Shit Happens

Especially here.

The thing is, the food is good. It takes a bit of getting used to, and I don't just mean the whole fish thing. The spices are different, the vegetables are different, and how it's cooked is different. Some of it is a little too strange for my taste, but on the whole, I do enjoy it.

But the thing is here, shit happens. It happens to barangs and khmers equally -- we're not just talking the delicate constitutions of westerners. It's just part of life. Yep, today is gonna be like that. Okay, well, it'll pass eventually.

Essentially food hygiene hasn't made it here yet, except in the nicest restaurants. There's no real sense of needing to refridgerate things during the day, so meat eaten in the evening may or may not have been cooked since this morning and lying around since. Cold cuts came from god knows where and aren't cold. At the local place, there's a huge cooler of water with several cups on top. People take a cup, have a drink, and leave the cup (I like eating there, but have never touched those cups).

I remember working for a restaurant a few years back and the breakfast buffet had to be kept at a certain temperature at all times, hot or cold depending on the food.

You tell that to someone here, and you'd probably get a look like you have two heads.

On the contrary, you bring the safety experts from America here, have them eat at the local corner place I always go -- one look at the fried eggs, cooked since who knows when, sitting in the cart with the cooked meat, with no refridgeration, and they'd probably keel over on the spot.

I don't mean to say this as an example of how backwards this place is -- but rather, how behind it is. I haven't been out of the country, but I'm told you see it the second you step out. The Khmer Rouge didn't just destroy the people, it destroyed all the modernity and industry that Cambodian had gained under King Sihanouk's rule in the 50s and 60s. The country is at least forty years behind many of its southeast asian counterparts in terms of infrastructure and standard of life.

It's not a bad thing or proof of any lack. It's just a fact. Just like it's a fact that if you live here, every so often shit happens.

And that's just part of life in the developing world.