Many native languages are spoken along the Mekong River, but the majority of the population speaks Khmer. We stayed in a village for two days where no one spoke English! Luckily, our team member Yok speaks both Khmer and English. He translated for us, so that we could communicate. Imagine spending two days in a village where no one speaks English, and you don't speak the native language?
In my last logbook entry, I was in located in the capital city, Phnom Penh. In the big cities, most people use U.S. dollars. In smaller villages, everyone uses the Cambodian riel. One Cambodian riel is equal to 0.00025 U.S. dollars. Can you figure out how many riels are in one U.S. dollar?
In the big city, a 1.5 L bottle of water is $0.87 U.S. dollars. In the smaller villages, it is much cheaper. It is closer to $0.25.
The best meal this week was one I ate at a village alongside the Mekong. We spent two days in the village, and every meal was spectacular! I ate fish with lemongrass, chicken with lemongrass and ginger, rice with a unique peanut sauce and a special green vegetable that locals call morninglory. All ingredients were fresh.
