First Night on the Road

This is the place where we stayed on the trip. The owners who run the restaurant/ boarding house treated me like visiting royalty. In fact everyone on the trip (outside of the city) would stop and stare wherever I went. Once I give the traditional greeting "sous-ah-day", (put your hands together like praying, bow slightly, and touch your forehead with your finger tips), it makes everyone smile and greet you back.
Everwhere I went the Cambodians I met were extremely gracious and happy. It's amazing to think that they went through the mass extermination of millions of people under Pol Pot in the mid 1970s and yet they are more upbeat than any nation I have visited.
The building in the photo is much more high-end than most of the places to stay or eat along the way, but the basic structure is the same. The front eating area is covered with a roof, but it is completely open on 3 sides. The enclosed area for living/sleeping is in the back.