Shopping in Phnom Penh

This morning, Fred and I took off on our weekly trip to the market, while the kids stayed home watching TV and playing computer games. We stopped at the Boeng Keng Kang market (our local neighborhood market) and bought some fresh fruit: mangosteen, $.80/kg; passion fruit, $1.25/kg; 1 pineapple, $ 0.50; 1 watermelon, $1. The people are lovely: always full of smiles and laughter. No one ever gets offended if you ask the price of something they’re selling, and then say you don’t want to buy it. Never any angry faces or comments (not that I would understand anyway!!), only helpful people trying to ease communication (and relieve you of some of your dollars). There is a sense of community here that I have never seen anywhere else. When one vendor doesn’t speak English, his neighbor will bend across his produce and try to translate. If a vendor doesn’t have passion fruit, he won’t just reply no, but he’ll point you in the direction of someone who does.
There is a section of the market that can best be described as a string of beauty salons where Khmer women go to get their hair done, or to get a pedicure or manicure. Out of curiosity, I asked the price of a pedicure. $1.50 with a single color varnish (no design). I suppose if I need a pedicure and I can’t afford to pay the $6 they charge at Lucky Salon, I can always head to the BKK market…
When we were done, found our tuk tuk (they wait for you on the street while you do your shopping), and asked the driver to take us to the Tuol Tompeng Market (AKA Russian Market). As we approached, the streets were teeming with people, and we realized that the market was closed, and all the people in the street were actually the vendors demonstrating. We couldn’t find out what they were demonstrating about, but we decided there was no sense in prolonging our stay there, so we asked the driver to take us to the Central Market. There, we picked up a pair of flip flops for Caroline ($2), some nice cotton materials that I have to take to a tailor to have some clothes made, and lastly 1kg of fresh shrimp for $6/kg ($3/lb). Since the Central Market is being renovated, much of the permanent structure is closed and the vendors have set up stalls under aluminum sheets, so it gets very hot, and the ground is often quite muddy, and trying to navigate through the vendors who all have something to sell you and the beggars who all hope you’ll give them a little something can be quite strenuous, and the heat quite overpowering, so it wasn’t too long until we made our way home, to the cool shade of the gardens and the refreshing water of the pool. On reading the newspaper by the pool, I discovered that the vendors at the Russian Market were protesting against plans to remodel the market. They fear it will lose its appeal with tourists and foreigners, and also that they will be unable to do business as usual, and they rely on their incomes to feed their families.