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Supermarket scenes in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

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.

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

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

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

Better than Korea, but only so-so.

All sorts of booze

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

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

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

Fruit like this being cheap and tasty is one of the great things about Southeast Asia.

The liquor aisle

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

I had no idea they’d have makgeolli too. Korean companies really are working hard.

Fruit

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

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

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

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

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

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

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

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

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

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

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

Phnom Penh has quite a few stylish cafes too. It seems to be a worldwide trend.

A tall building

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

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.

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

You do see cats and dogs now and then.

Starbucks

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

There was also a shopping mall with a fair number of fairly polished shops.

Seoul

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

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

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

It looks like pretty much all the Korean banks are here too.

Marugame Seimen

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

They’re doing it on a huge scale. Japanese capital seems to have moved in in a big way too.

Street scene

Cambodia phnom penh mart.

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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