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Cambodia!!! Waking up at 3:30am a day ahead for our inflight breakfast was a strange feeling. Luckily I was given another vegetarian meal and once again it was delicious with a tofu and vegetable stirfry alongside more vegetables, a fruit salad and a baby corn salad. By 5:30am we had touched down in Taipei and after a very quick departure I was in the waiting lounge waiting for my onwards connecting flight to Phnom Penh the capital of Cambodia. I have said it before and I will say again how much I love Taiwan and even the airport was wonderful with every possible amenity you can imagine from free Internet, hot water to garden rooms and Chillout spaces - so the wait was anything but painful. The flight boarded and after a small delay we were off. I sat next to a fellow traveller very excited to be heading to Cambodia and Vietnam and had an interesting conversation with him about life and travels. I lucked out and got another delicious vegan meal and even got to watch the new Ninja Turtles film - highly recommend the airline EVA Air. Touch down in Phnom Penh was a bit of a temperature shock with the humidity hitting me straight away. After getting my visa ($30 for 30 days) I got out of the airport and got myself a Moto to the city for a couple of dollars. First impressions are of a hectic, smelly, motorcycle flooded city very similar to Bangkok. I found a nice hostel for $5 a night, dumped my things and then went in search of the market and my first Colombian meal. I found the large central market and was quite impressed at its layout and products on offer. I found the food court and sticking to my vegan diet went in search of some food. I found this little booth selling theses huge plates of salads, fruit, noodles and rice paper where you make your own rice paper rolls (Vietnamese). For about a dollar I got a huge feed of salad and a small bowl of this nutty and sweet dipping sause - the plate did come with a few pieces of what looked liked beef fat on a stick and after trying a few pieces I decided my stomach might not like it. After lunch I continued round the market getting some ideas for souvenirs and picked up some of my favorite fruit jackfruit. In the afternoon I met a British guy at the hostel that didn't have many nice things to say about Cambodia but did give me some useful advise. Tonight there was a night market happening just down the road so I went and checked it out. Basically like any other market with a bunch of stalls selling Chinese goods and some live music happening. There were tons of people and behind the stage was a food area and interestingly a huge square covered in rugs where people were eating their meals. It was a really nice atmosphere at the food court and I found a stall selling papaya salad so I ordered some. The papaya salad was incredible and for less then a dollar I was fed and got to experience some amazing flavours in a fairly typical Cambodian dish - I had to eat with chopsticks which made for an interesting time. After dinner I could barely keep my eyes open and so headed back to the hostel and with the aircon pumping went straight to sleep.
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