...Cambodia (Dining Out)

An idol enjoying a 'full-English' in Phnom Penh. Half the people don't eat this well.

After an overlong bus journey, we arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. We hadn't eaten for 9 hours. A record!  We wandered down alleyways lined with security guards protecting the shiny 4X4s whose owners were karaoke-ing nearby. Eventually we came across a bustling Chinese restaurant (Cambodia has a large population of Chinese). The food wasn't interesting and not worth mentioning. The dining experience however, was.

First up is the 'beer lady'. This is something that popped up in Laos too. You order a beer in a restaurant and you get a 'beer lady', your own pretty lady dressed in an outfit that is of the same colours as the beer logo. Her sole reason for living is to keep your glass topped up. Now I have to say, I've never really had an issue with topping up my own glass. I'm not bragging here, I wouldn't say I'm amazing or anything but I've never found it to be a problem. A 'beer lady' brings a whole new angle to the experience. She waits out of sight and as soon as you've put your glass down she's there, topping you up. Before we knew it she'd swiftly opened a second bottle and deftly emptied half of it into our glasses. This put me on edge as I didn't want her to open the third bottle she'd snuck on the table (oh she's good! She knows what she's doing!) because quite frankly it tasted of wee. It didn't help that she kept putting massive ice cubes in our half pint glasses which watered down the offensive liquid even more than the manufacturers had clearly already done.

Next to us was a group of 8 middle-aged (i.e. old enough to know better) men having a boys' night out. They were clearly in the mood to flash their cash and sat drinking Beck's! The 'Becks ladies' were a classier breed than our lady and also kept the gents topped up with whiskey (is that classed as moonlighting?). The bottle said Johnnie Walker but it is entirely possible to 'hire' a bottle of a well-known spirit to make everyone think you can afford it while you drink the cheap and nasty stuff. I guess it would be like having a bottle of blue WKD on the table while you drink Fairy Liquid. Though you could argue the taste of the latter is preferable. After a while, the 'Beck's ladies' joined the gents, giggling at their jokes behind perfectly manicured fingernails. It is also possible to 'hire' yourself some female company. Nothing dodgy mind. There are plenty of massage parlours about for those kind of shenanigans should you so desire.

While all this was going on, beggars circled the tables. Men, women and children.  A young man waited outside and when a table emptied, would take his plastic bag and fill it with any leftovers. The amount of food wasted in that restaurant was shocking and it was refreshing to see it not being throw away (credit should go to the staff who didn't stop him). I was struck by how he did it with such dignity and without any shame. In just an hour, Cambodia was laid bare in front of us. And it was pretty ugly.