Post by Silly Yak on Feb 14, 2011 9:19:19 GMT
CAMBODIA:
OKay.. I should advise everyone, I did NOT like Cambodia, and I don't recommend anyone going there alone, especially women. I was very upset a lot of the time I was there. For whatever reason, its nothing like other parts of South East Asia. I was warned before going that Cambodia is like "the wild west" of Asia, but I didn't listen. I should have. I thought my life was over while I was there. I hired a moto driver (like taxi's but you just sit on the back of their motorbike, its the most common way to get around there) to take me to the museums and stuff in Phnom Penh (Cambodia's capital city) and he kidnapped me and attempted to assault me. It was terrifying and I truly thought that would be the end of my life, and by the grace of God I was able to get myself out of the situation. Thinking back on it now is like remembering a bad dream, so yeah, I don't recommend Cambodia but I will go ahead and share my notes in case anyone wants to go there.
Besides being a scary place, Cambodia was also the worst for avoiding gluten.
For one thing, be very careful about reading labels.
I have always known that M&M's here in America are gluten free, so whenever I needed a snack over there I tended to grab them up as they are one of the only familiar american candies I saw. Well, I had a close call my first time buying them in Cambodia. Cambodia M&M's come from a different manufactering place than ours, and right before I was going to dig into a bag my intuition, for whatever reason told me to flip the package over and read the label and THANK GOD I did. There were 2 different wheat sources listed in the ingrediants!!!!! So obviously they are made differently. God.. so close! So yeah, stay away from them in Cambodia, and read ALL ingrediants, if they are in english, even with familiar things you think are gluten free.
In Cambodia, everything is fried rice. They don't have much of the sticky rice like in Laos. And unfortunately, as I learned my first day in the country, fried rice over there is not gluten free. I tried some, because it looked white, and like it didn't have soy sauce, but I was severely ill after eating it. So yes, it's full of gluten and you have to request steamed rice.
In Cambodia, I found the best thing to do was to try and find more expensive western style restaurants and find someone you can communicate with. Be very careful about the food over there. I was there about 2 weeks before getting severe amoebic dysentary, Im not sure if it came from the food or the water, but BE CAREFUL.
This is not something you want to get, trust me. I thought I might die, and I almost had to be flown home early to go to the hospital, it was really, really bad. And the sucky thing was I was all alone and had no one to help me. I couldn't leave my hotel room for a few days and even though I've been home and its been like 3 weeks now Im still not back to normal, even with meds! SO yeah.. damn just be careful if you go there.
Other than what I already mentioned, its the same as the other two countries. Get hamburger without the bread or plain rice. Stay away from fruit shakes. Stay away from anything stir fried or with any sort of sauce. Curries seem to be okay, but after getting so ill, I wouldn't recommend them because I don't know what they use for the water in the soup...
In Siem Reap, there is a really, really good cafe near the main strip (across from the old market) called Central Cafe. They have a mexican tostada on a corn tortilla there, thats gluten free and delicious! I ate there often.
If you are going to go to Cambodia, Siem Reap is the only place I recommend. The amazing Angkor Wat temples are there, and its the only place I could walk around on my own without being harassed by guys in the street.
As far as airlines, fly China Airlines. They serve 2-3 meals during the flight plus whatever drinks you want at no additional cost, they were WONDERFUL about making sure my meals were gluten free, and the service was outstanding, IMO. If I was ever going to Asia again, I wouldn't fly with anyone else.
At the airports while waiting for my flights I stuck to sushi places or ice cream for snacks, but I can't recommend anything, in fact I think something from one of the airport restaurants glutened me on the way home.
www.celiac.com/gluten-free/index ... opic=56927