The Market in Puok, Cambodia is quite an experience.
It’s only steps from my house.
It’s where my host family sells pork and where I go for everything I need.
Click the three short videos below to come shopping with me.
VIDEO ONE
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VIDEO TWO
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VIDEO THREE
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Let me know if you need a pig head or two. There are plenty to go around.
BARANG 
Hey Travis,
Well, I don’t think I have any use for a pig head, but the videos are great! Thanks for showing us what your shopping experience is like! You look great!! We are really looking forward to seeing you in August!!
Love you!
The fruit looked much more innocuous than the fish 🙂 Sounds like your language skills have really improved!
And the bread looked delicious. But, I am a carb-freak.
Thanks for the videos even though the thought of all that food sitting out in the type of heat you described previously curbed my appetite quite a bit! And, on the subject of heat, what’s up with everyone wearing long sleeves and long pants??? Seems to me shorts and tank tops would be more appropriate.
Kim,
Your question hits on a VERY big part of the culture here. No one wears shorts. Women also don’t wear short-sleeved shirts, no matter how hot it gets.
I’ll have a whole post explaining this later. It’s a really big deal. All those heavy clothes are intentional.
Travis
Do you feel like you talk in a slower, more pronounced way because you are used to teaching people who are not familiar with the language?
That’s a lot of meat! How do they compete with tables and tables of pig?
HA! Yeah, Jaimie, I didn’t even notice it, but I guess I probably do speak more slowly, more often now in my Cambodian life.
There doesn’t seem to be too much competition in my town’s meat market. There are many tables with pork, but they’re all owned by my host aunts, uncles, cousins and other extended family members. My host mother and sister work at one of the tables. So, they and their family pretty much have a monopoly on the pork in the market.
That seems to be the case for other foods and products too.
Too bad you cannot send the smells. With the fish and raw pork I am sure that place has a rather pungent odor. The random dog walking through the market made me chuckle. Just whose dog is that, and why is he not leashed? One other observation made me laugh — a guy walked behind you in an army jacket. Isn’t it 110 degrees right now? Other than the fish, don’t they sell any live animals that you can take home and butcher or have done for you right there on the spot? Also, do you cook or does your host mom cook all your meals? Get yourself a watermelon and stay cool.
Who knows who that dog belongs too. The Market is a dream for dogs. A lot of them spend their whole day there. There’s no rule against dogs being there and they pick up all the scraps. In Cambodia, dogs really get to be dogs. They run in packs, they aren’t fenced in. They’re everywhere.
Like I told Kim, I’ll talk more about the clothes thing later. It’s a big part of the culture here to wear long sleeves no matter how hot it is.
I don’t know of any live animals sold in my market except for fish. Every morning and night I see chickens and pigs being taken to be killed, but those animals are not sold live. However, they’re delivered to the market very soon after being killed because we don’t have refrigeration. That is also why the market is a daily trip for every family.
My host mother and sisters cook all my meals. I’ll have a lot more about this in another post. It’s another big and interesting part of my life. I’m not even allowed in the kitchen. Gender roles are certainly alive and well here.
Was that popcorn being sold in the third video? If not, it sure looked like it. I think I would be in serious trouble on diet – I certainly like ham, pork chops and bacon, but don’t know that I could eat it right after seeing all the pig heads. I see all the others comments about long sleeves, long skirts, etc. I was curious, too. Hope it is starting to cool off there. It rained almost all day here today. Love, Kaki
Hey Travis, you use the Same Pork lady that we did! Please tell them hello!