Day7 : Three Markets and a Billion Things....

Sunday and no class. In the morning I trawl the web for some ESL activities for next week's lessons. Went out to explore the various markets in Phnom Penh with Radiah the trainer for the IT course that is going on concurrently with the language course. Radiah is a Singapore trainer from ITE. She has been training for MFA over the last year or so in countries such as Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Anyways, we went to the Russian Market or Phsar (pronounced Pasar!), the Central Market, and Phsar Olympic. Each is unique.

The Russian market is an amazing hub of activities. It's like the old Tiong Bahru crossed with Chatuchak market. You can get factory seconds and oodles of souvenirs and kelong dvds etc... The Central Market sells mostly jewellry, watches and clothings. It is situated within this amazing art-deco structure that was built in the 30s. Absolutely gorgeous despite it looking rather rundown. This mart is more oriented to tourists and this is visible through the larger number of beggars. Felt very bad ignoring them but what could you do? To give one would have opened the floodgates. The Olympic Market is kind of like the old People's Park. It caters purely to a Cambodian clientele. You can buy local fashion, food, and household utensils here.

That's all for today. Will go prepare for tomorrow's class.

cheers
cl