like snacks that are popular here. |
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| Anything you want for dinner: meat, veggies and fruit |
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| Rice paddies and gorgeous clouds just outside of Phnom Penh |
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| My street |
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| I definitely live on a very "Khmer" street. I am the only foreigner anywhere in the vicinity! |
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| My Khmer neighbors hanging out across from my dorm |
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