Freedom day!


No other country has more holidays than Cambodia! Monday was Freedom Day. I'm not sure from what, probably the Khmer Rouge or the French. But no one was working except in the tourist areas. After sleeping in we headed to the AIM Store. It is quite a ways from here and drove through all sorts of parts of Phnom Penh. There really isn't a downtown, it's just all mixed up with luxury stores, condos and poverty. The AIM store was down a little alley with  few other artisan shops. It is beautiful. Very well put together, clean organized wonderful displays. Everywhere I looked I saw Kat's handiwork. She was very particular about the color scheme, fixtures and displays. I took lots of pictures and did some shopping. Then we headed to the Russian market. I thought I would love this. There are tons of fabric vendors, clothing vendors and knock offs of everything you could ever want. The aisles are about 12" wide, it's set up in a maze. It goes to the ceiling. It is indoors and so hot and stuff. Vendors are very pushy. It was so claustrophobic I was done in about 10 minutes and didn't by a thing. Sorry girls I was hoping to bring fabric to you all but I'll have to look somewhere else. There were just too many choices I was overwhelmed. There was lots of Cambodian silk. It's very raw, I'm not sure what we would do with it. Kat's going to take me a few more places. I'd had enough of that so it was off to Starbucks. My ice tea was actually brewed with tea bags. It was good. There are lots of Starbucks, Carl's Jr., Burger King and the Khmer favorite KFC. NO McDonalds. They have been banned for life. They ticked off the government by not following the rules so they banned them for life. If you saw the movie "Founder" it makes perfect sense.
Kat has a friend that has a shop called Ginger and Grace. It's a stationary store, with gift items. Really cute things so we shopped and visited with her. We drove down by the river walk where there are miles of parks against a very filthy river. The King's Palace is there and lots of shops and traffic.
We stopped at there Blue Pumpkin for ice cream (life is short eat dessert first). It over looked the park and the funniest thing was going on. A man was leading an aerobic class in the park. There were about 20 people joining in. It was the laziest aerobics I have ever seen. I think you pay a quarter to take the class, although I have no idea how he keeps track. He flops his arms around and marches and they all follow him. He was a very large man so I don't think it is working. Kat says he is there every night 6-7. We were laughing so hard. We headed off to a restaurant called Lone Pine. It is Mexican. An expat and his Khamer wife own it. It was so good. Believe it or not I had Frito Pie. A little spicy but you can't mess up Fritos. It is so amazing to see all of the friends she has around the city. She met these people through AIM friends and now they are her friends. We were given special treatment, chips, guac, also etc. with no charge, which is unheard of here. Very sweet couple. Have I said how proud I am of her? My drugs were wearing off by this time so we moto-ed home, showered and fell in to bed. I really don't think we need hot water even in the bath room! Good night everyone it was a great day.
New AIM store
Tote bags
T shirts
My new bling
Jewelry
Kimonos
Tote bags

More Kimonos
Flannels
Kat and Chad













Comments

  1. BarbJanuary 8, 2019 at 6:13 AM

    Just caught up on the last couple of posts. Thanks for all the details. Keep them coming! They are fascinating and help put Kat in the context of her life and ministry there. She is an amazing and inspiring young woman. So proud to be her aunt. I'm glad you're able to be there, and am praying your health returns quickly : )

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