the town of siem-reap is the area one usually stays at while visiting to check out angkor, and all its nearby temples and forgotten ruins date back up to 1000 years ago. in all honesty, i had only heard about this locale from friends and had no information beyond being told that it's great and that we'd have a fun time. as soon as we arrived, i fell in love with everything about the place. all the temples and ruins are just so breathtaking and humbling, it's impossible not to be amazed from it all. siem-reap also has many places to go out to at night, but it's still quiet and controlled, which was such an appreciated/temporary break from feeling like i was in bangkok. the fact that i was traveling with three friends made everything feel even more special. i have so many memories from this trip and thankfully was able to sometimes take photos with my friend's camera as well.
you know growing up in nyc, i thought i knew most of the basics about life, but man i was so wrong. leaving nyc and living in another continent has just opened my eyes to so many lessons about humanity and how the world works. when i think about it a little more, these are all things that i don't know how i could have not learned by this point of my life, but am thankful nonetheless to be able to finally do so. being in a new environment has just filled in many of the missing pieces that had me feeling incomplete back in nyc and i really feel like such a changed person. when i do eventually go back nyc, i'm returning as a new man and am going to feel really excited.
so this trip to siem-reap was a break i really needed. there were so many great new and unforgettable memories that happened---one in particular was when my friends and i went to eat at a NORTH KOREAN RESTAURANT. my friend had told me a story about a north korean restaurant run by the north korean government existing in napal, but i never knew there was one in cambodia (let alone siem-reap), as well. when we all planned to go there for dinner on our first night, i honestly didn't think much about it. i was excited to go but beyond that didn't have much thought. but then as soon as i entered the restaurant, that was when it really hit me and it made me feel in awe about the moment. i never in my life imagined that i'd be able to eat at a north korean restaurant, let alone interact with actual north korean people.
the restaurant was named 'Pyongyang' and was on one of the main roads in siem-reap that consists virtually of mostly korean establishments due to the south korean government investing money into that particular part of town. from what i know, 'Pyongyang' is the only north korean businesses there. when we walked in, we saw a room filled with almost 500 empty seats. the restaurant was pretty big and lined with row after row of tables. all of the f.o.h. workers were somewhat attractive north korean women who all appeared to be in their lower twenties. they were all friendly and efficient and each table had their own server stand by the table at all times. i'm not sure if that's because there were only four tables of customers in the place or if was just the standard, but it was nice for all of us to converse with her and listen to her speak. she seemed very well educated about her country and the world and described in detail about where some of the dish's ingredients came from in north korea. she also politely asked questions about ourselves that seemed to come from her own curiosity about the four of us, and it really made me wonder how her life had been thus far in order for her to be working at that restaurant. we ate famous north korean style naeng-myun (cold noodles), which i found to be really good. we also drank north korean soju and ordered a helping of north korean kimchi, all of which was devoured.
as for now, here is a photo with 3/4 of us and also one of the three different noodle-dishes we ordered. my friend clandestinely took these photos with his iphone since we were told no pictures allowed.
I'm actually amazed and amused that a North Korean restaurant exists outside of, well North Korea. So was this a NK government establishment?
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