One of the fun things about coming to Southeast Asia is going to the supermarket. To be precise, the fun is in buying fruit and local specialties. Manufactured goods are much the same everywhere.
Roughly this kind of neighborhood supermarket.
This one is a local place, and they didn’t take cards, so I just looked around. They do take dollars, though, so if you bring dollars you can spend them.
Booze
Better than Korea, but only so-so.
All sorts of booze
I think it’s impressive that they even have Japanese shochu. I wonder when on earth it made its way into the Southeast Asian market.
Fruit
Fruit like this being cheap and tasty is one of the great things about Southeast Asia.
The liquor aisle
I had no idea they’d have makgeolli too. Korean companies really are working hard.
Fruit
This part is pretty ordinary. But one thing I noticed in Southeast Asia is that mangoes grow in clusters on the trees, so they are incredibly cheap. Other fruit is cheap too, but mangoes were the cheapest of the lot. It made all my memories of eating mangoes in Korea flash before my eyes. If I’d known, I could have just come to Southeast Asia regularly instead of going to all that trouble to eat mangoes that weren’t even good.
Canned food like this
They even have bulgogi. I suspect a lot of Koreans have moved in here. I’ve heard that many came for missionary or church-related work, so maybe that’s the reason, or maybe there’s something else going on. I don’t really know.
The drinks aisle
I feel like it’s much the same wherever you go, but even so, almost everything is imported and local products seemed a bit thin on the ground.
Myungrang Hot Dog
This one surprised me. Do piping hot corn dogs really sell in a country this hot? Then again, seeing branches actually open for business, they must be reasonably popular.
A small eatery
I don’t speak the local language, so going somewhere like this never even crossed my mind, but if I’d been a tourist I might have tried it once with gestures.
A cafe
Phnom Penh has quite a few stylish cafes too. It seems to be a worldwide trend.
A tall building
The whole city isn’t developed; only in certain spots do big buildings like that go up.
There was a doggo, so I took a photo.
You do see cats and dogs now and then.
Starbucks
There was also a shopping mall with a fair number of fairly polished shops.
Seoul
I saw quite a few places selling Korean food as well. I didn’t go in, so I can’t say how it tastes.
KB Bank
It looks like pretty much all the Korean banks are here too.
Marugame Seimen
They’re doing it on a huge scale. Japanese capital seems to have moved in in a big way too.
Street scene
Up ahead you can see a Toyota Raize as well. Among SUVs you see a lot of the big American-style cars, but there are Toyotas around too, and small ones like the Raize.


















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