My favorite time of day in Cambodia is the morning.

As odd as it may sound, I love getting up at 5:15 because the city is so quiet, dim, and cool. In an attempt to get some exercise and better get to know our neighborhood, a teammate and I decided to set our alarms before daybreak, quickly get dressed, and at the first hint of sunlight, head out of the gates for a morning stroll.

It sounds early, but there are already people busily setting up their shops for the breakfast rush and roosters nosily announcing the dawn. However, the honking of horns and the zooming of motos has yet to begin. (PS--this picture was not taken in Phnom Penh but in a province we recently visited by the ocean. We did get up early to see the sunrise though!)

We found out that our neighbor ‘mings’ (literally means ‘aunt’ but is used to refer to anyone around the same age as your mother) go walking every morning too. As we headed down the street with them, I was surprised to see the multitude of people walking and jogging. During the day it isn’t uncommon to see a foreigner running down the crowded, hot street, but normally I never see Khmer people working out.

Clearly, it isn’t that they don’t work out; they just do it differently than I expected…they go to work out classes set to music in the public parks every evening or they get up super early and walk up and down the unusually quiet streets. There were groups of women laughing and chatting as they made their way past us. It was fun seeing their reactions to us two white girls walking with these three ‘mings.’

As I enjoyed the coolness of the morning, I got to get to know my neighbor ladies and practice speaking Khmer with them! What a delight to hear about their families and life stories. I look forward to more morning walks with them.