How to Survive A First Week in Phnom Penh

Most global nomads know the different between surviving and thriving. There are books about it, talks about it, awareness of it...but everyone agrees survival alone is perfectly acceptable for your first week in any new place.

So I survived a full week in Phnom Penh. I forced my eyes open and stood speechless before all the noise and chaos while my eyes and mind accepted to process the images, smells, sounds, and faces passing before me in rapid procession. Some call it culture shock. I call is processing. Culture shock has so much baggage attached to it. I'm just processing, categorizing, sleeping and imaging myself in a new place. It's part of a normal process. I know this process. I excel at this process. I love this process! So I survive the first week, with some crucial survival stories.

I survived the initial discovery that coffee is generally bad, but specialty coffees and iced coffees are respectably good.

I survived two pork and bean breakfasts with iced coffee for $1.25 is a good deal, and a very culturally appropriate morning meal.

I survived traffic, and learned I'm only responsible for the three inches in front of me, and nothing else. It's fine if the motos also clip me, as long as they don't full out hit me.

I survived doing business in two currencies, because the riel and the dollar share power, very democratically.

I survived meeting my new colleagues, getting over jet-leg, learning to roam the windy neighborhoods, and finding where the good local coffee shops, grocery stores and markets are located. I survived the inertia when  my fast post-college life came to a screeching halt upon arrival, and the realization--even permission--to return to a slower, more socially based and more contemplative life. And I think, three years? I finished college in three years. In Phnom Penh, three years is totally thrive-able.